In my introduction I write, "For the life of me, I don’t understand why “early spread” isn’t being investigated by public health officials."
I of course DO understand why this subject is not being investigated. If it WAS investigated and many of these early cases were "confirmed" as early Covid, the entire authorized narrative would be destroyed. The whole operation would be shown to be a massive scam.
Everyone would know the lockdowns weren't needed; nor were the "vaccines" because everyone would know the real Infection Fatality Rate for Covid is miniscule (the same or lower than the flu.) It would mean "millions of cases" and "hardly any deaths at all."
A legitimate "early spread" investigation would also likely lead back to the people and organizations that created this virus and allowed it to escape. So such an investigation could mean they'd get strung up. Basically, there are powerful incentives to conceal any definitive evidence of early spread ever being revealed to masses. That's why my reporting has been completely ignored - by officials and by other journalists.
It's a hard truth to swallow, but some stories are simply "off limits" to investigation. Plus, as I keep writing: "Never investigate that which you don't want to confirm." It works every time.
What I’m really trying to show with this article is yet another subject that is taboo or off-limits to official investigators.
Any public health official with common-sense would have known cases of ILI were spiking in America as early as November 2019. This person would have quickly concluded, “Hey, we need to consider the possibility this new virus might have already been spreading in our country.”
This person would have lobbied for massive PCR testing of a cross-section of Americans as soon as possible. The same with antibody tests - do them as soon as possible and test any archived blood sitting in any blood bank depositories.
I’m sure some officials must have suggested doing just this. But that unknown person(s) was obviously over-ruled and told to shut up and leave the big decisions to his or her bosses.
I think with every one of my stories, the main theme or point is the same: We should NOT trust our “trusted” authorities or experts.
Because this hypothetical person would have simply been interested in finding out the truth on virus origins and spread. If there was such a person in any of the public health agencies in America, he or she was easily over-ruled. "We don't need to do that type of investigation because we all KNOW the virus wasn't spreading in America in late 2019 ..."
Person receiving this rejoinder: "Oh, okay. I din't know we KNEW that ... Thanks for setting me straight."
I know. The PCR tests are a massive scam. However, I think they do pick up some legit cases of Covid (especially if the cycle threshold is 25 or 30). Even if they are all mostly bogus, if they had been given in January and February 2020, millions of Americans would have been testing positive.
So (IMO) there's a reason millions of people weren't getting these tests in the peak months of this flu/respiratory virus season. There's also a reason antibody tests didn't become widely available until May 2020.
Most of the school closures I documented in my article happened in late January 2020 (causing schools to close in the first few days of February). Well, this is only about 45 days from the lockdowns (mid-March).
So one can re-state what happened (according to the "authorized narrative"): There was a terrible and wide-spread epidemic of flu in late January (affecting numerous states). However, by mid March, this flu epidemic had disappeared ... BUT right on its heels was a new epidemic - this one Covid. So we had successive respiratory virus epidemics.
Alas, the Covid epidemic of late March early April actually didn't produce many people with ILI symptoms (fever, terrible cough, sore throat, acute shortness of breath, fatigue, loss of smell and taste, etc). Tens of millions of people actually experienced those symptoms a couple of weeks or months earlier, but doctors' offices weren't being flooded with people with these same symptoms in April.
I think I'm the only journalist who is making a big deal out of "symptoms" - and prevalence (or lack of prevalence) of same.
I also note that someone can have confirmed influenza and Covid at the same time. I've never seen a study that looked into the percentage of people who might have had both viruses at the same time, but my research and doctors' testimony confirms this did happen in some people. For a while, I would rule out anyone who tested "positive" for influenza as being a possible early Covid case - but I probably shouldn't make this assumption.
My husband definitely had Covid in November 2019. And I had it in January 2020... caught it while in Disney World. I’m positive Covid was here before they claim
My wife and I had a nasty dose of what I’m convinced was COVID in December 2019. Believe I caught it from a friend who had it in late November 2019. I was so I’ll I thought I might need to go to the ER/A&E. It was like no flu I had ever had .. it smelt and tasted completely different to flu. It took me 3 months to recover, lost my voice completely for weeks and it was affected permanently (definitely not flu). In Feb 2019 a college in Chicago went down with what was supposedly flu but deteriorated after a couple of weeks. She ended up on a ventilator, but did eventually recover and returned to work after 2 months. Her symptoms were classic covid with the glassy lesions in her lungs. I think this was about the time of the ‘crackly lung’ syndrome thing which was killing young vape users (supposedly) .. a story that seemed to go into a memory hole. All very odd ..
Thanks for sharing this personal anecdote. I wish I had a dime for every similar story I've read and saved. It seems to me that millions (?) of anecdotes like this should carry a little weight.
In my town, a group of local dancers went to Disney World in late December/early January. More than half of the people on the trip came down with "flu-like" illnesses, described as very strange and intense by the director of the dance studio (one of the people who got sick).
I don't know if the first person got sick at Disney World or not. I suspect some people already had the virus when they left for the dance competition.
So, per your research, this gives us at least six school districts in Illinois I can add to my list. As I suspected, my "school closing" list was NOT comprehensive. Many thanks for letting me know about these closings. I'll go back and edit my stories and add these Illinois examples.
So you don’t get caught in any accusations of bias... when I searched for this, results were more prevalent for school closings due to illness in 2018, so hard to say if 2020 was unusual.
Can you share your sources and findings? How many school systems in how many states? I linked to two articles from CNN and the WSJ that said schools in 11 and 12 states closed. I also wrote that the 2017-2018 flu season produced a "similar" number of school closings. I think most of those school closings that flu season were in a few weeks (around mid-January 2018) and didn't occur over four months like 2019-2020.
I also note that the 2017-2018 flu season is said to be one of the worst in four decades - so this would be the highest possible baseline comparison flu season.
You'd really need to find the average number of school closings for a given flu season and then compare 2019-2020 to that number. Maybe go back 10 years. Besides the flu seasons of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 (the prior flu season) I didn't find much evidence of numerous school closings.
In my state, I don't remember as many school closings (or schools that had numerous absences but didn't close) in previous flu seasons. (If memory serves, think two school systems closed in Alabama in January 2018, but five closed in Alabama in January 2019).
Lastly, while I've identified 15 states where schools closed (at least 105 schools or school districts), I also strongly suspect I didn't find EVERY school closing story in the country. I think there were more than just 15 states where schools closed, perhaps many more states. And, as I noted, the worst ILI rates might have been in late December 2019/early January 2020 - and this is when schools would have been closed for the holidays.
I'd be exaggerating to call it research :) I just noticed Illinois was not listed, so I googled "illinois school closes due to flu" and then looked for appropriately dated news articles. Just anecdotally observed that 2018 seemed to have more articles. I do have an idea, however, to investigate further. Will let you know if it is fruitful.
That's about the only type of research I did - Google searches for "school closings" because of flu in X state and X month. It was a little more sophisticated or involved than this - I found school closings that readers sent me or from links inside of links.
There's no doubt there were a lot of school closings in January 2018. Just remember that's supposed to be the worst flu season in four decades. So even if it turns out that more schools closed that flu season, the baseline comparison would be skewed. It would be like saying Hurricane Opal wasn't bad ... because it wasn't as bad as Hurricane Camille.
I still think more schools closed in 2019-2020 than in January 2018 ... and that flu season was only notable for about four or five weeks. The 2019-2020 was prolonged. It was many waves of outbreaks and school closings.
I'll give you an example, I found no school closings in MISS or Georgia, which are Alabama's neighbors. I found plenty in Alabama's neighbor of Tennessee. Why no school closings in MISS or GA? I know from ILI reports that the ILI percentages in those states were through the roof at different points of that flu season.
So I think there must have been some school closings in those states. I just never learned about them.
Bill Rice, My guess is that you hit a nerve on your post today. That would explain why you are not reaching your average # of likes on this post.
Substack does seem to "manage" things as times. For example, I am regularly unsubscribed from my subscribed writers and have multiple times, very often, had to resubscribe. I don't understand why. I even put some of the writers on my email list so they would not be blocked. Maybe Substack can clarify things for you and then you can share their explanations with us.
A reader/subscriber emailed me and told me he hadn't been receiving my articles because they were going to his "Spam" email file. I wonder how common this is. I guess all I can do is try to alert people who want to read my articles to check their spam email files. I'd like for the people who are NOT getting my stories to read this comment ... but I guess they won't if they don't check their spam. I've also noted that some of my favorite Substack authors' dispatches go to spam. If this is a common occurrence, this is kind of disconcerting.
I think the national map I presented in this article (showing 44 U.S. states that had "high" IL activity in early February ) ... plus the graph that shows how ILI was way above the historic baseline for at least 20 weeks - presented in this previous article:
.... prove definitively that 2019-2020 "flu season" was NOT "normal."
I haven't written about it yet, but the number of "flu tests given" was also far higher than in all previous flu seasons. My question: Why were so many more Americans getting flu tests in late 2019 and early 2020?
Another interesting element of this story is that the "flu" suddenly vanished - ILI fell off the cliff - around late March/early April. What really stands out to me is not the "percentage of positive tests for flu" .... but the number of flu tests that were given in the months before official Covid.
I also know the vast majority of people who got a flu test, tested "negative" for flu. Myself and my two children were sick of "something" in January 2020. We all went to the doctor and all three of us tested "negative" for the flu. But we definitely had all the flu symptoms - which also happen to be "Covid symptoms."
With a few interesting differences - like loss of smell and taste, dry and painful cough, extreme shortness of breath, a cough that lingers for many weeks, fatigue that lingers for many weeks, etc.
1. I think I can claim with confidence that "the flu" did not disappear when supposedly "they" said it did. Think about it - that alone is most telling.
2. By now there ought be no controversy that the "PCR-tests" were rubbish and full of false positives. I put forth this was done intentionally.
3. I still don't know if virus (as commonly conceived) exist - as a member of "Camp Béchamp", I'm inclined to be dubious about the existence of virus harmful as the cause of disease - I think it has more to do with "the terrain" of the individual body.
4. The "medical establishment" has lost trust, the gubment as it presently exists could care less about citizens, fiat currency is based upon "good faith" only and good faith is rapidly diminishing.
I was volunteering in youth ministry in early 2020 and we had a week when youth group attendance was down about 1/4 from usual numbers...this was at the same time when they closed one of the elementary schools for a day for cleaning due to a high percentage of kids being out sick.
In my introduction I write, "For the life of me, I don’t understand why “early spread” isn’t being investigated by public health officials."
I of course DO understand why this subject is not being investigated. If it WAS investigated and many of these early cases were "confirmed" as early Covid, the entire authorized narrative would be destroyed. The whole operation would be shown to be a massive scam.
Everyone would know the lockdowns weren't needed; nor were the "vaccines" because everyone would know the real Infection Fatality Rate for Covid is miniscule (the same or lower than the flu.) It would mean "millions of cases" and "hardly any deaths at all."
A legitimate "early spread" investigation would also likely lead back to the people and organizations that created this virus and allowed it to escape. So such an investigation could mean they'd get strung up. Basically, there are powerful incentives to conceal any definitive evidence of early spread ever being revealed to masses. That's why my reporting has been completely ignored - by officials and by other journalists.
It's a hard truth to swallow, but some stories are simply "off limits" to investigation. Plus, as I keep writing: "Never investigate that which you don't want to confirm." It works every time.
What I’m really trying to show with this article is yet another subject that is taboo or off-limits to official investigators.
Any public health official with common-sense would have known cases of ILI were spiking in America as early as November 2019. This person would have quickly concluded, “Hey, we need to consider the possibility this new virus might have already been spreading in our country.”
This person would have lobbied for massive PCR testing of a cross-section of Americans as soon as possible. The same with antibody tests - do them as soon as possible and test any archived blood sitting in any blood bank depositories.
I’m sure some officials must have suggested doing just this. But that unknown person(s) was obviously over-ruled and told to shut up and leave the big decisions to his or her bosses.
I think with every one of my stories, the main theme or point is the same: We should NOT trust our “trusted” authorities or experts.
“This person would have lobbied for massive PCR testing of a cross section of Americans as soon as possible.”
WHY?
Because this hypothetical person would have simply been interested in finding out the truth on virus origins and spread. If there was such a person in any of the public health agencies in America, he or she was easily over-ruled. "We don't need to do that type of investigation because we all KNOW the virus wasn't spreading in America in late 2019 ..."
Person receiving this rejoinder: "Oh, okay. I din't know we KNEW that ... Thanks for setting me straight."
The PCR “test” does not work. Do you know what is on the tip of the swab that stupid people put in their nostril?
I know. The PCR tests are a massive scam. However, I think they do pick up some legit cases of Covid (especially if the cycle threshold is 25 or 30). Even if they are all mostly bogus, if they had been given in January and February 2020, millions of Americans would have been testing positive.
So (IMO) there's a reason millions of people weren't getting these tests in the peak months of this flu/respiratory virus season. There's also a reason antibody tests didn't become widely available until May 2020.
Great research and a topic that needed to be brought to light.
Thanks, Fred. I'm going to chill-out tonight. That was some heavy lifting, pulling all that together.
Most of the school closures I documented in my article happened in late January 2020 (causing schools to close in the first few days of February). Well, this is only about 45 days from the lockdowns (mid-March).
So one can re-state what happened (according to the "authorized narrative"): There was a terrible and wide-spread epidemic of flu in late January (affecting numerous states). However, by mid March, this flu epidemic had disappeared ... BUT right on its heels was a new epidemic - this one Covid. So we had successive respiratory virus epidemics.
Alas, the Covid epidemic of late March early April actually didn't produce many people with ILI symptoms (fever, terrible cough, sore throat, acute shortness of breath, fatigue, loss of smell and taste, etc). Tens of millions of people actually experienced those symptoms a couple of weeks or months earlier, but doctors' offices weren't being flooded with people with these same symptoms in April.
I think I'm the only journalist who is making a big deal out of "symptoms" - and prevalence (or lack of prevalence) of same.
I also note that someone can have confirmed influenza and Covid at the same time. I've never seen a study that looked into the percentage of people who might have had both viruses at the same time, but my research and doctors' testimony confirms this did happen in some people. For a while, I would rule out anyone who tested "positive" for influenza as being a possible early Covid case - but I probably shouldn't make this assumption.
I found this, in the UK, November 2019
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10393517/norovirus-outbreak-schools-closed-england/
and in Texas, November 10, 2019
https://www.kxxv.com/news/local-news/flu-outbreak-prompts-another-district-to-close-schools
and this, 22 kids have died, January 19, 2020
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-01-25/schools-close-as-flu-season-progresses
January 29, 2020 https://www.inverse.com/article/52824-schools-shutdown-because-of-flu-outbreaks-states
outbreaks in 34 states as 2019 draws to a close
https://gephardtdaily.com/top-stories/34-states-including-utah-reported-high-flu-activity-as-2019-drew-to-a-close/
"this flu season has started earlier than others"
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/health/school-flu-outbreaks-spike-in-minnesota/89-559b4740-30dc-4970-a3b6-d1fa0475f78c
https://patch.com/california/studiocity/flu-activity-sees-major-jump-california-nationwide
I need to put you on the payroll. Thanks!
Thank you! I just read the first one. Very interesting - going in my clip file. I appreciate the help!
My husband definitely had Covid in November 2019. And I had it in January 2020... caught it while in Disney World. I’m positive Covid was here before they claim
My wife and I had a nasty dose of what I’m convinced was COVID in December 2019. Believe I caught it from a friend who had it in late November 2019. I was so I’ll I thought I might need to go to the ER/A&E. It was like no flu I had ever had .. it smelt and tasted completely different to flu. It took me 3 months to recover, lost my voice completely for weeks and it was affected permanently (definitely not flu). In Feb 2019 a college in Chicago went down with what was supposedly flu but deteriorated after a couple of weeks. She ended up on a ventilator, but did eventually recover and returned to work after 2 months. Her symptoms were classic covid with the glassy lesions in her lungs. I think this was about the time of the ‘crackly lung’ syndrome thing which was killing young vape users (supposedly) .. a story that seemed to go into a memory hole. All very odd ..
Thanks for sharing this personal anecdote. I wish I had a dime for every similar story I've read and saved. It seems to me that millions (?) of anecdotes like this should carry a little weight.
In my town, a group of local dancers went to Disney World in late December/early January. More than half of the people on the trip came down with "flu-like" illnesses, described as very strange and intense by the director of the dance studio (one of the people who got sick).
I don't know if the first person got sick at Disney World or not. I suspect some people already had the virus when they left for the dance competition.
Impressive research!
I found two more in Wisconsin for your list.
https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/Wonewoc-school-closed-Friday-because-so-many-students-are-sick-567438811.html
https://www.fox6now.com/news/cleaners-called-into-action-to-disinfect-schools-where-students-are-getting-sick-from-the-flu
https://www.fox6now.com/news/its-not-too-late-getting-a-flu-shot-now-can-hopefully-shorten-flu-season
Thank you, Wisconsin Mom! Later today, I'll go back and add these to my story. I wonder how many other schools or school systems I haven't found yet?
Illinois: https://thehill.com/homenews/news/478735-flu-closes-entire-illinois-school-district/
Another example: https://www.wsiltv.com/news/education/more-southern-illinois-schools-closed-friday-due-to-illness/article_303186a8-6cde-5ef9-b378-2d8180c042f4.html
So, per your research, this gives us at least six school districts in Illinois I can add to my list. As I suspected, my "school closing" list was NOT comprehensive. Many thanks for letting me know about these closings. I'll go back and edit my stories and add these Illinois examples.
So you don’t get caught in any accusations of bias... when I searched for this, results were more prevalent for school closings due to illness in 2018, so hard to say if 2020 was unusual.
Can you share your sources and findings? How many school systems in how many states? I linked to two articles from CNN and the WSJ that said schools in 11 and 12 states closed. I also wrote that the 2017-2018 flu season produced a "similar" number of school closings. I think most of those school closings that flu season were in a few weeks (around mid-January 2018) and didn't occur over four months like 2019-2020.
I also note that the 2017-2018 flu season is said to be one of the worst in four decades - so this would be the highest possible baseline comparison flu season.
You'd really need to find the average number of school closings for a given flu season and then compare 2019-2020 to that number. Maybe go back 10 years. Besides the flu seasons of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 (the prior flu season) I didn't find much evidence of numerous school closings.
In my state, I don't remember as many school closings (or schools that had numerous absences but didn't close) in previous flu seasons. (If memory serves, think two school systems closed in Alabama in January 2018, but five closed in Alabama in January 2019).
Lastly, while I've identified 15 states where schools closed (at least 105 schools or school districts), I also strongly suspect I didn't find EVERY school closing story in the country. I think there were more than just 15 states where schools closed, perhaps many more states. And, as I noted, the worst ILI rates might have been in late December 2019/early January 2020 - and this is when schools would have been closed for the holidays.
Thanks for your research.
I'd be exaggerating to call it research :) I just noticed Illinois was not listed, so I googled "illinois school closes due to flu" and then looked for appropriately dated news articles. Just anecdotally observed that 2018 seemed to have more articles. I do have an idea, however, to investigate further. Will let you know if it is fruitful.
That's about the only type of research I did - Google searches for "school closings" because of flu in X state and X month. It was a little more sophisticated or involved than this - I found school closings that readers sent me or from links inside of links.
There's no doubt there were a lot of school closings in January 2018. Just remember that's supposed to be the worst flu season in four decades. So even if it turns out that more schools closed that flu season, the baseline comparison would be skewed. It would be like saying Hurricane Opal wasn't bad ... because it wasn't as bad as Hurricane Camille.
I still think more schools closed in 2019-2020 than in January 2018 ... and that flu season was only notable for about four or five weeks. The 2019-2020 was prolonged. It was many waves of outbreaks and school closings.
I'll give you an example, I found no school closings in MISS or Georgia, which are Alabama's neighbors. I found plenty in Alabama's neighbor of Tennessee. Why no school closings in MISS or GA? I know from ILI reports that the ILI percentages in those states were through the roof at different points of that flu season.
So I think there must have been some school closings in those states. I just never learned about them.
Thanks for any new data you might find!
Thanks! I'll add it to my list - which is now "at least 15 states." This closing also happened in earlier January.
Bill Rice, My guess is that you hit a nerve on your post today. That would explain why you are not reaching your average # of likes on this post.
Substack does seem to "manage" things as times. For example, I am regularly unsubscribed from my subscribed writers and have multiple times, very often, had to resubscribe. I don't understand why. I even put some of the writers on my email list so they would not be blocked. Maybe Substack can clarify things for you and then you can share their explanations with us.
Hmm. Thanks for this intelligence. I did think this story would make more of a splash than it has.
This is great
Timeline - School Closings Chronologically in "flu season" of 2019-2020:
November 7 & 8, 2019 - two school districts in Texas
Dec 16 -18, 2019 - Two districts in Georgia
January 10 (Friday) - Ohio
January 15 (Wednesday) - Ohio
January 15 (Wednesday) - Oklahoma
Jan 20 - Kentucky - Boyd Co. Schools
January 24 (Friday) - 2 schools in Eugene, Oregon
Jan. 27 - Wisconsin and other states
January 28 (Tuesday) through early February - Multiple states
January 30 (Wednesday) - North Carolina
Feb. 5 and earlier - Multiple schools in Arkansas
Summary:
Approximately 100 school systems or individuals schools in at least 14 states closed for one or more days due to illnesses/excessive absences.
School closings began Nov. 7, 2019 in Texas and were particularly noticeable in late January/early February.
- Links for sources in main article.
A reader/subscriber emailed me and told me he hadn't been receiving my articles because they were going to his "Spam" email file. I wonder how common this is. I guess all I can do is try to alert people who want to read my articles to check their spam email files. I'd like for the people who are NOT getting my stories to read this comment ... but I guess they won't if they don't check their spam. I've also noted that some of my favorite Substack authors' dispatches go to spam. If this is a common occurrence, this is kind of disconcerting.
I think the national map I presented in this article (showing 44 U.S. states that had "high" IL activity in early February ) ... plus the graph that shows how ILI was way above the historic baseline for at least 20 weeks - presented in this previous article:
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/influenza-like-illness-probably-tells?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
.... prove definitively that 2019-2020 "flu season" was NOT "normal."
I haven't written about it yet, but the number of "flu tests given" was also far higher than in all previous flu seasons. My question: Why were so many more Americans getting flu tests in late 2019 and early 2020?
OK, my tongue is in my cheek and let me say this:
"We all know that there was a whole season where nobody got the flu - was covid dominated apparently - we all know that".
Makes one wonder - do virus even exist?
Another interesting element of this story is that the "flu" suddenly vanished - ILI fell off the cliff - around late March/early April. What really stands out to me is not the "percentage of positive tests for flu" .... but the number of flu tests that were given in the months before official Covid.
I also know the vast majority of people who got a flu test, tested "negative" for flu. Myself and my two children were sick of "something" in January 2020. We all went to the doctor and all three of us tested "negative" for the flu. But we definitely had all the flu symptoms - which also happen to be "Covid symptoms."
With a few interesting differences - like loss of smell and taste, dry and painful cough, extreme shortness of breath, a cough that lingers for many weeks, fatigue that lingers for many weeks, etc.
1. I think I can claim with confidence that "the flu" did not disappear when supposedly "they" said it did. Think about it - that alone is most telling.
2. By now there ought be no controversy that the "PCR-tests" were rubbish and full of false positives. I put forth this was done intentionally.
3. I still don't know if virus (as commonly conceived) exist - as a member of "Camp Béchamp", I'm inclined to be dubious about the existence of virus harmful as the cause of disease - I think it has more to do with "the terrain" of the individual body.
4. The "medical establishment" has lost trust, the gubment as it presently exists could care less about citizens, fiat currency is based upon "good faith" only and good faith is rapidly diminishing.
Big changes are on the way.
Regards,
BK
I was volunteering in youth ministry in early 2020 and we had a week when youth group attendance was down about 1/4 from usual numbers...this was at the same time when they closed one of the elementary schools for a day for cleaning due to a high percentage of kids being out sick.