Biblical and Constitutional Politics

Coronavirus Trib Live News Articles Commentaries

July 2020

By Gary F. Zeolla

These Commentaries are continued from Coronavirus News Articles Commentaries: June 2020.

Focus on covid cases could be wrong way to interpret Allegheny County surge, experts say.

       “Adalja added that as more young people become infected with the virus, it’s possible that many of them are in good health and will never need to be hospitalized.”

       And those few who do need to be hospitalized are obese and/ or have diabetes, according to doctors I heard on the news. How about telling people who are overweight to lose weight and to control their diabetes rather than telling healthy people to wear masks? But that would be “fat-shaming” while “masking shaming” is okay?

       The fact remains, those who are healthy are unlikely to experience serious consequences from a CV infection. As such, the experts should be encouraging healthy behaviors in regard to diet and exercise. Instead, many governors are once again closing gyms. Stupid.
7/1/20

Allegheny County officials say coronavirus is infecting more young people

    “Only four infected people said they participated in recent protests over racial injustice, which have occurred almost daily in the county for the past month.”

       Did it ever enter the minds of the contact tracers, that those who had been at protests might lie in order to “protect” the protests from being blamed for the spike in CV numbers? Just asking.

       “She expects to see a small percentage of young and otherwise healthy adults to be hospitalized as cases continue to rise.”

       A Florida doctor said that among those 18-34, the only hospitalizations for the CV he had seen all had BMI’s of 30 or greater. That means they are obese, for those who don’t know. Another doctor said that anytime she treated a 18-34-year-old who is having serious problems with a CV infection, she would test them for diabetes. And every time, they had undiagnosed diabetes.

       Obesity and diabetes. That is not “otherwise healthy.” I would suspect it will be the same here in PA. But I have yet to hear a health professional say publicly that the way to beat this thing is for Americas to start taking care of themselves, starting with those who are overweight to lose weight and to control their diabetes. 

    World-renowned pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht on this spike:

       Instead of learning just the daily COVID case counts, “Tell me how many of them are ill; how many of them knew that they had any kind of Coronavirus infection; how many of them went to see a doctor; how many of them went to a hospital; how many of them were admitted to the hospital for further treatment; how many of them died. That is what is meaningful, not how many people have tested positive.”

       Wecht said that in a way, it's good that there are positive tests. “The more people who test positive, then we're developing, we're working toward what is called herd immunity. That's good. That's a good thing.”
7/2/20

Diabetes not Coronavirus and Gatherings the Real Killer

Truck driver posts regrets about party a day before dying of coronavirus

      “More than 10 others who attended that gathering have tested positive for the coronavirus ….

      As first reported by the Valley News, Macias fell ill on June 15, but assumed it was caused by his diabetes. He then tested positive for COVID-19.”

      My condolences to the family of Tommy Macias. But this 51 year old regretted the wrong thing before he died. Rather than regretting going to a barbeque, he should have regretted that (I would guess) years ago when he was diagnosed with diabetes, he didn’t immediately change his lifestyle and lose weight via improving his diet and starting an exercise program. That would have brought his diabetes under control, and he would still be alive, as apparently are the ten others who also tested positive from attending that barbeque.

      The point is, it is not attending a public gathering that killed Tommy, nor was it the Coronavirus (CV) per se. It was being obese and suffering from diabetes that killed him. If the barbeque and the CV were the true killers, then those other ten would also have died.

      That should be the take home message from this sad story. Not that attending public gatherings are dangerous, but that being obese and suffering from diabetes are. Those who fall into this class will not only reduce their risk of adverse consequences from a CV infection by changing their lifestyles, but they will also reduce their risk of suffering heart disease, blindness, and losing a limb from diabetes.

      Diabetes is dangerous. With 100 million Americans with it, that is why the CV has hit America so hard. But that need not be the case if a proper diet and exercise program are followed.

      That said, I wanted to comment on one last line from this article:

      “He didn’t know that someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, but showed no symptoms, also was there.”

      I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating—if you are sick, STAY HOME! If you test positive for a communicable disease, STAY HOME! Even if you are asymptomatic, STAY HOME! That is one aspect of the stay at home/ self-isolation orders that do make sense.
7/5/250

Median age of CV infections dropping

Allegheny County reports 150 new coronavirus cases, no new deaths

      “The median age is 26 — dipping again in the past two days. The median had held at 29 until dropping to 28 on Friday.”

       This is good news. As more young healthy people who get infected, they will become a bulwark between the virus and those at high risk for serious CV consequences. And as more young and healthy get infected, the closer we will get to heard immunity, which is only way this crisis will ever end.
7/5/20

No Strain on Hospital System

Where coronavirus experts in Pittsburgh think pandemic is headed

    The most important lines in this article are:

     “So, we are still using only a very small fraction of hospital beds and intensive care beds on patients with covid-19 infection and illness.”

     “Yealy does not expect cases to rise to an amount that will put a strain on the hospital system.”

     The reason for this is what was reported previously—that the medium age for CV infections in Allegheny County is dropping. With more young people getting infected, fewer people are having adverse consequences. This is all a good thing.
7/7/20

Probable Cases

Pa. reports nearly 1,000 new covid-19 cases

      “634 patients are considered probable cases”

      That means, of the 995 new cases, just 361 are actual new cases of people who tested positive. The rest are just people who had contact with someone who tested positive, so they are consider “probable cases.” How does that make any sense? Are we really supposed to take these stats seriously? If the same is being done across the country, then all of the screams about rising cases are misguided.
6/8/20

Gyms can open safely

Allegheny County may amend restaurant restrictions

      “Fitzgerald added that the county did not want to ‘punish or mitigate’ other businesses like gyms, construction and other industries, that ‘have proven to be able to operate in a way in which the case level is low.’”

      Another article here on the Trib today said of the 995 new or “probable” cases, only 13 had gone to a gym.

      These two points together support what I have said all along, gyms can open safely. In fact, they should, as working out strengthens the immune system, while alcohol depresses the immune system. As such, closing bars might make sense, but closing gyms never did.
6/8/20

Misleading Headline

Allegheny County reports 6 new covid-19 deaths, 204 new cases

       “The deaths reported today occurred between April 5 and June 13, officials said. All of the newest deaths were in individuals over the age of 65.”

       Talk about a misleading headline. These are not “new” deaths. And don’t forget, the newest wave of cases are among those far younger than 65, so they are unlikely to add to the death count. Therefore, the country had to report old deaths as new to stoke fear, so that people will accept the newest wave of closures and mask wearing requirements.
6/8/20

St. Patrick’s Day Parade Revisited

Allegheny County will allow outdoor dining beginning Friday, Rivers Casino allowed to reopen

     This is as good of a place to post this as any.

     Remember St. Patrick’s Day and the fights over the parade being canceled? When it was, people crammed into the bars instead. At that time, there were zero cases of the CV in Pittsburgh, but the cases spiked shortly afterwards.

     We now “know” from the protests that being crammed together outside in the streets of Pittsburgh is perfectly safe, while cramming into bars is the most dangerous behavior possible. As such, those of us who said the parade should not have been canceled were correct, while the mayor and those who supported him canceling the parade were wrong.

     I expect an apology from the mayor and those who supported his decision to those of us who were smeared on these boards for arguing against the cancellation.
7/10/20

Overdose Deaths vs. Coronavirus Deaths

More than 560 people died of overdoses in Allegheny County in 2019

Allegheny County reports 215 new coronavirus cases, 1 new death

    Compare the 560 overdose deaths number to today’s count of the number of Coronavirus (CV) deaths in Allegheny County of 198. Even if that CV number doubles before the end of the year, it will still mean overdoses killed more people last year than the CV this year.

     I would guess the number of overdose deaths will be similar this year. Yet, the CV had gotten all the press, with daily case and death counts. But this is the first time I have seen an article in the Trib about the opioid epidemic this year. But apparently, it is more serious than the CV epidemic.

     The opioid epidemic also affects mostly younger people, “Nearly three-quarters of overdose victims were between 25 and 54,” while the CV is mainly dangerous for the elderly. But we hear so little about the opioid epidemic. Not that a young person’s death is any more tragic than an elderly person’s death, but that is a point worth noting. It means, if you consider the total number of life years lost, the opioid epidemic is far worse than the CV epidemic, at here in Allegheny County.
7/11/20

Texas patient in 30s dies after reportedly citing ‘mistake’ of attending ‘covid party.’

       I first saw this story on the IHeart app. That article provided much more details than this one, such as that the person was a male. As such, the use of “they” and “their” to refer to a single person in this article is unwarranted and quite disconcerting to read.

       That said, comments after that article by nurses said that the situation described was not possible. The way the seriousness of the man’s condition was described, the nurses said he would have been intubated, so he would not have been talking to anyone about anything. As such, this “death bed confession” simply could not have happened.
7/13/20

 These commentaries are continued at: Coronavirus Trib Live News Articles Commentaries: August 2020.

Coronavirus Trib Live News Article Commentaries: July 2020 . Copyright © 2020 by Gary F. Zeolla.

The above commentaries were posted in July 2020.

Coronavirus Articles and Commentaries

Alphabetical List of Pages     Contact Information

Text Search     Biblical and Constitutional Politics