by SP
Ron Paul, a well know libertarian, is opposed to government edicts and is especially allergic when fudged numbers are used to justify those edicts. In Texas, the rising numbers of “cases” is being cited to justify governmental restrictions.
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Shifting the definition of a “case”
Texas State Department of Health Services changing the definition of what constitutes a “Covid case” …. [causing] the mainstream media [to declare] that a “second wave” was on the way … and that cases were “spiking.”
…on May 18th, it was revealed that while previously the determination of a Covid “case” was a confirmed test result, the definition was suddenly changed to count “probable” cases as “cases.” At the same time, the threshold for determining “probable” was lowered to a ridiculous level.
As Judge Hill said at that May 18th meeting, “If you have a subjective fever ["I feel hot”] and you have a headache and you live in Collin County, you now meet the qualifications to be a probable COVID patient.
And “probable cases” were considered cases.
Even worse, once a “probable” case was determined based on possibly unrelated subjective criteria, up to 15 people in possible contact with that “probable” case were also listed as “probable cases.” And “probable cases” were considered cases.
…Is it any wonder there was a “spike” in “cases”?
This confirms my impression that it is best to count hospitalizations and deaths as the number-of-cases metric is just too easy to fudge.