The Sneeze Heard 'Round the World

The Picture shows a rock framed by another rock. The distant rock is Utah's Mt Olympus in the Wasatch Mountain Range.

I've been following the Corona Virus Charts on World-O-Meter. Whoever made this site is probably sitting pretty with all the ad revenue generated by the pandemic.

The year-end surge in COVID-19 cases is one of the most interesting statistical events of the last decade.

It is second only to the really strange statistics from the election.

Okay, I mentioned elections just to emphasize that the groups that tabulate statistics have profound effects on society. The amount of gamesmanship that goes into the election process is astounding.

My observation is that the gamesmanship that determines the candidates is even worse than the gamesmanship during the election.

But lets get back to COVID19. Personally I suspect that, at this stage of the pandemic, people are less likely to report their COVID19 status than they were a year ago; so the spike is probably higher than the graph above indicates.

The good news is that the reported mortality is lower. Apparently the Omicron variant is a little less lethal. I suspect that many people have taken steps to improve their immune health and that there are better therapeutics for people who get the disease.

It is also possible that doctors are simply less likely to attribute a death to COVID19 than they were at the beginning of the pandemic. About 2% of the people who get the disease die while infected. A large portion of the people who fall to COVID19 have comorbidities.

Imagine a patient with terminal lung cancer catches COVID19 before dies: Was the death due to COVID or the cancer?

The data doesn't simply reflect the nature of the disease, but reflects the nature of the society.

For example, COVID19 has taken its toll on the growing number of people over 90. A century ago, very few people lived to ninety. Part of the mortality rate of COVID is simply a reflection of the fact that people are living longer today than at previous times.

The spike seems to coincide with Holiday celebrations in many Western countries. People who travel end up being a vector for diseases. The countries with the most tourists seem to have been the first affected with Omicron.

NOTE: People tend to travel more in the Summer.

Even a century ago, it was rare for people to travel great distances from their homes. Today, it is common for people to engage in long distance travel.

I've been clicking through the stats pages for different countries. It appears that there is some relation between the severity of COVID19 and the seasons. This particular spike appears to be related to a strain of COVID19 which is a little more virulent than the last.

That said, I think this spike stands out as one of the most dramatic statistical moments of the decade as we had a vaccine that national health services claimed would protect the public. Government had mandates, lock downs and mask requirements in place.

Despite all of the precaution, the contagion still broke through.

To an extent the break out simply shows that no matter how much damage we do to our economies in the name of protecting people from disease, nature will still break though.

One can approach this spike from a thousand different perspectives. Governments can complain that the people were not compliant enough. Others will see the spike as a failure of a vaccine.

I am happy to see the mortality rate drop.

The point of this post is that Omicron spike created a fascinating data set. My heart goes out to the people who caught COVID during the holidays.

I suspect that things will get better in the Northern Hemisphere as Spring approaches and people get more sunshine.

COVID19 and 5G

I read a post by @francesleader that claimed that writers were getting cancelled on other platforms for talking about COVID19 and the roll out of 5G.

5G is a new smartphone technology being pushed by big tech.

I am happy that StemGeeks has not joined in the effort to silence Frances despite the posts being on the edge of science.

Apparently there are some conspiracy theorists who want to claim that COVID19 is a coverup for sickness related to 5G.

The conspiracy theory sounds stupid. There is no reason to believe that there is a direct connection between COVID19 and 5G.

While the argument of a direct connection between 5G and COVID is weak. There is an argument for an indirect connection.

It seems that big tech and big government are developing technologies to track and control people.

COVID19 appeared in a city that housed an institute that engaged in government funded gain of function research.

5G Technology is a collection of over-engineered and rather intrusive tech for the phone industry. 5G brings intrusive technology which seems to be tracking our every movement.

Yes, Google maps is wonderful. The combination of Google Maps and a smart phone helps you find your location on a map. The downside is that the same combination allows Google to track you.

So, the indirect relation between COVID19 and 5G is that these are technologies designed to the desires of big business and big government. People on this planet are likely to suffer when technology is designed to the desires of the ruling class and not for the needs of the people.

People should be questioning both the source of COVID19 and the motivations behind the roll out of 5G.

It is unlikely that there is a conspiracy in the government that created COVID19 to cover up 5G. However, we should be concerned about the growing number of technologies that appear to be designed to empower big business to the expense of the people at large.

Our society should have more open debates about the role of technology in our society. The discussion of the parallels between 5G and COVID enhance.

I believe that this discussion is best made by simply pointing out similarities between the issues. Attempts to tie the issues into a conspiracy are likely to go astray.

Getting Back to the Spike

People have been staring at the COVID statistics for two years. This break out spike is dramatic. I can see a dozen different ways to interpret it. This spike is an important inflection point that is bound to affect both public opinion and government policy for generations to come.

I started writing a post about my interpretation of the spike. But I realized that, like the discussion of election fraud that occurs every political cycle, the real benefit comes when people research the issue on their own and come up with their own thoughts on the issue.

What is your interpretation of the spike? Does this spike demand increased government action and more mandates?

Posted with STEMGeeks