Imagine we are in the year 2025.  It is announced that a new virus strain has seemingly been discovered.  It is a form of the sniffles.  It is a novel sniffles.  Sometimes it is called Sniffles-25.

The primary symptom of the sniffles is a runny nose.  Most people have to use a tissue to wipe their nose unless they use their sleeve.  Some people who are getting sick with the sniffles show signs of other symptoms, which can include tiredness, headache, upset stomach, and lethargy.  But a runny nose is the primary and common symptom amongst people with the novel sniffles.

If anyone gets the novel sniffles and goes to the hospital, the hospital will get reimbursed a greater amount if certain equipment is used.  If the person with the sniffles dies, then the hospital gets even more.  So it is important for the hospital to document whether a patient had a runny nose when entering the hospital.

There are still about 325 million people living in the United States at this time, and almost 3 million people die every year of various causes.  We’ll say that 2.8 million people die every year.

About 8 percent of the population currently has a runny nose or has experienced a runny nose in the last 7 days.  Anyone who has used a tissue to wipe their nose in the last 7 days is assumed to have Sniffles-25.

Anyone who dies who has used a tissue to wipe their nose in the last 7 days is listed as Sniffles-25 positive, and the death certificate should identify this.

The 8 percent of the population who have been deemed to have Sniffles-25 within the last week are spread out somewhat randomly.  It impacts all ages of people.

There are 2.8 million deaths every year in the country, and about 8 percent of them have a runny nose within a week of dying.  Therefore, by the end of the year 2025, it could be said that 224,000 people died with the sniffles.  This includes someone who is 95 years old with cancer, and it includes someone who dies in a motorcycle crash.

But when the media reports these deaths, they accidentally change one word.  Instead of saying “with”, they say “of”.  Therefore, it is reported that 224,000 people died in the year 2025 of the sniffles.

It gets a lot of people scared.  People who get the sniffles and start experiencing other symptoms like headache or tiredness feel that they need professional help and will often go to the hospital for treatment.  Fear of the sniffles has managed to shut down the economy and have nearly everyone walking around with a mask on.  If you have to wipe your nose, you had better seek some privacy so as not to alarm other people.

This was the year 2025 with the novel strain of the sniffles.  While people had experienced runny noses before, there was never anything like this.  But by the end of the year, there were millions of people walking around saying that the sniffles had killed well over 200,000 Americans.

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This is not a claim that COVID-19 is the sniffles.  This is not a claim that COVID-19 cannot be dangerous to anyone. This is not a claim that nobody should take COVID-19 seriously.  This is not a claim that nobody has died of COVID-19 as a contributing factor.  These are different discussions.

It is a claim that you should be careful in citing that over 200,000 Americans have died “of” COVID-19.