How many employees at public health agencies died from Covid?

For the record, I asked. Only the Alabama Dept. of Health answered my question although this ‘answer’ was not exactly an answer.

This law comes in handy to public health agencies that don’t want to release certain public health statistics.

What is the real Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) for Covid-19?

This is a very important question as the purported answer created the mass global fear that justified lockdowns of society and then often-mandated mRNA vaccines.

Last week, I had a brainstorm and decided to try to find out how many people at the major public health agencies had actually died from Covid in the last four years. 

By finding out how many people worked at these agencies and by applying an estimate of the percentage of the population that’s been infected by the novel coronavirus by now, I could come up with an estimate of the “Covid IFR” at these health agencies.

Seeking this answer, I emailed two simple questions to the media affairs staffs at the NIH, CDC and the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH):

“How many employees at your agency have died from Covid?”

“How many people work at your agency?”

Readers will perhaps not be surprised to learn that the NIH and CDC did not reply to my questions.

Depending on how one defines the word “answer,” I did receive a reply from the public information officer (Arrol Sheehan) at my own state’s public health agency, the ADPH. According to Sheehan:

“The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) cannot provide the information you request, related to employees' health, due to privacy and confidentiality.”

As a persistent reporter, I took another stab at getting a specific number.

“Arrol, … to be clear … I'm not asking for private medical records of APDH employees. Just stats on deaths. For example, numerous state hospitals have reported X number of patients died from Covid in a period of time - but the release of this information doesn't violate any privacy or confidentiality protocols.”

My follow-up email generated this response:

“ADPH does not have any additional information that we can provide for your request. This is based on privacy and HIPAA reasons.”

Bottom-line:

I’m disappointed to report that I don’t know how many employees at the ADPH may or may not have died from Covid in the last four years. The old stand-by -  “medical privacy” and “HIPPA” reasons - prevents our public information employees from providing the public such information.

Due to the oft-cited HIPPA rules, I can only speculate that the real answer to my question could very possibly be … zero employees. (I hope readers can see from the above I at least tried to get a definite answer.)

I also note that if an employee of the health agency that’s the source for all official Covid data in my state had died from Covid, this would have probably made the news. (If an ADPH employee did die from Covid, I missed this news story.)

What I’m really trying to learn with these questions …

In my emails, I revealed why I was asking these questions and what I was trying to learn. What I was trying to do is see if the IFR for the ADPH (and NIH and CDC) jibes with the IFR for the public at large.

As I pointed out in this article, the official COVID IFR in the early months of the pandemic was said to be 3.4 percent. This would mean that 3.4 out of every 100 people who contracted the novel coronavirus would later die from the fatal disease this virus allegedly causes.

As the same article noted, this IFR figure was later reduced to around 1 percent or even 0.3 to 0.6 percent, which is the range (0.3 to 0.6 percent) the experts seem to agree on today.

According to this article from March, 2023, “an estimated 1 in 229 residents died due to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to an analysis by New York Times.” This ratio equates to a COVID IFR of 0.437 percent.

This IFR (0.437 percent) is more than four times greater than the IFR for influenza, which is said to be 0.1 percent (1 in 1000 people who get the flu will die from the flu).

As my readers know by now, I’m a contrarian or skeptic, which means I don’t automatically believe everything the experts and authorities say even if said experts have phD’s from Harvard or routinely wear lab coats.

The reason I attempted to get these answers is that all the evidence that seems credible to me seems to show that the Covid IFR is much lower than the IFR for the flu … at least for every person under the age of 70.

What got me thinking about this is my analysis of known (aggregate or cumulative) deaths from myriad groups I can easily identify and quantify.

In the analysis that follows, I assume that 80 percent of the American population has been infected with the coronavirus at least once by today’s date. (I think this might be a conservative estimate, one few experts would dispute).

Selected Sample Groups ….

(Note: I use these groups/cohorts to illustrate my point because they’re all either high-profile groups where “Covid deaths” would make the news or I am very confident making my Covid death and Covid cases estimates.)

Alabama Department of Public Health …

The spokesperson for the ADPH did tell me that approximately 2,700 employees work for the ADPH (which - my opinion -  is a disturbing statistic by itself).

If 80 percent of these employees have had Covid by now that would be 2,160 “Covid infections.” The IFR for ADPH employees is thus zero (presumed) deaths divided by 2,160 previously infected employees = an IFR of 0.000 percent, which is, of course, lower than the flu as no percentage can be lower than 0.0000.

College and Pro athletes …

In another story I wrote, I estimated that at least one million college and pro athletes (not retired) have participated in their sports since March 2020. A college or pro athlete dying from Covid would make big headlines, but I can’t find one such (credible) headline.

This means the IFR for college and pro athletes is/was 0.0000 percent. If I missed, say, two athletes who arguably died from Covid, the “athlete IFR” would still be only 0.0002 percent - which is far less than the flu and far, far less than the 0.44 IFR. (College and pro athletes would capture people ages 18 to 40.)

Students in my county …

I estimate that at least 12,000 students in my county (Pike County, Alabama) attended classes from the start of the official pandemic to today. These students would range from 5 years old (kindergarten) through 12th grade and would include all the students at our local college, Troy University (enrollment approximately 7,000/year). The age range might be 5 to 24.

I have not heard of one student in my county who died from Covid and think I would have heard of this if it had happened. I can thus say with great confidence that the IFR for students in Pike County Alabama is/was …. 0.00000 percent.

Aside: I also haven’t heard of one local teacher or education administrator who died from Covid, but I’ll leave this cohort out of my analysis.

Sailors on 3 Naval vessels that reportedly

experienced bad Covid outbreaks …

In this story, I highlight three Naval vessels where officials tested crew members for antibodies. These ships were the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, the French aircraft carrier The Charles deGaulle and the destroyer the USS Kidd. More than 7,500 sailors served on these vessels and, from extrapolations of the antibody tests, at least 4,200 sailors were previously infected.

Of this number, one sailor, 41, on the USS Roosevelt reportedly died from Covid. (I wish I had more details on the circumstances of this crew member’s death, but for “privacy” and HIPPA reasons, these details aren’t provided to the public). 

Still, if this crew member did die from Covid, the IFR on these three ships would be 1-in-4,200 (an IFR of 0.023 percent). This is still far lower than the flu IFR and the 0.44 Covid IFR for the general population. (I would guess that crew members on these three ships ranged from ages 18 to 50.) 

One assumes many more crew members have served on these ships and contracted Covid since these antibody tests were performed (with no known Covid deaths on these ships), which would mean the IFR percentage of 0.023 would be even more microscopic today.

People I personally knew who died from Covid ….

In this story, I tried to estimate how many people I know in my life of 57+ years. My conservative estimate is that I personally know/knew at least 3,000 people.

From this cohort, three (3) people I once knew (reportedly) died from Covid. If 80 percent of those in my cohort of friends, family and acquaintances have had Covid by now, this would  translate to 2,400 people. As three of my friends did reportedly die from Covid, that’s an IFR for this category of 0.125 percent. 

This is the only group highlighted in this article where the IFR is greater than the flu IFR of 0.1 percent, but it’s still significantly lower than the national IFR of 0.3 to 0.6 percent.

I should note that the ages of my friends who passed away from Covid were 70, 80 and 81. So the IFR of people I personally know who died from Covid and who were younger than 70 is, again, 0.0000 percent.

Members of Congress …

At any given moment, 435 citizens serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and 100 serve in the U.S. Senate, which equals 535 national elected leaders. But in the last four years, office holders have come and gone so I’d estimate at least 650 people have served in Congress or the Senate since March 2020. 

Of these estimated 650 elected officials, zero have died from Covid … which is again an IFR for this cohort of 0.000 percent. (Note: This is also a very old cohort, which is the higher-risk Covid group).

White House employees … 

According to an Internet search, approximately 1,800 people work at the White House. Over four years (and two different presidential administrations), we could probably double this number so approximately 3,600 people might have worked at the White House in the past four years. 

I have also not heard of one White House employee who died from Covid so the IFR for this group of almost 4,000 people is also 0.0000 percent.

Journalists in Alabama …

A cursory Internet search of Alabama journalists who died from Covid produced one person who reportedly died from Covid, a 64-year-old man who started a Christian TV network and was said to be an “anti-vaxer.” 

My estimate would be that at least 2,000 Alabamians have held salaried positions as journalists in the last four years at state newspapers, TV stations and Internet sites, which would equate to 1,600 infected journalists.

If this is the only journalist who died from Covid in my state, the IFR for Alabama journalists would be 0.0625 percent - which is less than the IFR for the flu and approximately eight times lower than the IFR for the general population (0.44 percent).

Summary/Conclusion:

Critics might say I cherry-picked group cohorts to intentionally find groups where either zero or almost zero people would have died from Covid.

To this rejoinder, I would simply challenge critics to pick their own well-defined group where they think the Covid IFR would be at least 0.44 percent.

The only group I can think of that might have an IFR over 0.4 percent would be nursing home residents.

Indeed, common sense tells me that any group we can identify with people who are still working or going to school is going to have a microscopic Covid IFR. (The average age of a Covid victim ranges from age 76 to 82 in most countries).

My guess would be the IFR at the CDC and NIH is also either 0.000 percent or a smidgen above this nil figure. 

One possible reason these public health agencies won’t provide an honest answer to a simple question is that the answer might prove the novel coronavirus is/was not a “deadly” virus to those who work in almost every single identifiable American group, industry or organization. 

This information, in turn, might prove these agencies have been knowingly spreading disinformation to scare the daylights out of people who should have had no reason to fear dying from Covid.