What are the “Fact Checkers” lying about, today? Ha, trick question: it’s easier to count what they’re not lying about. Because, as I keep reminding you, so-called “Fact Checkers” are in reality “Narrative Confirmation Machines”.
None more so than Australia’s own taxpayer-funded leftist propaganda network broadcaster, the ABC. How do you know when the ABC’s “Fact Checkers” are pushing fake news? They’ve published another “Fact Check”.
Of course, there’s more than one way to peddle fake news, besides publishing outright lies. As Wiliam Blake reminded us, A truth that’s told with bad intent/beats all the lies you can invent.
Case in point: when “Fact Checkers” label a claim, “oversimplified”. This means, “OK, it’s true, but we’re going to drag in a bunch of irrelevant stuff to try and pretend that it’s not”.
Following a wave of coronavirus cases driven by the Omicron variant in December and January, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg defended the government’s decision to move towards “normalised settings” for financial support related to the pandemic.
” … [W]e are always watching to see how the pandemic evolves. But what we do know as well is that the Omicron variant is 75 per cent less severe than the Delta variant and previous variants,” Mr Frydenberg told Patricia Karvelas on ABC Radio’s RN Breakfast program.
Is the Omicron variant 75 per cent less severe than Delta and other variants? RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates.
Short answer: Yes.
But that won’t do. Admit that Omicron is weaker even than the weak-tea Delta variant, and the whole covid narrative goes tits-up. “Fact Checkers” to the rescue!
Mr Frydenberg’s claim is oversimplified.
It is clear from a variety of academic studies that Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta.
What is less clear is the magnitude of this reduced severity and the contribution of previous infection or vaccination.
Except that the “Fact Checkers” go on to cite studies that make the magnitude very clear.
Fact Check contacted Mr Frydenberg’s office to ask for the source of his claim.
A spokeswoman pointed to an opinion piece written by Doherty Institute director Sharon Lewin in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 2.
Professor Lewin compared the risk of hospitalisation between Omicron and Delta.
” … data from South Africa shows the risk of hospitalisation with Omicron compared with Delta is reduced by 80 per cent and, once in hospital, the risk of severe diseases with Omicron is reduced by 70 per cent.” Professor Lewin wrote.
So, Frydenberg is on the mark, then.
Damn, better try again.
Mr Frydenberg’s spokeswoman also directed Fact Check towards comments made by Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on December 31:
“Omicron, though, is less severe. I think that is becoming very clear now … There was a preprint paper that I read from South Africa. South Africa’s a different country to in various ways, but they have had the longest and most extensive experience of this particular form of the COVID-19 virus, the Omicron variant. They are seeing a 73 per cent decrease in severity.”
Godammit, eggheads — shut up!
Why are “Fact Checkers” so determined to lie about what is, in fact, an easily verifiable claim?
Mr Frydenberg’s claim could convince someone who is vaccine hesitant, for example, to remain unvaccinated or not vaccinate someone in their care, if they interpreted Mr Frydenberg as speaking about the inherent virulence, absent the effect of a vaccine.
ABC Australia
What did I tell you? Narrative Confirmation Machines.
