This news story triggers all kinds of thoughts. (Okay, we know that “triggered” is a “trigger word” and probably banned in most social media. Our apologies for any offense!)
Newsbreak.com and The Hill published a story headlined “Early COVID-19 pandemic death toll much higher than official count – study.” It reads, in part:
The journal Science Advances found that more than 155,000 unrecognized additional deaths outside of hospitals between March 2020 and December 2021 likely went uncounted. This suggests that 15.6 percent of deaths went uncounted, as the official death toll during that time frame was more than 840,000.
Researchers said the estimated total number of COVID-19 deaths between that timeline was More than 995,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established that the U.S. hit 1 million COVID-19 deaths in May 2022.
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Stupidity, not malice
In the past several weeks, we have heard a lot of claims about the tragedy at a girl’s school in southern Iran. A lot of lies. Denials. Cries of pain. Everyone blaming everyone else, but themselves of course. Last week, several bloggers and pundits (Americans, not just Muslim) have flat-out stated that The Donald and his henchman Hegseth, “deliberately targeted” the girl’s school. Incredibly serious charges, portraying the tragedy as much worse that it seemed to be.
Here at TPOL, we understand the claim, but submit that it is not so cut and dried as that. This is what one of our staff members wrote early last week, privately to a correspondent.
According to a map I saw the day of that attack, and Google Earth and lat-long provided by Al-Araby TV, this Shajareh Tayeben School is immediately adjacent to what seems to be a military installation. In fact, CBS has a satellite photo map identifying this compound as being an IRGC facility. It also shows damaged structures in the actual installation, said to be from the same attack.
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