Dear Editor: The media have been neglecting to publish articles and information about the COVID-19 virus that do not meet the mass media narrative. This needs to stop. For example:

Vaccine — Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist of WHO, is quoted as saying: “I don’t believe we have the evidence on any of the vaccines to be confident that it’s going to prevent people from actually getting the infection and therefore being able to pass it on.”

The media have been claiming that the Trump administration has been ignoring the information and advice from the WHO, yet they have failed to publish information such as this from WHO’s chief scientist.

Test reliability — As of today, the CDC notes 19 million positive COVID-19 results. Yet, many feel the tests are not accurate.

The FDA has already alerted that the rapid detection tests are susceptible to false positives. Has any news organization published this information? No.

Virus spread and masks — A report from University of Florida researchers have found no asymptomatic or presymptomatic spread of COVID. The study was published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Why has this not been highlighted by any news article? If valid, why are people with no symptoms required to wear masks and maintain social distancing? If masks are effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19, why is it that states and cities that have the strongest mask mandates and mask enforcement have the highest infection rates?

Lastly, CDC says only 6% of all deaths attributed to COVID-19 are due only to the virus. Why are the published numbers so much larger? Could it be the financial incentive to attribute death to COVID-19? CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) pays hospitals a 20% “bonus” for confirmed COVID-19 positive test results.

Also, it should be noted that as a nation, we will end the year with no greater number of total deaths than previous years.

Kevin Purdy, Powell

(Editor’s note: The study from University of Florida researchers, available online at www.bit.ly/2KJwNLa, suggested people who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic are less infectious rather than not infectious. As of early October, the CDC estimated there had been roughly 299,000 excess deaths in the U.S. in 2020, with about 198,000 attributed to COVID-19. Through late November, the CDC reported more than 2.96 million deaths — an increase of some 352,000 deaths from the same point in 2019.)