Our New Abnormal … told ‘By the Numbers’
I’m a fan of these numbers’ sidebars, but until today had never published one at my Substack Newsletter.
When I was an editor at local newspapers, I often ran “By-the-Numbers” sidebar pieces. These data boxes would simply list numbers that helped illustrate (or quantify) elements covered in the story proper.
I haven’t run a “By the Numbers” piece since I started my Substack newsletter, but the text that follows remedies that.
The following are a sample of numbers that have jumped out to me in our New Abnormal times. Many, but not all, deal with Covid. Some of these figures or percentages are personal estimates and are based on my memory, which isn’t always accurate. I hope readers agree with me that these numeric approximations deserve greater attention.
‘Okay, let’s close this number of businesses …’
3.3 to 3.4 million - Number of U.S. businesses closed by the lockdowns, according to RFK, Jr. in his recent (highly-recommended) interview with Glenn Beck.
380,000 - Approximate number of places of worship in the USA, all forced to close in the lockdowns.
131,000 - Approximate number of schools closed in the USA during the lockdowns. Note: This figure doesn’t include daycares and pre-schools.
4,200 to 6,000 - Approximate number of colleges closed in the lockdowns.
1 - Number of U.S. colleges (Hillsdale College, enrollment 2,600) that questioned the necessity of the lockdowns and non-pharmaceutical interventions.
0 - Number of current college and professional athletes who have died from Covid in the past four years.
0 - Members of Congress and White House employees who have died from Covid in the last four years.
0 - Number of employees at the CDC, NIH and Alabama Department of Public Health known to have died from Covid. Note: The true figure might be different given the following caveat …
0 - Number of media affairs employees at the above public health information agencies who answered my questions when I tried to find out the accurate number.
150 - Number of redacted pages a U.S. Senator received (in one document) after he requested information from a U.S. government agency.
1 - At one time, the number of full-time news journalists at the Gannett-owned Lafayette (La.) Daily Advertiser, according to a former journalist at this newspaper.
0 - Estimated number of feature stories on deaths caused by Covid vaccines at all major newspapers in America.
10,000 - Based on survey extrapolations, estimated number of U.S. embalmers who have found strange, white “fibrous clots” in the corpses of bodies they’ve embalmed since the Covid vaccine roll-out.
3 to 10 - Number of the same clots removed from living patients in one U.S. hospital in a typical week, according to this cath-lab whistleblower.
The Transfer Portal is a thing in college sports …
3 - Number of Alabama basketball players on this season’s Final Four squad who were also on the team the prior season.
45-plus - Approximate number of Alabama football players who have transferred or declared for the NFL draft since the Rose Bowl Playoff game in January.
85 - Number of scholar-shipped football players on a Division-I college football team.
1 trillion - In U.S. dollars, the amount of money the federal government must now spend to service “interest on the debt” in a given year.
100-plus - Nations where the U.S. has a military base.
12 million - Approximate number of U.S. citizens who work for the federal government directly or as contractors.
1 - Number of sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, USS Kidd destroyer and French aircraft carrier Charles deGaulle who allegedly died from Covid after reported outbreaks on these ships.
7,000 - Approximate number of sailors on these three ships.
41 to 63 percent - Percentage of sailors who tested positive for Covid antibodies on these three ships in April and May 2020.
A few press numbers …
4 million - Typical nightly viewing audience for “Tucker Carlson Tonight” before Carlson was fired by Fox News.
152 million - Estimated viewership of Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin on X.
6,000 to 7,000 - Approximate press run of a typical edition of The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser, according to a former employee of this paper.
150,000 to 200,000 - Approximate press run of The Advertiser when I was growing up.
50 percent - Estimated percentage of TV commercials paid for by big pharmaceutical companies on network TV, according to RFK, Jr. and other sources.
0 - Number of presidential debates that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have participated in this presidential campaign season.
1 - Former uncles of Joe Biden who were “shot down” while piloting an airplane in Word War II and whose body may have been eaten by cannibals. Source: “Joe Biden.”
500,000 to 1 million - Estimated number of mandatory PCR tests given to college and pro athletes in 2020-2021.
0 - Estimated number of mandatory PCR tests given to high school athletes in America in the same years.
0 percent - Difference in mortality rates among high school, college and pro athletes.
I should have gone into the mask business …
2 to 4 billion - Estimated number of face coverings sold in the world between March 15, 2020 and today.
0 - Number of known grocery store check-out employees who died from Covid between March 15, 2020 and today.
2 - “Rebel” Rock and Roll icons who questioned the lockdowns (Van Morrison and Eric Clapton).
3 - Number of Covid cases experienced by noted vaccine proponent Stephen Colbert.
1-in-22 to 1-in-34 - Number of American children or young adults currently diagnosed with autism, according to RFK, Jr and other sources.
1 - Number of (the 367,000) non-vaccinated Amish in America who perhaps died from Covid. Source: Steve Kirsch.
50 percent - Estimated percentage of south Alabama funerals that are now cremations, according to whistleblower embalmer Richard Hirschman. Note: This means embalmers wouldn’t find strange blood clots in most people who are dying today.
3.6 percent - Estimated Percentage of cremations in 1960.
$9,000 to $10,000 - Funeral benefit paid to families of people who allegedly died from Covid (to be developed in a future story).
$39,000 - Reported government compensation given to hospitals when an alleged “Covid patient” was placed on a ventilator.
With Covid, age matters …
79.5 to 84 - In most nations, the average age of a Covid victim.
76.33 - Average life expectancy of an American citizen in 2021.
40 to 50 percent - Percentage of (alleged) Covid victims who were living in a nursing home at the time of their death.
0 - Number of mainstream news organizations that reviewed Robert Kennedy’s The Real Anthony Fauci and The Wuhan Cover-Up.
1-million-plus - Reported sales of The Real Anthony Fauci.
2,200 - Approximate number of citations/footnotes in The Real Anthony Fauci.
100 - Pages of footnotes in The Wuhan Cover-Up.
0 - Number of footnotes/scientific citations in Dr. Deborah Birx’s book about her time as White House Coordinator of Covid Response.
$100 billion (or perhaps larger) - Size of Bill Gates’ “vaccine empire,” according to RFK, Jr. in The Wuhan Cover-up (Page 430).
$21 million - Amount of donations Gates, his Foundation or his various sub-organizations have donated to National Public Radio. Source: ibid.
One Global Warming Anecdote …
12 - Estimated numbers of Kansas City Chiefs’ fans who had fingers and toes amputated after developing frost bite at a Chiefs’ playoff game played in sub-zero temperatures.
Two Jeffrey Epstein data points …
9 - Number of homes, islands, ranches, private jets and helicopters owned by alleged “hedge fund manager” Jeffrey Epstein.
0 - Number of alleged or possible Epstein “sex-trafficking clients” interviewed by “investigators” with the FBI and Department of Justice.
30 percent - Approximate one-week plunge in price of an ounce of silver after the lockdowns were announced (from $17.02/ounce to $12.01/ounce).
33 percent - Approximate percentage of children now diagnosed with diabetes or pre-diabetes. Source: RFK, Jr. interviews.
50 percent-plus: Percentage of Americans who could NOT cover an unexpected emergency that cost at least $1,000. Various sources.
We have CPI inflation and Big Mac inflation …
15 cents - Cost of a Hershey Bar in 1975.
$2-plus - Cost of a Hershey bar at many convenience stores today.
65 Cents - Cost of a Big Mac in 1975.
$3.91 to $5.31 - Cost of a Big Mac in various U.S. states today.
0 - Number of movie theaters in Pike County, Alabama after the Covid lockdowns.
94 percent - Percentage of reported Covid victims who had multiple co-morbid conditions at the time of their deaths. (Six percent had no co-morbid conditions).
Some ‘Early Spread’ numbers …
0 - Number of Americans interviewed by the CDC who reported Covid symptoms before January 1, 2020 and who’d also tested positive for Covid antibodies.
1 - Number of antibody studies of archived Red Cross blood conducted by the CDC.
350 - Days from when the Red Cross collected this blood to when the results of this above study were published.
1 million-plus - Number of Americans whose speech was censored by Facebook and other social media companies, according to Dr. Jay Battacharya in a recent talk to the MIT Free Speech Alliance.
15,000+ - Number of “content moderators” employed by Facebook.
194 - Number of nations with delegates to the World Health Organization who will soon vote on a new health treaty being created by the same organization.
573 - Number of new billionaires created since the pandemic.
***
2 - The number of subscribers who upgrade to paid status that make Bill dance a Little Two-Step!
$3 to $200 - Size of the writer gratuities I’ve received via the Ko-Fi link my wife figured out about six months ago. FWIW, all Pay Pal donations go directly to my sweet wife. Thank you to all of my subscribers, paid or otherwise, who have read any of my 230-plus stories.
Ko-Fi tip jar:
Carrie, my beautiful bride, just emailed me that she appreciated the plug I added at the end of this story soliciting possible PayPal donations, which go directly to her. (I've never used PayPal and don't know how it works).
I replied that, "Who knows? It's not impossible that one day some billionaire would hit you/us up with a $500,000 "excellence in journalism" grant.
My last bullet point notes that 573 new billionaires have been minted in the last couple of years. However, the world actually has 2,668 billionaires.
My article also notes that Bill Gates has given $21 million just to NPR. He's probably given (has given) billions of dollars to all the other captured or "trusted" news organizations.
I mean, a contribution of half a million bucks for one Substack author would be like nickels found in the couch seat cushions for some of these people.
For me, it's quite the tell that 100 percent of the journalism grants bestowed by our billionaire class go to journalism organizations that censor the truth.
I love this format. You should consider a weekly by the numbers. I miss seeing those in the paper too!!! Thanks Bill!