Fall is in the air, along with a distinct smell of panic among Democrats and the media. Leaves are turning yellow and orange as presidential opinion polls are slowly but inexorably shifting favorably toward President Trump, turning the electoral map a brighter shade of red to match the leaves. There is a chill in the morning air, especially among deep state corruptocrats waiting for the next report or indictment from the few in Washington D.C. committed to the rule of law.

The Chinese virus has been an effective club against Trump making America great again during the past year The first case arrived in Seattle, coincidentally or not, on the same day Jerry Nadler waddled with fellow Democrats from the House to the Senate delivering articles of impeachment.

Initially we heard about Wuhan virus deaths, Fox News ran a death tally as a side bar on the television screen just as business cable news provides a real time tally of the Dow average. As deaths peaked and declined, the DNC media pivoted to case counts, ignoring deaths and hospitalizations.

We later found out that deaths were over counted, with health authorities making no distinction between dying “with” or “from” COVID. George Floyd would be classified as a COVID death since he tested positive at autopsy, despite his true cause of death being a fentanyl overdose. Gunshot deaths and alcohol poisonings were counted as Chinese virus deaths simply because of a positive test. The CDC recently revealed that only 6 percent of COVID deaths were solely from the virus, without confounding comorbidities that may have contributed to but not necessarily caused death.

Now it is case counts, every positive test hysterically trumpeted by the media in doomsday fashion. A positive case is more than simply a positive test, just as a single elevated blood sugar reading does not make one diabetic. In the movie Casablanca, a kiss was just a kiss. In contrast, in the world of public health, a case is not just a case. There are criteria for what constitutes a case, called the “case definition”.

The CDC definition is a bit complicated and includes clinical criteria, meaning symptoms of cough, shortness of breath, and pneumonia. Laboratory criteria means a positive FDA approved test “using a molecular amplification detection test.” Epidemiologic criteria mean close contact with an infected individual or travel to a viral hot spot.

But a positive antigen test alone does not mean a probable case. Instead what is needed is, “Presumptive laboratory evidence AND either clinical criteria OR epidemiologic evidence.” Notice the AND, meaning not simply a positive test.

Additionally, the PCR test for the Chinese flu is quite sensitive based on amplification cycles, as I explain here. The test is so sensitive that it can detect just a few dead viral particles, which have no clinical significance. Most of these test positive “cases” are not contagious or symptomatic, according to the New York Times.

When PCR testing is amplified to the extreme, it is like having a burglar alarm so sensitive that a rabbit running across your lawn sets it off. Yes, it is an intrusion but not of any significance.

A flu virus that has been in this country for the better part of a year is ubiquitous with many individuals exposed at some point. After exposure, the virus replicates, but not enough to cause any symptoms, much less serious illness. Dead viral fragments may stick around deep within the nasal cavity for months, triggering a positive test, and what the media now describes as “a case”.

After initial cases in March and April we had a “second surge” in the summer reportedly due to Trump rallies, but conveniently not related to the protests and riots in most major U.S. cities since Memorial Day. Those cases have petered out but as the election nears and a new Supreme Court Justice, the “Notorious ACB” is around the corner, the media and the left need a new narrative to scare the population and augment the push for mail in ballots.

On schedule, it is time for a “third wave”. My hometown Denver Post ran this headline, “Polis warns of third wave as Colorado sees acceleration of COVID-19 spread across all age groups.” Is it a surge in sick individuals ready to overwhelm the healthcare system with ventilator shortages and patients dying in emergency room hallways as we were promised last April? No instead it is a “significant outbreak” among college students, mostly at CU Boulder, one of the top party schools in America.

YouTube screen grab

Are these real cases of the Wuhan flu or simply positive tests? Are they filling Boulder’s hospitals and ICU beds? The article answers this far below the scary headline, ”Hospitalizations for COVID-19, however, remain stable in Colorado.” For university students, the age 18-29 group, the rate of COVID hospitalization  is less than half the rate for the overall population and more then ten-fold less than that of their grandparents. 

According to the CDC, in an overlapping age group of age 15-24, there have been only 333 deaths “involving”, but not necessarily caused by, COVID compared to 20,786 all cause deaths. Clearly this “third wave” is a surge in positive cases in otherwise young and healthy individuals, hype rather than a justification for CU Boulder “Switching to remote learning for at least 2 weeks amid COVID-19 surge.” 

In other worse, a “casedemic” rather than a pandemic.

As Gateway Pundit reported, 48,299 cases of the Wuhan flu at 37 universities in the U.S. resulted in only two hospitalizations and zero deaths. For those under 20 years old, “The likelihood of dying from COVID in Indiana is a 1.7-in-a-million chance, far lower than being killed in one’s lifetime by lightning or by a dog."

Rather than keeping test positive students on campus and learning, few if any getting sick, letting the school campus develop herd immunity, many will return home to potentially infect their more vulnerable parents, grandparents, and communities. Great idea.

Hysteria has replaced reason among Democrats and their media allies. Then again if they had common sense, they would not have attempted to impeach a popular president, or nominate a senile presidential candidate, decades past his prime, which was marginal at best.

As all else has failed to derail Trump’s reelection, why not hype the virus again with surges and death counts that are meaningless for a pandemic that peaked in mid-April.  Let’s call it a casedemic instead. This can at least clog the fake news cycle until Senate Democrats accuse Amy Coney Barrett of running rape trains in high school.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a Denver-based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, Rasmussen Reports, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, Parler, and QuodVerum.