More On Wendy Bell And Her Bad Research.

Just a few minutes of digging showed exactly how bad Wendy Bell is at research. She's putting the health of the general population at risk.

Take a look at yesterday's BS board:

Lotsa numbers and so on. But we want to begin the dig in the upper right hand corner:

Sounds kinda official, right? Some NGO that produces non-partisan economic data, right?

Wrong on both parts.

According to the Media Bias/Fact Check:

Overall, we rate The American Institute for Economic Research Right-Center biased based on Libertarian-leaning economic policy and Mixed for factual reporting due to the publication of misinformation related to Coronavirus. 

Misinformation related to Coronavirus, you say. Interesting.

Misinformation like this from the London School of Economics:

The AIER has spread unreliable information about COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. In September, it published a bizarre rant by its ‘Senior Resident Fellow’, George Gilder, who declared that the “Covid-19 crisis was already essentially over” by late April, based on a clearly inaccurate article that suggested “the spread of the coronavirus declines to almost zero after 70 days—no matter where it strikes, and no matter what measures governments impose to try to thwart it”.

This might be where Wendy Bell got her "information" declaring Covid over last year. 

The AIER also got into trouble with something called the Great Barrington Declaration. The Declaration proposed a plan towards Covid herd-immunity basically by protecting those most-vulnerable and removing any governmental lockdowns thus allowing it to spread through the rest of the population.

Hmm. Wendy's advocated for this, too. I am guessing she's a BIG fan of the AIER.

Anyway, here's a response from an actual scientist:

A high-profile proposal to avoid lockdown by letting the coronavirus run wild in the young and healthy while shielding the most vulnerable is dangerously flawed and operationally impractical, according to England’s chief medical officer.

Prof Chris Whitty told MPs on the science and technology committee that the Great Barrington declaration, put forward by three scientists at Oxford, Harvard and Stanford universities, would lead to a very large number of deaths and was unlikely to achieve such widespread immunity that the epidemic would fizzle out naturally.

But that's not Wendy Bell's only research sin.

Take a look at the very specific numbers she uses. It makes it so so easy for someone to find what she referenced at AIER.

It's this page. Take a look at what's pasted across the top of the page:

Editor’s note: the article and video discussed below have been pulled by Johns Hopkins Newsletter. You can read the announcement here. An additional explanation is here. The claims made by the economics professor will clearly require more investigation, as the announcement says. That said, AIER is publishing this in the interest of objective science and open discussion.

So the research from AIER was actually from Johns Hopkins Newsletter. The Newsletter says of the research:

Editor’s Note: After The News-Letter published this article on Nov. 22, it was brought to our attention that our coverage of Genevieve Briand’s presentation “COVID-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data” has been used to support dangerous inaccuracies that minimize the impact of the pandemic.

We decided on Nov. 26 to retract this article to stop the spread of misinformation, as we noted on social media. 

This is the "research" that Wendy Bell used on her BS board yesterday.

In fact this is Wendy Bell's second bite at the Briand bad apple. The first was last December.

Shame on Wendy Bell for spreading COVID misinformation. More people will get sick and some may even die because of her bad research.

And shame on the St. Barnabas Health System for giving her a platform to spread that misinformation.

Wendy Bell Sows Doubt About The Vaccine (Oh And Seasons It With A Little Racism)

Today on her Facebook Page, Wendy Bell posted this:

We'll get to the Trumpian racism in a minute, no worries.

By simply asking the question "Do you feel the vaccines...are safe?" She's sowing doubt - doubt that's going to get more people sick.

Why?

Because there's more than enough evidence already to show that the vaccines are safe. The question is not up for debate. Someone's feelings don't matter in judging the safety of the vaccines.

From the CDC:

All COVID-19 vaccines were tested in clinical trials involving tens of thousands of people to make sure they meet safety standards and protect adults of different races, ethnicities, and ages, including adults over the age of 65, participated in the clinical trials. There were no serious safety concerns. The most common side effects were pain at the injection site and signs and symptoms like fever and chills. After a review of all the available information, ACIP and CDC agreed the lifesaving benefits of COVID-19 vaccination for LTCF residents outweigh the risks of possible side effects.

And here's a description of the trial phases for vaccine testing: 

In the U.S., the FDA meticulously review the data from each clinical trial phase before approval or, in the case of public health emergencies, before granting emergency use authorization.

And:

A phase 1 trial focuses on the safety of the vaccine candidate. Escalating doses of the vaccine are given to healthy volunteers to determine side effects and tolerability.

Phase 2 trials expand their recruitment and may include participants with health conditions such as obesity, cancer, and diabetes. There is also active recruitment for participants of various demographics. The trial continues to test the safety of the vaccine and looks at the drug’s initial efficacy and how it affects the immune system.

Phase 3 trials recruit thousands of participants to measure the efficacy of the vaccine in preventing disease.

All this has already been done. The vaccines are safe.

If the Angel of Death were really interested in the health and safety of her audience, she would have asked the question something like this:

Even though the scientific evidence shows that the vaccines are safe, are you be reluctant to get one? And if so, why?

This could then trigger a discussion about phase trials, safety measures and so on. I suspect, however, Wendy Bell is more interested in a discussion that runs along the lines of this comment:

All the Wendy tropes are there; herd immunity, mistrust of the Guv'ment, no scientific data.

Yea, that's where St Barnabas' Angel of Death is going with this.

Perhaps Wendy should get her husband (he's a Doctor, doncha know) on the record about the safety of the vaccines.

Then there's Wendy's racism: 

“Ultimately, diseases are about biology, not geography,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, who help lead the U.S. response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa. Descriptions of coronavirus that are winning praise in some GOP circles are racist, potentially undermine efforts to prevent spread of the disease and and threaten to harm relationships with China, health advocates say.

Specifically, this from NBC:

Republican lawmakers have persisted in using "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese coronavirus," despite remarks by Democrats and the director of the CDC that such phrases are inaccurate and even racist.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., used the term "Wuhan virus" on Thursday in announcing that his Washington office was closing because of the illness. His comments came two days after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, agreed when questioned at a House hearing that it was "absolutely wrong and inappropriate" to use such labels.

That was last March and Wendy Bell's still pushing the racism.

It must be so comforting for the powers-that-be at St Barnabas Health Care to be connected to such a warm and loving human being as the twice fired Wendy Bell.

Wendy Bell/Radio Karen Has Returned To The Airwaves! Vetted And Approved By St Barnabas!!

This past Wednesday, Wendy Bell posted this on her Facebook page:

This was followed the next morning by this reporting from Eric Heyl at Patch:

Controversial talk show host Wendy Bell has announced she is returning to local radio next week following her abrupt departure from KDKA-AM last fall. Bell stated on social media that she will join conservative talk station WJAS-AM beginning Jan. 25.

Perhaps he's just being diplomatic but Heyl is too kind to the Angel of Death. She's not "controversial" as much as she's putting the public health in grave danger. (Is there another kind of danger?)

A few hours later, the story was reported by Julia Felton of the Trib:

JD Turco, senior vice president at St. Barnabas Broadcasting, which bought WJAS in November, confirmed Thursday that Bell will be joining the station.

“She’s going to be a conservative talk show host, in keeping with the lineup we have right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of conservative talk there. We believe she fits well into that lineup.”

And then a little after that Joshua Axelrod of the P-G:

“We were able to have the have a conversation with Wendy, and we feel it’s mutually beneficial to put her on,” said J.D. Turco, senior vice president of St. Barnabas Health System, which owns WJAS. “We have high hopes for Wendy and for WJAS.”

And:

Mr. Turco, who is also the chief financial officer of St. Barnabas Broadcasting, said Ms. Bell will fit in well with the station’s conservative talk-show format and that she was hired after “considerable thought” regarding her past behavior.

“We can’t predict the future, but we do think we’ve done ample due diligence, and hopefully it’ll all work out,” he said.

Before we go any further, let me point out that while the P-G is more than happy to post what amounts to free advertising for Radio Karen's latest media presence, they passed on reporting about Wendy's recent indefensible doxxing of a private citizen. This is what I wrote about what Wendy did:

To summarize: a woman called a sponsor of Wendy Bell's, Sierra Experts (who can be reached at 412 378-8333) and left an anonymous voice mail complaining about Wendy Bell. Sierra Experts' IT folks then hacked through the woman's "block caller" and sent Wendy Bell her phone number. By the way, Sierra Experts advertise a number of IT services and evidently violating a person's privacy is one of them. Once they had the woman's number Wendy Bell and her "research team" reversed searched it and doxxed the woman, exposing her name, image and contact info to her audience so that her audience could harass the woman who complained about Wendy Bell to Sierra Experts.

Was this included in St Barnabas' "due diligence"? And if it was, why are they going ahead with rewarding Wendy Bell with a 7 kilowatt platform? If not, can it really be called "due diligence"?

Are you like me and wondering what else was part of this "due diligence"? Let's focus with the virus since, y'know, St Barnabas Broadcasting is headquartered in the same building in Gibsonia as St Barnabas Health Care.

September 2, 2020 Wendy Bell lies to her audience with this:

...the CDC says that 94% of people who we think died of COVID did not die from COVID but died and happened to have it at the same time.

This is, of course, a lie - a QAnon inspired lie, to boot! From Factcheck:

He noted that the 6% figure includes cases where COVID-19 was listed as the only cause of death. “That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of Covid didn’t die of Covid-19. They did,” Fauci said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

And Wendy has reiterated this lie as recently as 3 weeks ago. 

Was this part of St Barnabas' "due diligence"? Seems kind of important, lying to the public about CDC statements on Covid-19 fatality. If they knew about it and yet STILL want her on their airwaves, then what does that say about St Barnabas Broadcasting?

June 27, 2020 Wendy Bell pushes so-called "herd immunity" onto her adoring public with this mini-rant to Governor Wolf:

Stop trying to circumvent the law. Stop trying to supersede our individual freedoms. Stop trying to rule with an iron fist and stop trying to scare us about this virus.

We understand what happens with coronavirus. People get sick. But people need to be exposed. We need to all become immune to this thing. Stop saying (she uses air quotes here) we need a vaccine, OK? We have a flu vaccine and only half the people get it. So everyone's going to rush out and get this vaccine? C'mon.

As I wrote back then, she's talking herd immunity without the need for a vaccine. Something she reiterated a few weeks later on July 12. She's talking about the news of 15,000 people testing postive for Covid-19 in Florida when she says:

I think, isn't it the third most populous state in the United States of America? Don't we want this virus to work its way through the people so that we can be immune? So that we can develop some semblance of herd immunity? As we anxiously await the arrival of a vaccine?

The only problem with herd immunity without a vaccine is this from Johns Hopkins Medical School: 

To reach herd immunity for COVID-19, likely 70% or more of the population would need to be immune. Without a vaccine, over 200 million Americans would have to get infected before we reach this threshold. Put another way, even if the current pace of the COVID-19 pandemic continues in the United States, we won’t reach herd immunity in 2021. If current daily death rates continue, over half a million Americans would be dead from COVID-19 by that time.

Was this part of St Barnabas' "due diligence"?  Wendy saying "people need to be exposed" so that we can all reach herd immunity (disregarding the massive loss of life that would occur as a result)? Why give someone who believes this any sort of platform at all?

Finally,

April 8, 2020 Wendy Bell is on a fence. And by "fence" she's talking about an ethical quandary. This one:

[B]ut dollars and cents boil down to, "are you going to bankrupt America and the future for less than one percent of our population, many of whom are already ill? Or aged?"

As I wrote at the time:

Wendy Bell is having trouble deciding between her two options: "bankrupting" America or saving hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of American lives - people who are old and frail.

And so now I wonder if this was part of St Barnabas' "due diligence" don't you? I mean, she's questioning whether not protecting the economy is worth protecting the people actually living at the St Barnabas nursing home. Did that come up in conversation during their "due diligence" at all? I was all over the news. They had to have seen it, right?

Then there's this wrinkle in the story, this fly in the ointment, this monkey in the wrench:

The data revealed for the first time that the second-worst outbreak at a nursing home in the region in terms of deaths is at one of the best known in the area: St. Barnabas Nursing Home in Richland, which has recorded 31 deaths, the 13th most of any facility in the state.

With 62 positive COVID-19 cases among the 92 residents living in the 152-bed facility — according to online data — the ritzy nonprofit nursing home, known for its two golf courses and ubiquitous television ads featuring former Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey in his golfing attire, has a fatality rate higher even than Brighton. St. Barnabas has also had 14 cases among its staff.

That was May 20, 2020.

Yippee Ki Yay, St Barnabas. You need to explain how diligent your "due diligence" was of Wendy Bell. By putting her on your airwaves, you're giving her the opportunity to spread a lot of lies. 

I think we're entitled to the truth.

Wendy Bell's Lying About Covid. Again.

If you had the intestinal fortitude to saunter over to Wendy Bell's Facebook Page, you'd see this:

 

Uh-oh! Wendy's peddling false information. Again.

What is it this time?

Were you to opt to click the "See Why" you'd see this:

Wendy, Wendy, Wendy. We've been through this before, haven't we? 

Yes, we have. FOUR MONTHS AGO.

This is what I posted from Factcheck.org:  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t drastically reduced the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19, but posts making that bogus claim have been circulating widely — with the help of President Donald Trump, who retweeted one such claim on Aug. 30.

Twitter has since removed the original tweet, which came from an account dedicated to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon. But the claim is still readily available on all the major social media platforms. In fact, the same QAnon account that posted the now-deleted tweet includes a screenshot version featuring the president’s retweet.

The post Trump highlighted said: “This week the CDC quietly updated the Covid number to admit that only 6% of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from Covid. That’s 9,210 deaths. The other 94% had 2 to 3 other serious illnesses and the overwhelming majority were of very advanced age.”

But that’s not what the CDC information says.

This was so long ago, Wendy Bell hadn't yet been fired by KDKA Radio for advocating that Park Police shoot protestors.

That's how old this lie is, Wendy.

Wendy Bell Continues With The Wingnut Guests

A day or so ago, it was Mike Flynn (confessed liar and QAnon follower). Yesterday on her Facebook page, Wendy Bell posted this:

It's time for your TUESDAY MONOLOGUE!! I'm delighted to welcome MIT PhD. Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, inventor, scientist, and engineer, whose common-sense MATHEMATICAL forensic evaluation of the election results have PROVEN some serious BS. Get ready!

Apparently, however, "Infiniti/Comcast/wifi whatever" finally followed the instructions in the memo from the Soros-controlled Deep State to shut this mutha down before she had a chance to educate you on the truth of how the spineless Republicans are leading the Republican party to ruin - ROO-een, I say!!!!

Her living room broadcast was cut short. Sad. So so sad.

So let's, instead, take a look at who Wendy invited on as an expert: MIT PhD. Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, inventor, scientist, and engineer.

We should note, though, that this is not the first time Wendy referenced a mathematical evaluation on some issue in the public eye. Remember when Wendy Bell announced for all the world to hear that:

Covid is officially over. Signs on the floor are gone. Santized carts are no more. Limits on chicken, scratched.

Like the Israeli mathmetician said and our governor never heard... the cycle is 70 days.

That was last May. How many people have died since then, Wendy? How many have gotten sick? 

You really should be more careful when you present "proof" of something.

Anyway, back to our MIT PhD. Back in April, Politico said this about him:

When President Donald Trump retweeted a call to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday night, he jolted a fringe conservative movement that viewed the boost as an acknowledgment of its cause.

And the #FireFauci gang was ready with a replacement: Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai.

Ayyadurai, or “Dr. Shiva” as his fans call him, is a controversial scientist and long-shot Massachusetts Senate candidate who is pushing a variety of claims that range from dubious to medically disputed to outright false. He has argued that a strict vitamin regimen can prevent and treat the coronavirus — an unsubstantiated view at odds with the medical community and existing research. And he claims Fauci is a deep-state plant hellbent on “forced and mandatory vaccines” to support “Big Pharma” — a claim for which there is no evidence.

So he pushed the idea that vitamins can treat the coronavirus? That Fauci is deep-state? Neither point has any connection with reality. So why would Wendy have him on as an expert?

No need to answer that. We all know the reason.

There's more from Politico on our MIT PhD:

Ayyadurai, who first came to prominence over a disputed claim that he invented email, argued that the push for a coronavirus vaccine essentially creates a product that can be sold to every person on the planet, benefiting pharmaceutical companies.

”They’re gonna go help all the people in Africa with vaccines, vaccines, vaccines vaccines, right?” Ayyadurai said. “Vaccines are highly profitable. So when I connect the dots, it is essentially about moving this entire [world], using sometimes fear mongering to move it, to mandated vaccines for everyone.”

Wait, so he claims to have invented email, too? Look at this from Techdirt:

Once again, as I've said multiple times in the past, all of the evidence suggests that Shiva Ayyadurai was an incredibly bright kid who accomplished something truly exceptional and praiseworthy: he built a functional email system for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in Newark, New Jersey, somewhere between 1978 and 1980. If he simply stuck to highlighting that impressive accomplishment, that would have been one thing, and would have likely earned him the level of praise he deserves. The problem is that, since 2011, Ayyadurai has insisted that his email system for UMDNJ was the first true email system, and thus that he "invented" email. The evidence disagrees with him, and as we'll show, that evidence includes statements from Shiva Ayyadurai himself.

Feel free to read the rest for yourself. Techdirt is mentioned in the Politico piece, by the way:

A libel claim on the part of Shiva Ayyadurai, the self-identified “inventor of email,” was tossed out by a Massachusetts judge today, concluding a baseless suit filed against Techdirt back in January. According to the site, the judge also “rejected Ayyadurai’s request to file an amended complaint.”

So we've come full circle, I guess, over the MIT PhD. Covid denier, disputed inventor of email, Fauci/Deep State paranoiac.

Yep. Seems like a good fit for an interview on Radio Karen.

No, Senator Toomey. You Can't Cleanse YOUR Legacy That Easily

From Bloomberg (via The Trib):

President Donald Trump risks being remembered for creating “chaos and misery” at the end of his term if he vetoes the $900 billion stimulus passed by Congress and triggers a government shutdown, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said.

If, Senator? IF?

There are so many other reasons why Trump will be remembered for "chaos and misery" aren't there?

By the way, Trump signed the legislation last night:

President Trump on Sunday night signed a massive coronavirus relief and spending package, relenting on a measure he had called a "disgrace" days earlier.

The legislation, which combines $900 billion in COVID-19 aid with government funding through September 2021, was passed by large majorities in both houses of Congress on Dec. 21 — only to see Trump blindside legislators the next day and blast the bill.

So Senator let me ask you: Now that he's signed the legislation, does that mean he won't be remembered for creating "chaos and misery"?

But what about:

• Family separation/kids in cages
• Pardoning war criminals
  
• 300,000+ dead (most due to Trump's handling of Covid-19)
  

How's that for chaos and misery, Senator?

The fact that you're only speaking out now, a mere week and a half before a Joint Session of Congress makes the electoral college vote official and a little more than three weeks until the Biden Inauguration, shows your true level of political and moral courage.

You could have been speaking out about Trump's chaos and misery much sooner, Senator.

Because you didn't, Donald Trump's shameful legacy is and will always be your legacy as well.

F**kers: The Suddenly Thin-Skinned GOP Reacts To The Truth

The GOP is all snowflaking over this:

President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s deputy chief of staff, Jen O’Malley Dillon, is getting roasted by conservatives on Twitter after she called Republican Congress members “f—kers” while in the same breath calling for unity during a new interview with Glamour magazine.

This, of course, is the same party boot-licking Donald Trump every chance it gets.

And recently we learned that the Trump Administration wanted this:

A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a "herd immunity" approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by a House watchdog and shared with POLITICO.

“There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD," then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote on July 4 to his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo, and six other senior officials.

"Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…" Alexander added.

And, in case you were wondering:

Alexander was a top deputy of Caputo, who was personally installed by President Donald Trump in April to lead the health department's communications efforts. Officials told POLITICO that they believed that when Alexander made recommendations, he had the backing of the White House.

“It was understood that he spoke for Michael Caputo, who spoke for the White House,” said Kyle McGowan, a Trump appointee who was CDC chief of staff before leaving this summer. “That’s how they wanted it to be perceived.”

Of course, the killer "pro-life" administration has since back-pedaled on herd-immunity.

When Wendy Bell similarly pushed for "herd immunity" this summer, this is what I found posted at Johns Hopkins about why "herd immunity" is such a fucking dangerous idea:

To reach herd immunity for COVID-19, likely 70% or more of the population would need to be immune. Without a vaccine, over 200 million Americans would have to get infected before we reach this threshold. Put another way, even if the current pace of the COVID-19 pandemic continues in the United States – with over 25,000 confirmed cases a day – it will be well into 2021 before we reach herd immunity. If current daily death rates continue, over half a million Americans would be dead from COVID-19 by that time. [Emphasis added.]

In order to achieve "herd immunity" upwards of a half a million US Citizens would have to die. This was the idea the Trump Administration floated.

The Trump party also supports putting kids in cages and overturning (without any evidence) a constitutionally validated election.

So perhaps "party of fuckers" doesn't do them justice. How's this: "a party of cruel, seditious fuckers who might well be guilty of negligent homicide on a massive scale."

If you support Donald Trump, this is what you support. This is who you are.

Congratulations.

MAGA.

Wendy Bell STILL Has A Problem With The Truth...

...or reality or something. 

Goddamit this is tiring. Debunking the P-G's Jack Kelly was at least fun. Debunking the climate change denials of the Trib braintrust was at least fun. This is a constant mindnumb, an ice cream brain freeze without the pleasures of a good chocolate chocolate chip with sprinkles.

So be it. Let's do this thing.

If you were to stumble across Wendy Bell's facebook page, and scroll down a day or so, you'll find this:

Yep, she got snagged by the fact-checkers at Facebook. Yet again.

If you were to click on that "See Why" button, you'd see this:

Fact Check: Video From Georgia Does NOT Show Suitcases
Filled With Ballots Suspiciously Pulled From Under A Table;
Poll Watchers Were NOT Told To Leave

Which is what Wendy was asserting. If you don't feel inclined to believe Facebook, other's have fact-checked this false assertion as well:

• Factcheck
• Politifact
• Snopes
• AP

The story's just not true, Wendy. When will you be correcting the record? (Y'know, to protect your journalistic credibility?)

But that's the false claim Facebook caught. They have yet to snag her on this bit of false from last Tuesday. Wendy described it thusly:

When a researcher’s study of COVID deaths (conducted at a respected institution) goes against the narrative pushed by big government, big tech and big media, then gets RETRACTED, common sense Americans have their greatest fears realized. Everyone is corrupt.

And she opens with this little bit of projection at a little under one minute in. She asserts that she has "very basic values" but, alas, there's a pushback:

...against those values - about basic integrity, about honesty, about morals, about being able to go to bed at night knowing that you did the best job you could, that you didn't cheat or lie or steal or deceive for your own benefit to the detriment of others. 

And yet every single day in this country, that's all we see. We see people corrupted by greed and thirsty beyond thirsty for power who are willing to sell out their morality and put other people in danger and at risk for their own benefit.

Does the Angel of Death not possess even a soupçon of introspection? Can she not see that she's describing herself here? 

I suppose not.

Anyway, she brings to you the story after dutifully telling you about the good folks giving her money for so she can do her DIY broadcasts. She says:

(05:29): What triggered this whole conversation for me today was a friend of mine had forwarded me an article that was published November 22nd [by the Johns Hopkins school newspaper].

Ah...this'll be good. Wendy continues that if it's from Johns Hopkins, it's gotta be true, right? Right??

She adds a little familiar COVID virus denial for good measure:

(06:42): [It's] a virus that, if you talk to almost any doctor will tell you, operates just like other viruses -  it impacts those who are the weakest and the most at risk first and does have some outlier effects on healthy people but very rarely. A 99% survival rate with this virus ladies and gentlemen.

Misinformation like this (99% survival rate, it's just like other viruses) is going to get people sick and some of them will die, Wendy.

Any statement that downplays the deaths of 270,000+ of our fellow citizens is morally reprehensible and marks the person making the statement as complicit in those deaths. I say that because basic integrity, honesty and morality demand it. I say this because it's simply immoral to put other people in danger for their own benefit. 

Note: This edition of Wendy Bell Radio is sponsored by Attorney John D'Onofrio and Dr. Richard Rafferty of the Disc Institute of Pittsburgh and Tom Yakopin of West Penn Life & Health. Give them a call and let them know how you feel about Wendy Bell's take on the deaths of so many of our fellow citizens.

But back to Wendy. She spends a few minutes breathlessly summarizing the November 22 article, which contained this:

[Genevieve] Briand also noted that 50,000 to 70,000 deaths are seen both before and after COVID-19, indicating that this number of deaths was normal long before COVID-19 emerged. Therefore, according to Briand, not only has COVID-19 had no effect on the percentage of deaths of older people, but it has also not increased the total number of deaths.

These data analyses suggest that in contrast to most people js assumptions, the number of deaths by COVID-19 is not alarming. In fact, it has relatively no effect on deaths in the United States.

Mmm Wendy like but then Wendy sad:

(24:04) Wouldn't you know somebody found out about that article because just five days later they retracted the article about this Johns Hopkins researchers' research. They retracted it. Somebody got to them ladies and gentlemen.

See that?? Somebody got to them! Maybe it was the cigarette smoking man! Maybe it was Ted Cruz' father! Maybe it was Professor Moriarty! In either case, it must've been someone connected to George Soros, right?? I'm sure Q will tell us once Trump finishes his divine quest of clearing the swamp and imprisoning all the pedophiles in the Demonrat party.

Wendy seems to think that because the article was published it effectively debunked the CDC/WHO/mainstream narrative that the virus kills lots of people. Furthermore she seems to think that it's being quashed simply because it contradicts that narrative. Reacting to the paper's retraction, Wendy says: 

From the retraction:

(24:41): Editor's note: We decided on November 26 to retract this article to stop the spread of misinformation.

Wendy reacts: 

How is using CDC data and analyzing how many people in what age groups died from what causes this year and going back and comparing that same data to two years prior misinformation?  It's misinformation if the information you get contradicts the narrative. Bingo!

Except that the article wasn't retracted because it conflicted with the accepted narrative. It was retraced because it was factually incorrect. 

There is a difference, you know. It's as clear as the difference between fact and opinion. A journalist would know the difference, Wendy. Do you?

From the retraction:

Briand was quoted in the article as saying, “All of this points to no evidence that COVID-19 created any excess deaths. Total death numbers are not above normal death numbers.” This claim is incorrect and does not take into account the spike in raw death count from all causes compared to previous years. According to the CDC, there have been almost 300,000 excess deaths due to COVID-19. 

Additionally, Briand presented data of total U.S. deaths in comparison to COVID-19-related deaths as a proportion percentage, which trivializes the repercussions of the pandemic. This evidence does not disprove the severity of COVID-19; an increase in excess deaths is not represented in these proportionalities because they are offered as percentages, not raw numbers.

But they're not alone. Newsweek has looked into this story:

In late November, the student-run Johns Hopkins News-Letter published a story, since retracted, about a study claiming that there have been no extra deaths, known as "excess deaths," in the U.S. this year from COVID-19 compared to deaths expected in an otherwise normal year.

This year, there have been nearly 300,000 excess deaths attributed to COVID-19, as of early October, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

The story was published on November 22, then taken down, with a retraction published on November 27. The retraction said the study cited in the story "has been used to support dangerous inaccuracies that minimize the impact of the pandemic."

[Bob Anderson, chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch at the National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC] said taking down the story was warranted.

"The study was retracted by the newsletter for a reason," Anderson said. "It's because it wasn't very good at all."

The student-run publication said its decision was made "to stop the spread of misinformation," and it acknowledged that it had inaccurately claimed that there was "no evidence that COVID-19 created any excess deaths" and that number of total deaths were "not above normal death numbers."

The facts:

"Overall, an estimated 299,028 excess deaths occurred from late January through October 3, 2020, with 198,081 (66%) excess deaths attributed to COVID-19," according to a report on the CDC's website. "Excess deaths are defined as the number of persons who have died from all causes, in excess of the expected number of deaths for a given place and time."

Then there's this from Factcheck:

An economics professor’s flawed interpretation of U.S. mortality data has prompted a viral, false claim that COVID-19 hasn’t led to more deaths than normal this year. In fact, multiple analyses have found there to be a higher-than-normal number of deaths during the pandemic — as much as 20%, according to some studies.

And this from Health Feedback:

Firstly, the study the claim refers to was not a scientific study, but instead an article published in a student newsletter at Johns Hopkins University. Secondly, the claim that no excess deaths have occurred in 2020 is false. Data from the U.S. CDC clearly shows that the number of deaths in 2020 is higher than that of previous years, most likely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

And:

The U.S. has recorded more than 200,000 excess deaths (about 300,000 according to the latest CDC data) from all causes in 2020 compared to the average number of deaths in previous years. Excess deaths in 2020 have also been observed in all age groups, ranging from young adults to the elderly.

When will you be correcting the record, Wendy? You're still downplaying the severity of the virus and as such you're morally complicit with all the extra suffering you're causing.

How do you sleep at night?

Wendy Bell - Putting The Public Health At Risk. Again

On her Facebook Page, Wendy Bell posted this:

Pennsylvania is now under a universal masking order.

 

The secretary of health says people are required to wear masks indoors and outdoors when they are with others who are not members of their household.

 

Further, she expects law enforcement and business owners to enforce her orders.

 

Do you think masks work?

Wendy, what's the point of asking your adoring fans whether they think masks work?

They do. Masks work. The scientific data support the use of masks to protect the public from spreading the virus. This is a fact. It's not a matter of opinion. A person watching your living room broadcasts with a different opinion does not change that fact.

From the CDC:

SARS-CoV-2 infection is transmitted predominately by respiratory droplets generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe. CDC recommends community use of masks, specifically non-valved multi-layer cloth masks, to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Masks are primarily intended to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets (“source control”), which is especially relevant for asymptomatic or presymptomatic infected wearers who feel well and may be unaware of their infectiousness to others, and who are estimated to account for more than 50% of transmissions. Masks also help reduce inhalation of these droplets by the wearer (“filtration for personal protection”). The community benefit of masking for SARS-CoV-2 control is due to the combination of these effects; individual prevention benefit increases with increasing numbers of people using masks consistently and correctly.

So a mask protects in two ways:

• Source control  - the mask filters the virus in transmission from an infected person (including those who don't know they're infected) to someone else.
  
• Filtration for personal protection - the mask filters the virus in transmission to an uninfected person.

But is there a downside to maskwearing? For example, what does the science say about the build-up of CO2 when wearing a mask?

From the American Lung Association: 

Do Masks Cause Low Oxygen Levels?

Absolutely not. We wear masks all day long in the hospital. The masks are designed to be breathed through and there is no evidence that low oxygen levels occur.

And if you want to read a study that says the same, here's one. From the paper's "Discussion" section:

Although we did not measure changes in tidal volume or minute ventilation, this data find that gas exchange is not significantly affected by the use of surgical mask, even in subjects with severe lung impairment.

And: 

It is important to inform the public that the discomfort associated with mask use should not lead to unsubstantiated safety concerns as this may attenuate the application of a practice proven to improve public health. As growing evidence indicates that asymptomatic individuals can fuel the spread of COVID-19,12 universal mask use needs to be vigorously enforced in community settings, particularly now that we are facing a pandemic with minimal proven therapeutic interventions. We believe our data will help mitigate fears about the health risks of surgical mask use and improve public confidence for more widespread acceptance and use.

So that's settled, right?

But seriously Wendy. Why are you even questioning this?

Every time you do this, you're undermining the credibility of the science - thus putting the public health at risk.

Every time you do this, you're putting more people are at risk of getting very very sick. And some of those people may die.

Wendy Bell - The Angel of Death.

Follow-Up On Those Current Numbers From Last Week (Biden, Lamb, Trump, Parnell)

This is to update the numbers I posted last week. 

Covid deaths US: 244,810 (or about 74.59 per 100,000) 

Covid deaths Canada: 10,953 (or about 29.13 per 100,000)

Had the good ole US of A treated the virus as effectively as Canada, we'd be looking at about 95,604 Covid deaths here in The States instead of 244,810. Had we treated the virus as effectively as Canada, about 149,000 US Citizens would still be alive. We have to assume that all those 149,000 (or so) deaths were therefore preventable were it not for the incompetence and corruption of Donald Trump.

"It is what it is." said Trump.

Fuck Donald Trump. When will he be indicted for mass murder? Negligent homicide?

On to the election results. From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden: 77,170,769 

Current votes for Donald Trump:72,057,511

The AP is updating its numbers and they look even worse for Donald Trump. This was not a close election. No amount of stalling, denying or frivolous lawsuiting will change that.

Joe Biden is currently 5,637,779 votes ahead of Donald Trump.  (November 12, it was 5,113,258).

Fuck Donald Trump. It's time for him to concede.

Locally, the numbers are on a similar track in PA. From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden in PA: 3,423,976 (Nov 12 it was 3,386,380)

Current votes for Donald Trump in PA: 3,354,836 (Nov 12, it was 3,333,161)

Joe Biden is currently 69,140  votes ahead of Donald Trump (Nov 12, it was 53,219).

Fuck Donald Trump. It's time for him to concede.

And, if there is any justice in the world, Trump should be perp-walked out of DC immediately after Biden's inauguration. Perhaps to NYC to face tax-evasion charges. Perhaps to The Hague to be charged with crimes against humanity.

A side note, GOP candidate for PA-17 has yet to concede the Lamb-Parnell race. Here are the AP's numbers:

Conor Lamb: 221,112 (Nov 12, it was 218,185)

Sean Parnell: 211,256 (Nov 12, it was 208,074)

Conor Lamb is currently 13,038 votes ahead of Sean Parnell (Nov 12, it was 10,011).

Sean, it's time for you to concede. Where are you going to find those 13k votes? I'd DM this question to you via twitter but you've blocked me from your twitter feed. Why did you do that, by the way? You blocked me after I tweeted that question when you were "only" about 10,000 votes behind.

Current Numbers (Trump, Lamb, Parnell, and Covid-19)

Covid deaths US: 239,590 (or about 72.47 per 100,000) 

Covid deaths Canada: 10,685 (or about 28.2 per 100,000)

Had the US of A treated the virus as effectively as Canada, we'd be looking at about 93,200 Covid deaths here in The States. Had we treated the virus as effectively as Canada, 146,000 US Citizens would still be alive.

Fuck Donald Trump.

From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden: 77,170,769 

Current votes for Donald Trump:72,057,511

Joe Biden is currently 5,113,258 votes ahead of Donald Trump. This was not a close election.

Fuck Donald Trump.

From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden in PA: 3,386,380

Current votes for Donald Trump in PA: 3,333,161

Joe Biden is currently 53,219 votes ahead of Donald Trump. This was not a close election in PA. And even if he were to win his lawsuits in PA, he would still not win Pennsylvania

Fuck Donald Trump.

A side note, GOP candidate for PA-17 has yet to concede that race. Here's the AP's numbers:

Conor Lamb: 218,185

Sean Parnell: 208,074

Conor Lamb is currently 10,011 votes ahead of Sean Parnell.

It's time for Donald Trump and Sean Parnell to concede their respective races. 

PS - When I say "Fuck Donald Trump" I do not mean that literally (unless you're looking for that sweet sweet Stormy Daniels payoff). It's not a command or even a suggestion for you to actually have sex with Donald Trump. I just wanted to make that clear.

Donald Trump's Deaths. Donald Trump's Shitshow

On the 220,000+ Covid-19 deaths, Joe Biden said this:

Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.

While Donald Trump's other non-Covid crimes loom large, that one sentence is enough to invalidate this shitshow of a presidency.

Anyone who continues to support/defend this man is forever complicit in those deaths, in that shitshow.

Wendy Bell Was "Censored" For The Wrong Stuff

If you were to look for Wendy Bell's WEDNESDAY MONOLOGUE, you'd find this:

And if you were to click onto the "See Why" link you'd find this:

Wendy, as you can imagine, was pissed.

She viewed it as an unfair technicality. She asserted that she said doctors were paid to falsify death certificates and then said that the fact-check showed it was hospitals instead.

If I had the stomach for more Wendy bullshit, I'd dig into that.

On the other hand, should could just as easily have been fact-checked for this:

At about 7:20 in she dug into the Covid-19 mortality numbers:

Of the 220,000 people listed as Covid-19 deaths in The United States of America, as of last Friday, 88,208 had influenza and pneumonia. They had the flu and they had pneumonia. That's 43%, ladies and gentlemen. 43% of the 220,000. Furthermore, 26,000 and change had adult respiratory distress syndrome. 44,000 and change suffered from hypertension - stress. 23,275 had heart disease. 25,000, ladies and gentlemen, 25,000 died from a heart attack. 

And they're listed as a Covid death.

Did Covid-19 cause that heart attack?

No.

It's that last word that condemns Wendy Bell to being (no matter what she says otherwise) a Covid danger denier.

And I thought we dealt with this 6 weeks or so ago.

This week, she's just regurgitating what she said back in early September:

Did you guys hear it? Shouted across the world yesterday that the CDC says that 94% of people who we think died of COVID did not die from COVID but died and happened to have it at the same time.

Fact-check took a look at this back then:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, clarified what the CDC data mean.

He noted that the 6% figure includes cases where COVID-19 was listed as the only cause of death. “That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of Covid didn’t die of Covid-19. They did,” Fauci said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“So the numbers you’ve been hearing — the 180,000-plus deaths — are real deaths from Covid-19. Let [there] not be any confusion about that,” Fauci said.

Don't you remember this, Wendy? It was even on Good Morning America.

You're misleading your audience about the danger of this virus while misleading them by saying that you're not.

Shame on you.

 

Local Virus Denier Wendy Bell Misleads. Again

Why are we not surprised?

Here's what Wendy posted on her FB page this morning:

The results of a just-released Yale University study suggest child care centers that stayed open during the early months of the Chinese virus shutdown did not contribute to the spread of the disease in the United States and that children did not spread the virus to adults. 

 

Researchers looked at responses from 57,335 daycare providers, including those that continued to provide child care and those that did not, during the first three months of the pandemic and found that there were “no differences in COVID-19 outcomes."

 

“The amount of contact they had with child care was completely unrelated to whether or not they got sick with COVID-19 or were hospitalized with COVID-19,” Walter Gilliam, a professor at the Yale Child Care Center and lead author of the study said.

 

With the CDC reporting a survival rate of 99.99% in people ages 0-19, do you think schools should re-open immediately, that kids should play sports without masks, and that we should get back in the business of living as free people?

We'll note, in passing, Wendy's racist naming of the coronavirus. Hey, Wendy! Need any evidence that it's harmful?

Look here:

A recent study shows that rampant use of the “China virus" to refer to the coronavirus, particularly by conservative outlets, had a profound impact on how those in the United States see Asian Americans. 

The research, published in the journal Health Education & Behavior, examined racially charged coronavirus coverage in media and its impact on bias against Asian Americans. While anti-Asian bias had been in steady decline for over a decade, the trend reversed in days after a significant uptick in discriminatory coronavirus speech. The language led to an increased subconscious belief that Asian Americans are “perpetual foreigners,” researchers said. 

 “Research suggests that when people see Asian Americans as being more ‘foreign,’ they are more likely to express hostility toward them and engage in acts of violence and discrimination,” Rucker Johnson, a public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the study, told NBC Asian America.

Good for you, Wendy. You're now part of that chain of events.

But back to the Yale study. Of course Wendy's framing is incorrect. The study (described here) was about child care programs and yet Wendy is using it to deny the public health danger all the way up to the end of High School. I mean, what child care center has "kids playing sports" with masks??

In any event, had Wendy done her due diligence, she would have found this, from one of the authors of the study:  

The study’s authors caution that their findings do not necessarily apply to teachers who work in schools or other settings with older children. “Adults who work with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers typically have a small group of children who stay together all day,” said [lead author Walter Gilliam, the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor at the Yale Child Study Center and professor of psychology. ] “Middle schools and high schools may have hundreds of people in a building — and typically, moving from class to class. Those factors alone make K-12 schools very different from child care programs.” [Emphasis added.]

See that, Wendy? The study you're citing to support opening up middle and high schools is not about middle or high schools - the lead author of the study even says so. 

And this misinformation to her many many devotees, Wendy's danger-denial continues.

File This Under "Trump Knew And Still Downplayed The Virus And The Death Toll Still Rises"

From the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus yesterday:

Today, Rep. James E. Clyburn, Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, released six weeks of White House Coronavirus Task Force reports obtained by the Select Subcommittee.  These reports—which were shared privately with state governments each week but not disclosed to the public—reveal that the White House has been aware for more than a month of an alarming rise in cases nationwide and the need for more testing and mask mandates to save American lives—even as the President has continued to publicly downplay the crisis and hold crowded events contributing to the virus’s spread.

 More from Rep. Clyburn:

The White House reports released today show that President Trump’s contempt for science and refusal to lead during this crisis have allowed the coronavirus to surge across the United States. Contrary to his empty claims that the country is ‘rounding the turn,’ more states are now in the ‘red zone’ than ever before. These reports—which the White House sent privately to governors but withheld from the public—show that President Trump’s false rhetoric on testing and masks is hindering our nation’s response, and many states are refusing to take critical steps recommended by the Task Force. It is long past time that the Administration implement a national plan to contain this crisis, which is still killing hundreds of Americans each day and could get even worse in the months ahead.

The 10/18/2020 report (remember this is from The White House's own task force) states that there are 31 states now in the "red zone" (defined as having "more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents and more than 10 percent of new tests were positive"). This is up from 7 in early June.

From that report's Pennsylvania info we find the list of those 31 red zone states:

The same day the subcommittee released the above statement, Washington Post reported this:

After a brief hiatus following his own coronavirus infection, President Trump resumed his weekly telephone interviews with the always supportive hosts of his favorite morning show, Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”

At one point, the president was asked how the country would handle rising coronavirus infections, given that the number of recorded cases is on the rise across the country.

“What is the plan to live with it while staying safe from it?” host Brian Kilmeade asked.

“Well, we are living with it,” Trump said, “and we’re having the vaccines coming out very soon. With or without the vaccines, we’re rounding the turn.”

While his own task force is telling the country's governors about how many more states are in the red zone. 

Trump has known for a long time how bad the virus is and still down plays its severity while more and more people die.

This is Donald Trump's legacy. If you support Donald Trump, this is your legacy, too.

A Special Message To KDKA Radio's MARTY GRIFFIN

[Please pass this along to Marty. Thanks, I appreciate it.]

Marty,

I appreciate that you're really pushing for the state and/or county to open up restaurants for more customers. In your push, I've heard you say that there's no science to warrant the decision to restrict the number of customers dining in restaurants (and so therefore those restrictions are unfair and burdensome).

Well, Marty, here's some science from the CDC:

In this investigation, participants with and without COVID-19 reported generally similar community exposures, with the exception of going to locations with on-site eating and drinking options. Adults with confirmed COVID-19 (case-patients) were approximately twice as likely as were control-participants to have reported dining at a restaurant in the 14 days before becoming ill. In addition to dining at a restaurant, case-patients were more likely to report going to a bar/coffee shop, but only when the analysis was restricted to participants without close contact with persons with known COVID-19 before illness onset. Reports of exposures in restaurants have been linked to air circulation. Direction, ventilation, and intensity of airflow might affect virus transmission, even if social distancing measures and mask use are implemented according to current guidance. Masks cannot be effectively worn while eating and drinking, whereas shopping and numerous other indoor activities do not preclude mask use. [Emphasis added.]

I'm sorry that this is the case. I, too, miss going out to eat. But the stakes these days are very high and not only for my own personal health but for everyone's.  

This is very important - just as important as me protecting my own health - because even if I were to catch the virus and be among those lucky enough to be asymptomatic, I could inadvertently still be part of a transmission chain that could end up getting people sick and/or killing someone. This is the part of the story that you almost always seem to omit on-air.

If limiting the number of people sitting in a restaurant or at a bar is needed to keep the transmission down, then this is something that has to be done. The alternative, opening up the restaurants for the sake of someone's bottom line even when knowing that some of the patrons/employees are going to get sick and some of those will die because of it, is simply unacceptable.

Some other solution to the restaurant industry's plight has to be found. If anything instead of this false choice between the health of the industry and the public health, we should be discussing the need for a more robust social safety net so that that choice doesn't have to be made.

Sadly, with the GOP in control of the state legislature (and one chamber of the Congress in DC) a "more robust social safety net" will never be an option discussed.

Yours,
Dayvoe

89,407 Dead on Trump's Watch.

From some of the few sane Republicans left.