Media have been bombarding us with scare stories over the ever-up-ticking case numbers. The reason "case" numbers are everywhere is that they're about the only numbers going up as this pandemic slowly fizzles out.
Another number that's been consistently on the increase is the number of daily tests, but good luck finding those numbers. Unlike the daily case numbers, the daily test numbers are generally well hidden. This government website tells you how many tests were done the previous day, but where is the running total over time?
Here are two snapshots that contrast how the disease has changed over time.
From mid-April to the first week of June daily covid deaths in Canada averaged over 100 per day, and daily tests averaged around 20k per day. As even Donald Trump has noted, when you do more tests you get more cases. But does that mean the pandemic is worsening?
Yesterday, Canada completed over 67k tests, and if that's in the ballpark of the recent daily average, it's safe to say that testing has gone up by about 300%. Since the last week in July, daily deaths in Canada have held steady in the single digits.
Conclusion: In spite of being bashed over the head with the latest scary case numbers every time we look at the news, the reality is that this disease was at least ten times deadlier three months ago than it is today.
Normally, that would be considered good news.
Instead, politicians everywhere are threatening us with tighter restrictions and fresh lockdowns. When the disease was at max lethality, you could cheerfully shop Walmart without a mask. Now that it's more or less run its course, questioning mandatory masking marks you as a scofflaw "a few fries short of a Happy Meal," as Premier Ford put it yesterday.
As I've maintained from the outset, the Great Pestilence of 2020 has been 1% virus and 99% politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment