[Marxism] Flu epidemic mortality drops dramatically -- a tale of the undead

[Joaquin Bustelo]

	The flu pandemic currently underway has produced the most startling
data. Whereas the body count in Mexico had stood at 170 or more as of
Tuesday, by Thursday night, after the President has ordered the whole
country shut down for five days to try to slow the epidemic, authorities
announced that the number of dead had dramatically increased by 50%, from 8
to 12.

	WAIT A MINUTE, I hear you say. How can the number of fatal cases
"increase" by 50% from around 170 --the last previous official figure-- to
12, the new one? Quite simply: most if not all of the 170 have been excluded
from the new count. 

	How? By the simple expedient of not counting anyone who did not test
positive for the virus in a DNA test.

	These tests are not easy to do or cheap. They have to be done in a
specialized laboratory and take more than 24 hours once you start them.
Because what is involved in a technique to "amplify" a DNA "signal," even
the tiniest contamination by ONE MOLECULE will ruin the test results (even
if the tester doesn't realize it).  

	Until last week, Mexico did not have the capacity to do this test on
anything like a clinical scale, and instead a few samples were sent to the
CDC in Atlanta, as were all samples from throughout the United States. The
aim of such testing is not to tally the total number of cases but rather the
geographic spread of the disease. The number of cases instead is calculated
by diagnosis, based on the symptoms and presentation of the illness as
judged by a medical professional.

	The CDC has now sent kits to state health departments and Mexico to
enable them to do their own analysis. But everywhere the infection appears
to be becoming firmly established, the testing quickly falls behind the
rising number of cases. Many jurisdictions in the U.S. have announced they
won't --in fact can't-- test every one of even the most suspicious cases.

	When numbers are cited in news reports of the number of "confirmed"
cases or "confirmed" dead, people need to keep in mind that the figure is
COMMERCIAL and POLITICAL not *MEDICAL.* Health authorities are still keeping
close track of the number of cases *diagnosed* by medical professionals. It
is obvious that a decision to hide this figure from the public has been made
by politicians all over. And as usual, me and my brother and sister hacks in
newsrooms the world over are proving once again that not only are we a pack
of whores, but a pack of INCOMPETENT whores.

Joaquin