David Zweig reports on new research that gives us very good reason to believe that data on the number of children hospitalized because of Covid-19 are greatly inflated. (HT my intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy.) A slice:
In one study, conducted at a children’s hospital in Northern California, among the 117 pediatric SARS-CoV2-positive patients hospitalized between May 10, 2020, and February 10, 2021, the authors concluded that 53 of them (or 45 percent) “were unlikely to be caused by SARS-CoV-2.” The reasons for hospital admission for these “unlikely” patients included surgeries, cancer treatment, a psychiatric episode, urologic issues, and various infections such as cellulitis, among other diagnoses. The study also found that 46 (or 39.3 percent) of patients coded as SARS-CoV2 positive were asymptomatic. In other words, despite patients’ testing positive for the virus as part of the hospital’s universal screening, COVID-19 symptoms were absent, therefore it was not the reason for the hospitalization. Any instance where the link between a positive SARS-CoV2 test and cause of admission was uncertain the authors erred toward giving a “likely” categorization.
Let’s amend the U.S. Constitution to allow this young lady to run for president in 2024. She’ll have my support! (HT my GMU colleague Todd Zywicki.)
Judith Woods is rightly furious with Boris Johnson. A slice:
There is something unutterably spineless about the way he twists in the wind, talking up our glorious vaccines while talking down to us, the vaccinated.
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that having nannied and infantilised us for almost a year and a half, this Government has started to rather enjoy bossing us about, in the erroneous belief we are too stupid or supine to recognise when we are being hoodwinked and manipulated. We are neither.
Covid Derangement Syndrome is fueling xenophobia.
Douglas Murray mourns what’s become of the once-free country of Britain. Three slices:
In the whole political debate over Covid and Britain’s response to it, it is striking that there has been almost no counter-pressure from the other side of the debate. While there is plenty of pressure on the Government to be more cautious, there is none at a party-political level urging the Government to be more favourable towards the case for liberty.
…..While Dr Fauci’s wisdom is questioned openly [in the U.S.], Britain is haunted by the presence of Prof Neil Ferguson, who repeatedly returns to our screens like a bad horror movie. Rarely has any expert in British life been more wrong about so many major things, and yet still he crops up, where he is given a respectful audience at government level and by most of the media. His latest appearance has seen him warning — with the Prime Minister following suit — that the Indian variant of Covid might necessitate delaying the end of lockdown. But what is striking is not just that Ferguson gets away with repeatedly being wrong, but that his constant urges for greater caution are not balanced by any force urging the opposite.
…..
Is it healthy for British politics that when the Government and BBC tell us how, where and when we might hug our loved ones, which direction to face, how often to do it and what settings one might do it in, there is only the sound of dull acceptance or audible gratitude from grateful subjects? I am not certain that it is.
