I just received another “update” from the Powers That Be in my county [“county” not “country”], update on CoVid.
As with the previous posting inspired by a previous such report, I don’t see that these “daily briefings” can possibly do anything except inflame the population over an issue they understand only poorly and that there is very little they do anything about, anyway. Weekly, monthly perhaps. Not daily.
Alright, this update from them is about “high levels of sars cov-2 virus detected in wastewater.”
“Wastewater” is never actually defined in the report (one of the many problems with it), so I tentatively assume they mean sewer water.
Their concern is that these samplings (how many? At what locations around the county? They never say) show higher concentrations than “expected” given the number of infections being reported. (How does virus enter the waste water stream? What’s it’s half-life under those conditions? Could it be getting into the water by other means? For example, how do hospitals and labs dispose of their testing samples? Not how they are supposed to dispose of them, but really how? Down the drain? That ought to result in misleading numbers.)
Well… there’s the frightfully obvious explanation for this: the “vaccine” [which isn’t a vaccine in the proper sense, and really should not be called one under any conditions] reduces symptoms and also gives people a purely psychological sense of security from the Bug, so, even if they feel a little off, they’re not rushing to get a test any more. So, yeah, that would totally explain samples being higher than actual reported cases. Well… that’s a possibility only, and proving it is difficult, and would involve some actual surveying of the population, not just the sewer.
However: there are all kinds of other questions this (so-called) report brings up, including suggestions of many hidden assumptions. For example:
# Is that water sample from a known location ONLY from that known location? Any runoff drains in the way? Any unrecorded / no-longer-known connections to other waterways? Other neighborhoods? Very common in civic water systems. (Very. An accurate map of what’s underground is almost impossible.)
# Also, what’s the half-life of virus in such water? (Meaning, the numbers reported *might* be low for the sample results, or if the half-life is high, the numbers might be higher than expected that way.)
# What elements / contents in the water might be antagonistic to the virus (meaning the numbers *might* be low for the sample results.)
# Are they tracking things like chlorine content in the water? Acids? Enzymes? Things that break the virus into unrecognizable pieces. (Could lead to false low numbers.)
# Are their testing methods sensitive to all known variations of the virus? Is there any allowance in the numbers for unknown variations? (Probably not, but say so!)
# Are they tracking other viruses? Ordinary flu? Cold virus? Any of the 1,000’s of others than might mean public health issues? If not, why the Silliness not? If going to do it at all, do it thoroughly. That also builds a fuller background picture on public health which can put “The Virus” into better context.
# Is there a level for or content of the “vaccine” in the sample water? (Very curious, there, I am.) Which would mean it’s getting dumped, one way or another, and that could be an actual problem.
# Are they absolutely certain (and you can’t be) that all testing samples are being disposed of correctly and not simply flushed down the drain(s)? That could mean false high numbers.
# What percentage of the population is not on sewer (which I assume is what they are sampling, though they didn’t actually say so)? Any testing of those folks included in this? Or did the study even acknowledge that there are a lot of septic tanks here round ’bout? That might mean the reported number of cases is actually accurate. (Go figure)
# How many samples were taken in how many locations across the county?
# Are they also sampling the drinking water for virus? (Wouldn’t that be interesting?!!!!? And kind of an important verification of the “waste water” sampling.)
# How about sampling all fast-food / take-out products hot-off-the-assembly-line for virus content?
# How about air samples around the county, which I happen to know they have been doing (a local Virologist told me so), but I haven’t seen that reported in any of these “daily briefings” (I might have missed it).
# Many Other Things, including quite a few that would be suggested by the answers to the above questions.
I’d like to know how much of the above (and sundry) has been accounted for. I know that Those Who Do Such Things are rarely actually stupid — the local Virologist I met with not long ago certainly was not [very impressive fellow] — but bureaucracy can certainly Act That Way and produce the Quality Known as Stupid in its final results.
Short version: I have absolutely no reason to trust the report, based on what’s in it. This is the second time I’ve posted a posting tearing apart its usefulness. Yet, it goes out daily to anyone who wants it. This particular one is extremely inflammatory, it’s saying there are more cases going on than are reported, and this is just not justified by the presented evidence.
Fear! Fire! Foes! Panic! Extra! Extra!! Details at 6!! Details at 11!! Ginsu Knives Not Included.!!
(Ok, it *might* be serious; it really might be. But where’s the data? I can not take this report seriously as presented. Neither should any one else. There is certainly no basis here for making any county-wide decisions.)
Cut it out. Qualify the report, or stop publishing it. In its presented form it is nearly meaningless, and for the average reader it is going to be quite inflammatory and worrying.
By the way, stress (including high adrenalin reactions from the constant stream of Dire Gloom and Woe that passes for News these days) reduces immune function, making people more susceptible to infection, including viral infections. Including CoVid. Go figure…
As presented, I have no idea what the report really means, and I’m certainly not going to trust a Bureaucrat’s scientific conclusions, not without seeing the whole study. I mean… really! Would you? (Don’t answer that.)
It’s the same problem with what passes for News Reporting these days: they tell you conclusions and leave the facts out. That is absolutely backwards. Tell me the facts, leave the conclusions as an exercise for the student.
If you keep treating your population as stupid, guess what happens over time? (I’ll leave that one as an exercise for the student. 🙂 )
[30]