I'm a pandemic skeptic.  I know that the Wuhan virus is real and dangerous for some people.  Still, I cannot get excited about a disease with an average 99% survival rate.  I believe that the Democrats weaponized the virus to defeat President Trump, and I think Democrats are still working the virus to weaken working- and middle-class Americans (i.e., Trump-supporters) while enriching the Democrats' corporate cronies.  I'm cynical, paranoid, or a realist — or all three.  This weekend, information emerged supporting my viewpoint.

We keep being told that Americans are dying like flies, far in excess of their normal numbers.  I accept that there are excess deaths.  I'm sure that the virus increased our annual death rate in spring, when many elderly people died in the first wave after Democrat governors trapped them in retirement homes and then sent in infected people.  I'm also sure that more Americans are dying from cancer, heart disease, depression, suicide, murder, and spousal abuse thanks to the cruelty of the lockdowns.

What offsets all this is that fewer Americans are dying from the flu.  That's either because masks help prevent the flu (although we're told our mask use is all wrong for stopping the virus) or because a lot of the deaths marked as Wuhan virus deaths are in fact flu deaths.  No matter — take a gander at these data:

Deaths in the USA over the years...

2010: 2.5M
2011: 2.5M
2012: 2.5M
2013 :2.6M
2014: 2.6M
2015: 2.7M
2016: 2.7M
2017: 2.8M
2018: 2.8M
2019: 2.9M
2020: 2.5M (as of November)

Where is the massive spike?

(h/t @MillerStream)

— Dr. David Samadi, MD (@drdavidsamadi) December 13, 2020

There's probably a lag for that last number — that is, there may have been more than 2.5 million deaths as of November, but you're going to need a truly huge spike to make 2020's numbers exceed deaths in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

There's also the fact that — again contrary to what Democrats tell us — hospitals are not overwhelmed.  They also were not overwhelmed in the spring, when Trump was extraordinarily effective in helping build field hospitals, getting military hospital ships to New York, and making ventilators available:

As fears persist of overwhelmed medical systems and at-capacity hospitals nationwide, data indicate that ample hospital space remains available for both COVID-19 patients and other medical needs, with one official at a major hospital network stating that the country is "managing pretty well" the latest surge of COVID-19. 

For most of 2020, rising positive test results of COVID-19 have brought with them fears of swamped hospitals, overwhelmed medical systems, emergency patients being turned away, and COVID-19 patients being triaged, suffering and dying in hallways and vestibules. 

The same article notes that these fears were driven, in part, by images from Northern Italy in the spring when its medical system was overwhelmed.  But socialized medicine is always overwhelmed.  That's why people who have socialized medicine can see a family practitioner but never actually get treated (as was the case with a British friend's mother who waited years for a new hip while my dad got his two weeks after doctors determined that his hip was too damaged to function).

And finally, there's this Twitter thread from a pharmacist:

pic.twitter.com/Gt8mkqAVap

— вќЊHarvey Staub рџ’Єрџ‡єрџ‡ёрџ–¤в­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏ (@HarveyStaub1) December 13, 2020

3)...how much tamiflu and generic has he sold to Pharmacies this season. He hasn’t sold any. He has 75 accounts of independent pharmacies across the United States. 👇

— вќЊHarvey Staub рџ’Єрџ‡єрџ‡ёрџ–¤в­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏ (@HarveyStaub1) December 13, 2020

4) Conclusion: By now, it’s well known that Covid tests give false positives. How many of these false positives are actually “the flu”? How many are just “the common cold”? Why does the CDC report daily case numbers & deaths for Covid and not for the flu? ...

— вќЊHarvey Staub рџ’Єрџ‡єрџ‡ёрџ–¤в­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏ (@HarveyStaub1) December 13, 2020

6) I believe we’re being played. Yes, Covid is real, it can be deadly. We now have drug regimens to treat Covid effectively, one being Dr. Zev Zelenko’s @zev_dr regimen, among others. I believe the Covid numbers are being skewed upward, on purpose...

— вќЊHarvey Staub рџ’Єрџ‡єрџ‡ёрџ–¤в­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏ (@HarveyStaub1) December 13, 2020

8) If we are so obedient to wear masks,obedient to stand here,don’t stand there, obedient to get the Covid vaccine,obedient to carry proof you’ve gotten the vaccine; otherwise,you won’t be able to fly; then it will be buses, trains, taxis, Uber’s,Target,Walmart, grocery stores...

— вќЊHarvey Staub рџ’Єрџ‡єрџ‡ёрџ–¤в­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏ (@HarveyStaub1) December 13, 2020

10)They really don’t know what they’ll find out in 6 months, a year, 5 years & longer, that can be attributed to the vaccine. It’s way past time for people to take their heads out of their ass & start thinking for themselves. / Done

— вќЊHarvey Staub рџ’Єрџ‡єрџ‡ёрџ–¤в­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏв­ђпёЏ (@HarveyStaub1) December 13, 2020

Americans have been remarkably good sports about watching their livelihoods get destroyed.  How long this will last is questionable.  Working- and middle-class people do not fight because they have too much to lose.  Once everything is lost, though, what's to stop them from fighting?

Image: COVID-19 Concept photo by Alan Camerer.  CC0 Public Domain.