<div dir="ltr"><font face="georgia, serif">Thanks, Tom, for posting my column. I object to the title because the focus is not on China. Editors certainly have the right to title their own news reports, but they should respect their columnists' choices.</font><div><font face="georgia, serif">My title was "Coronavirus Deaths Undercounted by 60%: Sweden Embraces Theirs, While Florida Hides Them.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">Here is the most recent addition I've made to the long version (attached). It has been sent to Pocatello's Idaho State Journal.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;margin:0in 0in 8pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In early May Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell found
himself rethinking his position.
Admitting that 3,000 virus deaths is a “horrifyingly large number,” he
admitted that he is “not convinced” the unconventional anti-lockdown strategy
was the best option to take. He also previously assured Swedes that child and
teen infections would be rare, but now, as primary and secondary schools have not
been closed, there are now 400 virus cases in the 0-19 age range.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;margin:0in 0in 8pt"><b><font face="georgia, serif">Sweden’s Anti-Lockdown No Help to Economy</font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;margin:0in 0in 8pt"><font face="georgia, serif">One would think that Sweden’s anti-lockdown
policy would help the economy, but predictions do not support this view. The
European Central Bank calculates that Sweden will suffer a recession in the
6.9-9.7 percent range, just where the rest of Europe is expected to be. </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;margin:0in 0in 8pt"><font face="georgia, serif" style="">European workers will be much better off
because of generous paycheck protection programs, unemployment insurance, and
sick leave. Primarily because of the GOP tax cut, our budget deficit will be 44
percent higher than the European average, as many countries in the EU entered
the pandemic era with budget surpluses, even Greece, surprisingly enough.</font></p></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 5:21 AM Moscow Cares <<a href="mailto:moscowcares@moscow.com">moscowcares@moscow.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Courtesy of today’s (May 7, 2020) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with special thanks to Nick Gier.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="4">—————————————-</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br></font></p><h1 style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:42px;margin:0px 100px 0px 0px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:400;line-height:1.1;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><span style="box-sizing:border-box">If transparency demanded of China, demand it of US as well</span></h1><div style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:20px;margin-right:100px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><span style="box-sizing:border-box"><ul style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;list-style:none"><li style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;padding-right:5px;padding-left:5px"><span style="box-sizing:border-box">Nick Gier The Palouse Pundit</span></li></ul></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">In a White House briefing on April 18, President Donald Trump bragged about our low COVID-19 death rate compared to Western European nations. Trump pointed to Belgium, which has the highest virus deaths per 100,000 citizens.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Belgium, however, has joined France and the Netherlands in reporting virus deaths more accurately. Unlike other countries, they have counted “presumed” virus deaths that have occurred at home as well as in nursing facilities.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">In his column (April 29), Dale Courtney contends that we should have followed Sweden’s decision not to issue stay-at-home orders. He then lists the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Belgium as having higher virus death rates than the Swedes.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Courtney’s method of calculating coronavirus fatalities is flawed. Even Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who has led his nation’s “light touch” response to the virus, admits that citing infection rates based on limited testing is “an unreliable measure.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Courtney has divided the number of reported deaths by the number of virus cases confirmed by testing. The problem with this is that Italy is testing three times more people than Sweden is, and Sweden is counting only the hospital deaths of patients who tested positive.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Sweden finally banned visits to its nursing homes on April 3, after it realized that a third of its total virus fatalities (not counted in the national tally) were occurring there. Even so, the nursing home rules are lax: Staff are required to wear masks and gloves only if the resident is suspected of having the virus.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The Belgium government has responded angrily to Trump’s reference to its virus death count, and one minister called it “level zero” politics. He claimed that Belgium’s “method of counting COVID-19 deaths is the most exhaustive possible.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Belgian nursing home deaths are 52 percent of the total, but only 4.5 percent of these were confirmed virus fatalities and the rest are now reported as “suspected, based on symptoms.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">In an analysis of excess deaths (those above normal mortality) in 14 countries, London’s Financial Times concluded that the COVID-19 death toll may be 60 percent higher than reported. Its reporters found 122,000 excess deaths in these countries, but only 77,000 confirmed virus mortality. The most extreme disparity was found in one of Ecuador’s provinces: excess fatalities were 10,200 but COVID-19 deaths were only 245.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Coronavirus deaths in New York City rose by 3,700 when probable as well as confirmed cases were added to the toll. In the early stages of the pandemic, as many as 195 patients a day, even though they showed symptoms of the virus, were turned away from overwhelmed city hospitals and many died at home.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The Center for Disease Control is finally requiring states to count presumed as well as confirmed coronavirus cases, but officials there, consistent with the Trump administration’s fatal hands-off policy, are allowing the states to set their own criteria for this reporting.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">This means, as Debbie Koenig of WebMD reports, that “Alabama, for example, may continue to exclude patients who tested positive, if a doctor’s review determines they may have died from another cause. As of April 16, the state had 133 reported deaths with positive tests, but only 82 had been attributed to COVID-19.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">In Florida there is a tug-of-war between state health officials and county medical examiners, who claim that the former are not reporting the coronavirus deaths they send them. One of the examiners, Dr. Stephen Nelson, said that state officials told him they plan to remove causes of death and case descriptions. Nelson complained: “Without that information, the list is meaningless.”<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">In late April, Florida’s Congressional Democrats sent GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis a letter demanding an explanation for “inconsistencies between COVID-19 death tracking methods used by the Florida Department of Health and county medical examiners.” They have not yet received a reply.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The Chinese government is now adjusting upwards the COVID-19 death toll in Wuhan, but residents are complaining that even more transparency is needed. If the Chinese can do it, then Florida’s health officials should do the same.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. Read all his columns at <a href="http://nfgier.com/" style="color:rgb(149,79,114)" target="_blank">http://nfgier.com</a>.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="4">—————————————</font></p><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)" target="_blank"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">“A
stranger is just a friend you haven't met.” - Roy E. Stolworthy<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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=======================================================</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div> <div style="height:auto;width:auto"> <div> <div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt"><div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. </span><br style="font-size:13.3333px"><br style="font-size:13.3333px"><span style="font-size:13.3333px">-Greek proverb</span></div><div><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br><br></div></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>