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Are COVID-19 “Probable” Cases
Hi-Jacking Maine’s Flu Numbers?
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, April 21, 2021
(chart compiled by David Deschesne, using Maine DHHS data)
Laboratory confirmed cases of seasonal flu in Maine have fallen to statistically zero for this year’s flu season while “probable” COVID-19 cases have stolen the spotlight in not only the Left Wing News media, but also the data collection centers of Maine’s health care industrial complex.
Data obtained from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) shows that in Maine, for the first dozen or so weeks of the year there have historically been an average of 500 to 900 new cases per week of normal, seasonal flu logged via laboratory confirmed tests at Maine hospitals. This year, the weekly case load for seasonal flu - which is usually comprised of at least four competing strains at a time, each year - barely reached above ten cases twice in the season while the rest of the weeks remained in the low single digits. In week 8 (week ending February 27, 2021) there were zero seasonal flu cases reported in all of Maine. The previous three year average from 2018 - 2020 shows an average of 798 cases of seasonal flu have historically been reported in that same time period. However, all is not lost if you factor in the “probable” cases of the left wing media-created superstar virus, SARS-CoV-2, which logged a modest 470 “probable” cases during the same time period (see chart, above).
A “probable” case of COVID-19 is a newly-created, open-ended data point, never before used in Maine’s data compilation of flu numbers. A “probable” case is a person who presents at a hospital E.R. or doctor’s visit with symptoms of cough, fever, headache, runny nose and/or sneezing. The doctors have been given the latitude to determine if a person probably has COVID-19 based upon two or three of those symptoms - symptoms which also could be manifested from seasonal flu, a common cold, or allergies, to name a few. But, no lab test is performed.
Historically, the only time a seasonal flu case was logged was when a person came to the hospital, or doctor’s office with influenza-like symptoms. They were then tested with either a PCR or rapid antigen test in order to confirm which strain of flu was present. There has never been mass testing of a population for any virus using PCR tests - which only determine if an RNA fragment for a given virus is present, not an actual, fully functioning virus. But, all past practice and common sense has been tossed out the window with the media-created superstar virus as populations are tested en masse and instantly diagnosed as “sick” with COVID-19...even if they’re not.
It’s been suggested that the stronger of competing viruses will push out the others, which is why COVID-19 is dominant and flu virtually non-existent this year. However, historical trends show that at least four flu viruses will circulate in a population at a time with two of them being the dominant strain and the other two being less prevalent. However, the dominant flu viruses do not quash the weaker flu viruses nearly out of existence as COVID-19 has allegedly done with all of the influenza viruses that normally circulate in Maine this time of year.
It’s also been suggested that face masks and social distancing have quashed the seasonal flu but COVID is still circulating because it’s much more infectious. That explanation does not wash, either, since the past three years showed a cumulative average of around 8,300 flu cases so far at this point in the season, but in 2016, there were only 1,100 - and that was at a time when there were no face masks in use and no social distancing to speak of - yet flu cases were an anomalous 25-90% lower than the subsequent years.
Public hysteria and a focus on only one virus - which has a fatality rate similar to seasonal flu, anyway - has driven health care officials to unwittingly (or worse, purposefully) skew the data in favor of boosting COVID-19 numbers by logging an excessive amount in COVID-19’s favor.
Out of the total “new daily positive” COVID-19 cases - many of which are duplicate tests from people retesting, but lumped into the “new cases” column - as many as 40% are the unconfirmed “probable” cases based upon a subjective opinion with no laboratory confirmed test to verify SARS-CoV-2 is in fact present, and not some other virus, bacterial or fungal infection.