Citizen’s “COVID Committee” on Restarting Schools!!! Let “Science” be the Guide!!! “Science” Provided by Cleveland County Health Department!! Shocking Findings-Cleveland County Healthcare the DEADLIEST in NC relative to COVID treatment!!! Cleveland County Health Department still in CHAOS!!?? Commissioners in Hiding!!?? A pending Federal Lawsuit, maybe??? Scientific Evaluation, Conclusions and Recommendations by Robert A. Williams

Editor’s Note: Be sure to read this article all the way to the end. YOU will be shocked at what I have discovered.

Properly educating the children in our society, or any society, is the Number 1 Priority of any right-thinking citizen anywhere on the face of this Planet we call Earth. Cleveland County, North Carolina, USA is no exception. Every citizen, taxpayer and parent have the right, expectation, obligation and goal to see that our children are properly educated. Not just the School board.

However, this has to be said, Citizens, Parents, Teachers, the School Board and Government as a whole; everybody should be working toward that very same goal. Get our children educated. That is the purpose of this article. To review the data, evaluate it as related to the COVID-19 Pandemic and make recommendations to restart Cleveland County Schools. Recognizing the fact that COVID-19 is a political football that has been fumbled many times by many factions of government. Including the CDC, Presidential Elections, the Cleveland County Health Department, the previous CCS School Board, the NEW CCS School Board and everybody else who can get as much funding as they can out of the Federal government.

Evaluation Parameters:
In this evaluation we have to first, remember this: exact “science” did not shut down Cleveland County Schools in March of 2020. There were ZERO cases of COVID in Cleveland County at that time. Also remember that the number of flu cases has dropped significantly during this time interval. Health officials say the drop in flu cases is due to the precautions (washing hands, wearing masks and social distancing) taken due to COVID. If that were true, why did the COVID pandemic not diminish too?

Also remember the news media reported cities like New York and Los Angeles had their hospitals so over-run with COVID cases that President Trump sent 1,000 bed Hospital Ships to each city and they neither city used even 10 percent of those ships’ capacity. These ships were so underutilized that they were finally taken away. Therefore, we have to realize that much of the scare involving COVID is being fluffed-up by fake news and political strategies. We have to take that into consideration in our school restart science and go from there.

First, the Data:

The Cleveland County Health Department, according to their own words, say:

1-13-2021

Let’s evaluate this January 13, 2021 “snapshot” data:

1 Total Cases: 8,115.

These total cases represent the number of cases since last March, when there was Zero cases and School were shut down anyway, until January 13, 2021. Since no COVID 10 tests were available until later that March 2020, this number, by itself is meaningless, except for scare tactics, for predicting anything regarding when to restart schools. Yet, every COVID update given at CCS School Board meetings start with this updated meaningless number. The “science” of any COVID data must be related to the “trend” of cases. Up or down.

2. Prior day cases: 69

This is a good starting point for an accurate analysis the trend in COVID Cases.

3. New Cases in last 7 days: 802

This is also a good starting Point for an accurate analysis of the trend in COVID cases.

4. Estimated number of recovered cases: 7,145

This number, like the total number of cases in item 1 goes all the way back to March or 2020 and is a meaningless number for projecting when to restart schools. However, it might be a good way to validate the accuracy of the Health Department numbers. Let’s see.

If there are 8,115 total cases and 7,145 Recovered cases, what are the un-recovered cases? Deaths? These numbers would indicate there were 970 deaths in Cleveland County due to COVID from March 2020 until January 13, 2021. The listed total Deaths in Cleveland County on this report is 169.

What does this indicate? Something is bad wrong with the data coming out of the Cleveland County Health Department

There is more:

5. Positive Test Rate (County) 18.9%

Positive test rate is defined by the number of positive tests divided by the total number of individual tests given. There are lots of problems with this calculation. The first problem is that the COVID testing methods are new and there are lots of false positives as well as false negatives. Then, depending on how the particular test works, a person can be newly infected with COVID and before the COVID is fully incubated would also give a false negative. No top of that, most people would NOT seek out a COVID test unless they already had COVID symptoms such as a runny nose, congested breathing, etc. Which would give a higher percentage of likely COVID positive tests than if everybody, symptoms or not, were tested.

6, Positive Test Rate (County) 14.7%

Besides being numbers for another county and not knowing how good those numbers are, this is only for comparison and should NOT be very relevant to whether or not schools are restarted in Cleveland County. Note that their other comparisons later in this article that indicate major COVID rates in Cleveland County.

7. Cleveland County Residents currently Hospitalized: 55

Another meaningless number when used all by itself. Some people are hospitalized for a very long time and some people that go to the hospital with COVID are not admitted into the hospital, just sent home.

8. Deaths 169

The number of actual COVID Deaths are of a very high concern. But most everybody realizes that there is so much COVID money floating around now that Health Care facilities are sorely tempted to report a death from other causes as a COVID death. Greed is a strong temptation for fraud. And very few would deny that Healthcare facilities have people on staff to figure out just how much cost the market will bear. Especially when the dead body is buried or cremated and nobody can prove whether or not the Death was actually from COVID.

CONCLUSION:
The conclusion of a critical analysis of these Cleveland County Health Department reported “snapshot” numbers is that there is nothing here that can be used as a reliable indication of a criteria on whether or not to restart schools.

So, lets look at another set of “snapshot” numbers, compare them with these numbers and see what we get. Maybe a useful “Trend.”

1-20-2021 Health Department Numbers:

Changes: January 20 -13, 7 days Change
Total Cases-week change
8,706 – 8,115
591
Prior Day Change
109 – 69
40 gone up
New cases last 7 days
603 – 802
-199 gone down
Estimated # Recovered Cases
7,929 – 7,145
784
Positive Test Rate County
15.6% – 18.9%
-3.3% gone down
Positive Test Rate State
11.8% – 14.7%
-2.9% gone down
CC Residents in Hospital
45 – 55
-10 gone down
Deaths-Change in week
174 – 168
6 more deaths

Again, conflicted and meaningless numbers relative to decisions to restart schools.

Then, the Cleveland County Health Department changed their update reporting. Leaving a lot of meaningless numbers out. Below is the newest update.

CLEVELAND COUNTY COVID-19 UPDATE 1/25/2021
As of today, there have been a total of 9,028 cases of COVID-19 in Cleveland County. There are an estimated 460 active cases and 8,392 cases have recovered. There are currently 44 Cleveland County residents who are hospitalized and we have had a total of 176 COVID-related deaths in the county.

Conclusion:
There are no data in this update, or anywhere else that I can find, helpful to a decision to restart Schools. This is NOT a surprise since all the original data was to keep schools shut down for political reasons. Not to restart schools.

Also, according to the Cleveland County Health Department website, most of the activity has NOW shifted to vaccination schedules and updates to the websites themselves. Any priority the Health Department might have ever had, has now shifted totally away from information useful to restarting schools.

I smell a rat in the Health Department shifting away from previous record keeping, as poor as it was. Why has the new Health Department AND the County Commissioners no longer attending School Board meetings? What is the Health Department and the County Commissioners hiding from???

So, I decided to look at some North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) records for all the counties in North Carolina. I started with Cleveland County and then looked at all the surrounding counties. I began to see a pattern. A frightening pattern.

CLEVALND COUNTY HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST DEATH RATES PER COVID CASES IN ALL OF NORTH CAROLINA

I started with Cleveland County as a baseline and looked at the surrounding counties. Then, I spread out to other Counties with a similar COVID cases numbers or similar Deaths numbers. I looked at the largest counties as well as smaller counties and those in between. I recorded the first 18 counties and provided them below. Most all of the other counties showed this very same pattern.

CLEVELAND AND RUTHERFORD COUNTY HEALTH CARE IS THE MOST DEADLY IN NORTH CAROLINA IN THIS COVID PANDEMIC!!! OFTEN BY WIDE MARGINS!!!!

NCDHHS Records

County #Cases Deaths Notes

Cleveland 8,706 174 Baseline Data

Lincoln 7,172 43 Almost as many cases/way less deaths

Rutherford 5,802 155 About the same death per cases

Catawba 14,281 207 Almost twice the cases/less death ratio

Burke 7,728 90 Almost the dame cases/about half the deaths

Gaston 19,855 289 Twice the cases/much less death ration

Cabarrus 14,625 175 Almost twice the cases/almost same deaths

Alamance 12,892 169 Half again number of cases/same deaths

Caldwell 7,352 31 Almost same cases/WAY less deaths

Cumberland 17,960 158 Twice the cases/about same deaths

Durham 17,980 158 Twice the cases/about same deaths

Forsyth 25,473 255 Three times the cases/much less death ratio

Guilford 31,738 360 Almost 4 times the cases/twice the deaths

Iredell 12,549 133 half again the cases/less deaths

Johnston 14,363 130 Almost twice the cases/less deaths

Mecklenburg 78,778 690 Almost 9 times the cases/only 4 times the deaths

Wake 58,308 398 Over six times the cases/just over twice the deaths

Union 16,646 130 Almost twice the cases/way less deaths

But, me being me, I decided to look even further into the records. Just how much more deadly is COVID relative to other causes of death in Cleveland County? What else might I stumble across? I started by looking into mortality rates for Cleveland County in 2019. The last full year without COVID. I was shocked AGAIN by what I found.

And, there it was. the 2019 Cleveland County Community Health Assessment. Right below the COVID-19 Information on the Cleveland County Public Health Center Website Home Page. Click on the link and you pull up a 95-page document with all kinds of information amidst a large dose of political correctness and cover-up.

The “telling part” of chaos and turmoil within the Health Department right before COVID hit and during the shut-down of Cleveland County Schools began right there in the first paragraph of the Executive Summary. But you have to have some broad experience, as I have, with observing how the various Cleveland County governmental agencies operate, with a large dose of corruption and cover-up, to figure it out.

That first paragraph of the Executive Survey describes(covers-up) how the 2019 Assessment was delayed because of the “Retirement” of Health Department Director Dorothea Wyant, which caused the Health Department staff and leadership to concentrate on finding a replacement Director. The fact is a Federal Lawsuit for sexual harassment caused the firing (also officially called a retirement) of one high level Health Department employee with close relations with certain County Commissioners, and a forced early retirement for Wyant. The Federal Lawsuit named as defendants: All the County Commissioners, County Manager Brian Epley, Health Department Director Dorothea Wyant and Sam Lockridge. It is certain that all Health Department employees came under scrutiny, with expectations of being fired from their job, if they told what they knew about the situation. Especially if they secretly told me about the situation and were found out. But I protect my sources by every means possible.

Another “telling part” of that First Paragraph was the watered-down description of how the Health Department was also limited by the shutdowns caused by the COVID pandemic. Not mentioning the dirty politics at the State and National level to close schools in order to destroy the ability of the US workforce to go to work-which destroyed President Trump’s record good economy and unemployment. All the way up to the November elections. Remember, Cleveland County Schools were shut down when COVID cases were ZERO and no data was purposely and selectively NOT collected for the purpose of restarting schools. Which is the situation we find ourselves in at this very moment. Poor, misleading and conflicting data.

Further reading into this 95-page 2019 assessment document did include lots of information about mortality (deaths) before COVID. Heart diseases and heart attacks, cancers of all kinds, respiratory disease, the flu and pneumonia. hypertension, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, unintentional injuries, etc. According to the Assessment, page 26, Cleveland County experienced a total of 5,969 deaths from 2013 to 2017 with a death rate calculated to be 1230.2 per 100,000 residents. And a State Rate of deaths per 100,000 was calculated to be 878.2. Significantly lower death rates than Cleveland County. Which supports previously noted COVID data for the Counties showing Cleveland County to be No 1 in deaths or thereabouts.

Since Cleveland County has slightly less that 100,000 residents, the Death Rate per year (without COVID) would be 1,230 deaths per year. 172 COVID deaths would be an increase of about 14% total deaths in Cleveland County. Much less if you consider flu cases (and deaths) have dropped significantly

Now, since COVID deaths in children has been shown to be close to ZERO, wouldn’t data regarding COVID deaths in children in Cleveland County be very important in determining whether or not to restart schools. Wouldn’t COVID deaths among teachers be very important in restarting Cleveland County Schools. Yet, this very important information is missing from the “Metrics” in restarting school.

Also, throw in the 2019 assessment that reading proficiency of third graders in Cleveland County is only 56.8 percent and the goal is to raise that to 80% by 2030. Knowing that the third-grade reading proficiency can only go down due to the COVID school shutdown, and 56.8% proficient is pathetically low to begin with, it is obvious that Cleveland County School student education is likely “stunted” even more for this generation of children. And, we are getting further behind every day of this school shutdown.

So, what’s to do?

The best option is to restart all schools through all grades this coming Monday Morning. Run schools through the summer and next summer too. But CCS School Board Chairman Robert Queen says Tim Moore says that it would take until December (almost a year) to get legislation passed to change the School calendar.

Again, So, what to do? It is time to think outside the box!!

There are other options:

1. Restart Monday Morning and develop new data that would determine if and when schools should shut down again. Something that should have been determined before CCS shut down to begin with.

2. The School Board keep schools shut down until the Health Department finally recommends when it is safe to restart. Again, something that should have been done to begin with. I recommended this several months ago.

3. Immediately Sub-out education in Cleveland County to Charter Schools, Church Schools, Private Schools, Home Schools and Tutors. These folks don’t have Raleigh bureaucrats telling them what they can’t do, bogging them down. Shut down every school in the CCS system. Divide the CCS total Budget by the number of Students (About $10,000 per student per year) and let the money “follow the student.” That money would actually pay for his or her education instead of allowing Million$ to be wasted by a forever shut-down Cleveland County Schools. I did not invent this concept. It is called School Choice. Home school parents can get paid to stay home and teach their kids themselves. And the extra family money would help replace the need for that second job (or that second person working) many have to get to pay the bills. Same with new Charter Schools, Church Schools and Tutors. Laid off teachers from CCS could be tutors and teachers at these alternative education centers.

I recommend the third option. School Choice!!! Then School Board Chairman Robert Queen can keep all his secrets to himself and Poodle Glover could rant and rave ‘til the cows come home. And nobody would care.