By Bill Rice at Brownstone dot org.

Author's note:

While I might be considered Substack's "early spread" author, for some inexplicable reason (until today) I've neglected to present powerful evidence that might further confirm that this "theory" should actually be considered as a "fact."

Four years ago, the San Jose Mercury News published a blockbuster exclusive story, documenting that six Americans apparently died from Covid in January 2020. All six deaths, recorded on death certificates, happened weeks before the first "official Covid death" in America and, some even before the first reported Covid death in Wuhan, China.

Furthermore, an official from the CDC's National Center for Health statistics considers these deaths to almost-certainly be caused by Covid.

Reading about "early" Covid deaths did not surprise me as I've long suspected that many people must have died from Covid in the winter of 2019-2020, pre-"official" Covid.

While I've long argued that Covid is not a "deadly" virus, I've never meant this literally. What I meant is that the huge number of deaths attributed to Covid must be vastly exaggerated. Just like with the flu, the vast majority of people who contract this virus will survive any illness it may cause.

However, I do know this respiratory virus can and no doubt has caused many deaths (even if these fatalities probably wouldn't produce a noticeable spike in "all-cause deaths.")

I'd remind readers that I began my "early spread" research by writing an in-depth feature story on Tim McCain of Sylacauga, Alabama.

Tim, 39 at the time, first exhibited definite Covid symptoms the day after Christmas 2019. By January 3rd, Tim's wife took him to the emergency room where he was then rushed in critical condition to a hospital in Birmingham.

Tim spent almost a month in the ICU and, per his wife, nearly died several times, including on January 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 2020. While Tim was fortunate to survive, it's always occurred to me that other people suffering the same symptoms and clinical markers must not have survived.

Tim and his wife both later tested positive for Covid antibodies and the director of ICU nursing later told Brandie McCain her husband "definitely" had Covid. If Tim had died in the first few days of January 2020 and if public health agencies had done their jobs, a resident of a small, rural Alabama town could have been considered the first Covid fatality in the world.

However, I have no doubt many Americans passed away from severe cases of this virus much earlier than Tim. Since nobody had heard of Covid-19 in November, December 2019, and early January 2020 - and there was no testing at the time - these deaths were simply attributed to pneumonia, the flu or any number of other causes.

I've re-printed the Mercury News article and also added excerpts from several other articles on a story that did NOT produce the national buzz one might have expected. I added a few editorial comments to highlight how the significance of early spread has been almost completely ignored.

Boldfaced text was added by me for emphasis.

Mercury News Exclusive from August 2021 - Covid Deaths Began Much Earlier Than Americans Thought

By EMILY DERUY

Aug. 22, 2021 - In a significant twist that could reshape our understanding of the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, death records now indicate the first COVID-related deaths in California and across the country occurred in January 2020, weeks earlier than originally thought and before officials knew the virus was circulating here.

A half dozen death certificates from that month in six different states - California, Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin - have been quietly amended to list COVID-19 as a contributing factor, suggesting the virus's deadly path quickly reached far beyond coastal regions that were the country's early known hotspots.

Up until now, the Feb. 6, 2020, death of San Jose's Patricia Dowd had been considered the country's first coronavirus fatalit...