Intellectual dishonesty, fundamentalism and postmodernism, by Luís Garcia

1 - RATIO NUMBER OF TESTS / POSITIVE RESULT

Countries like China, Venezuela or Vietnam have an incredibly high ratio of number of tests / positive result. What does it mean?

It means that when Venezuelan authorities find a positive case, they check every person directly or indirectly related to that case, all neighbors, relatives, etc.

They test many people in a specific area with a confirmed case, only to find out that there are none, on average. And, if they find one, they repeat the process.

For every 1239 tests performed in embargoed Venezuela, 1238 turn out negative and only 1 turns out positive.

This high ratio tells us the Venezuelan authorities are having a very precise sense of the spreading, and are tracking the spreading very well.

In countries like Venezuela, massive testing combined with quarantine measures resulted in great success in preventing the spreading of the virus, as you can conclude from the data bellow (POINT 4).

RATIO NUMBER OF TESTS / POSITIVE RESULT

(EXCEL FILE HERE)

Conteúdo não suportado.

2 - INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY (CHERRY-PICKING DATA)

There are plenty of examples of intellectual dishonesty applied to meticulous cherry-picking of data to fit in certain pre-decided conclusions, which is the very opposite of what journalists are supposed to do: first, analyze the data/information, then make conclusions.

For instance, two weeks ago, Patrick Henningsen (21st Century Wire) and Mike Robinson (UK Column), 2 alternative journalists known for their brave and objective debunking of MSM lies against countries like Syria, decided to do the very opposite:

- To cook figures to fit their libertarian narrative, scandalously omitting the figures of countries where lock-downs/quarantines were set on time and for real: China, Vietnam, Venezuela, Brunei, Nepal, Cuba, Cambodia, Saint Lucia, etc.

- To manipulate data, using horrible examples of very late and badly implemented quarantines (USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy), instead of using the examples I just mentioned above.

- To omit flagrant no lockdown examples like the Netherlands.

- To lie, adding Belgium to the lockdown list.

- To consider only Western nations or good examples of well-trained nations in Westernism such as South Korea, Japan or Taiwan (part of China).

Here is their report from April 10:

UKC News: Indefinite Lockdown? COVID-19 Special Edition

Here is their updated report from April 22, using data from April 17:

COVID-19: Comparing Results of LOCKDOWN vs NON-LOCKDOWN States

Here is their chart:

One more example of a very similar approach can be found in this tweet, posted on April 24th (yesterday) with figures from April 19th:

2a - A CHART TO GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT

The best and simplest way to expose the manipulation of the kind we just saw on POINT 2 is to create a chart like this one (POINT 2a), which includes what others purposedly omit (because it doesn't fit their narrative):

More countries in the no lock-down category, reminding they perform low or very low testing, as we shall see next.
Relabeling of Patrick Henningsen's examples of "lock-down" as late lock-down with low testing.
A list of real examples of lock-down countries labeled as immediate lock-down plus massive testing.

Many other countries with real lock-downs could be added in order to further expose Patrick Henningsen's manipulation of reality by cherry-picking, but then the chart would be too long.

Two of those examples are damn obvious: Australia and New Zealand! How can 2 native English speakers like Patrick Henningsen and Mike Robinson forget such obvious examples of successful quarantine approaches? What a clear example of cherry-picking to feet a pre-decided conclusion!

AUSTRALIA

NEW ZEALAND

And there are also other good examples to be added to what I call late lockdown and Patrick Henningsen calls "lockdown" examples.

2 of those are Austria and Switzerland, European nations where, despite the fact that quarantine measures were also implemented quite late, the results are still too good to be included in Patrick Henningsen's biased chart.

AUSTRIA

SWITZERLAND

3 - TO DENY REALITY IS INCREDIBLY TRENDING:

Example 1: Anti-empire and its ultra cherry-picking, lies, omissions, and even reinvention of mathematics.

https://www.anti-empire.com/swedens-dangerous-experiment-not-committing-social-economic-suicide-is-still-working/

Example 2: Jon Hellevig and his definitive conclusions of this kind: "Game over. The Swedish model won. Herd immunity is the way to go".

https://vk.com/wall272530651_721

4 - REALITY

NO LOCK-DOWN + VERY LOW TESTING

BELGIUM

45,325 cases, 6,917 deaths;
23% recovered cases, 62% active cases, 15% deaths;
3,911 cases per million, 597 deaths per million;
4 tests / positive result.

NETHERLANDS

37,190 cases, 4,409 deaths;
recovered cases N/A, 88% active cases, 12% deaths;
2,170 cases per million, 257 deaths per million;
5 tests / positive result.

SWEDEN

18,177 cases, 2,192 deaths;
6% recovered cases, 82% active cases, 12% deaths;
1,800 cases per million, 217 deaths per million;
5 tests / positive result.

BELARUS

9,590 cases, 67 deaths;
16% recovered cases, 83% active cases, 1% deaths;
1,015 cases per million, 7 deaths per million;
15 tests / positive result.

LATE LOCK-DOWN + LOW TESTING

U.S.A.

926,53 cases, 52,243 deaths;
12% recovered cases, 82% active cases, 6% deaths;
2,799 cases per million, 158 deaths per million;
5 tests / positive result.

ITALY

192,994 cases, 25,969 deaths;
31% recovered cases, 55% active cases, 14% deaths;
3,192 cases per million, 430 deaths per million;
9 tests / positive result.

SPAIN

223,759 cases, 22,902 deaths;
43% recovered cases, 47% active cases, 10% deaths;
4,786 cases per million, 490 deaths per million;
4 tests / positive result.

FRANCE

159,828 cases, 22,245 deaths;
27% recovered cases, 59% active cases, 14% deaths;
2,449 cases per million, 341 deaths per million;
3 tests / positive result.

U.K.

143,464 cases, 19,506 deaths;
recovered cases N/A, 86% active cases, 14% deaths;
2,113 cases per million, 287 deaths per million;
4 tests / positive result.

IMMEDIATE LOCK-DOWN + MASSIVE TESTING

CHINA

82,816 cases, 4,632 deaths;
93% recovered cases, 1% active cases, 6% deaths;
58 cases per million, 3 deaths per million;
1812 tests / positive result.

CUBA

1,285 cases, 49 deaths;
32% recovered cases, 64% active cases, 4% deaths;
113 cases per million, 4 deaths per million;
28 tests / positive result.

VENEZUELA

318 cases, 10 deaths;
42% recovered cases, 55% active cases, 3% deaths;
11 cases per million, 0.4 deaths per million;
1239 tests / positive result.

VIETNAM

270 cases, 0 deaths;
83% recovered cases, 17% active cases, 0% deaths;
3 cases per million, 0 deaths per million;
764 tests / positive result.

For plenty of facts about Vietnam, open this thread:

Vietnam has reported 0 COVID-19 related deaths with 268 cases after 90+ days since the first outbreak in January.⁠
⁠
A country with over 96 million people, bordering on China, managed to contain the pandemic better than most similarly sized countries with larger economies.⁠ pic.twitter.com/MpPDWdUPLu
— redfish (@redfishstream) April 23, 2020