'WHO Changes CCP Virus Test Criteria in Attempt to Reduce False Positives'
When I began this blog in February 2020, it was strange to me that there was more certainty than questions about this 'new virus'. Yet even today, the mysteries of origin, transmission, how it spread, what it is, how it should be treated, etc., are still rattling around unanswered. The number of deaths -- perhaps more than half -- may have mis-attributed to COVID-19.
The global response was founded on confusion, the blame game and grasping for emergency resources and sure remedies. Yet, there was no 'standard test for identification', no antibody test to know if someone had had the virus and no idea, yet, about immuninity after someone has recovered.
Thr unseen 'China CCP enemy' has been fought with various drugs (prescription and home remedies), treatment methods from induced coma-respirators, CPAP machines to sweating it out with lemon and honey. The promise of various vaccines lurches toward the horizon as a new, more virulent mutation begins to raise its powerful head.
As it began to spread out of China to other nations -- in what is suspiciously like a purposeful 'seeding' of the virus -- unsuspecting nations were totally unprepared.
Health experts couldn't decide whether it was more important to keep paperwork or treat those stricken. And the nations that did keep statistics differed in their methods, how and what to count.
A lack of standards in keeping statistics was apparent and understandable as every nation had unique policies and definitions. It struck me as strange because there had been other pandemics that did not get so much attention.
The fact is that in 2009, while on a business trip contracted the H1N1 virus. I was so sick the doctor made a house call and felt I was too infectious to go to the hospital. He quarantined at home for two weeks. In 2009, while those who were infected, died or recovered, they got little attention in comparison.
Every nation that began to watch and count had their own ideas. Should every death that occurred while the virus swirled around, be attributed to the virus?
There were no conclusive tests initially. No way to definitively substantiate the reality of the virus. Some nations seemed to be in a perverted type of competition -- as if there was a badge of suffering for the nation with the most infections, recoveries and deaths.
I began to imagine it was tied to the hope of receiving aid. Untold numbers of those who died during this time were attributed COVID. In time it was clear that many of those who died had seriously-compromised systems and were very near death regardless. Where was the line to say when the virus may or may not have 'pushed someone over the line'? It was an easy statistic, though as the WHO is now discovering.
Suddenly, there were duelling statistics, conclusions, treatment methods all over the place. Every news source was refocused to only one issue - COVID-19. This tempest in a teapot has turned out to be a bit more politicised than it should ever have been. Infected individuals became political footballs to be tossed into every argument.
And who would have imagined how easy it was to acclimate the globe to face mask mandadates! And how so many enterprising entrepreneurs began to sell designer, fashion-statement masks that we happily bought.
Before this the world collectively threw away thousands of millions of the disposable masks to clog up more of the landfills and oceans. (If you haven't read the blog in this series about the efficacy of masks, it might help put some things in a new light.)
Where this debacle ends is anyone's guess, but at least we will know how to wash our hands and cover our mouths when we sneeze or cough.
Hand sanitizer business has expanded. Delivery services pop up new all the time. We work from home and are learning to live in unrealistic isolation that is also increasing depression and fear. Who knows how this will end ... maybe the WHO.
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