I obviously agree with everything you said Terry. George... to go with your undiscovered theory of Covid -19 death rates if 5,000,000 have actually had the virus and 139,000 have died then that's a .0278 death rate. If that rate was applied to 35,500,000 million cases of the flu that would be 986,900 deaths. As Terry says.... and our medical experts have been saying for months....and many people have said who have contracted it.... this just isn't your everyday flu. I have talked with one person on the day the 38 year old was admitted in to intensive care later that night and it was the worst cough I can ever remember hearing over the phone.... very ominous and alarming. You don't want this one.
RE:masks What about all those folks who've already had it? Do they need a mask? Not at risk of catching or spreading (que Kesley to talk about severity and mutations! ) so why are they forced to wear a mask? So others will FEEL better?
So 1) we don't know absolutely that you can't get it again. 2) It'd be too cumbersome to say if you've had it and recovered..ie 2 neg tests in a 24 hour period, etec. You don't have to wear a mask. How do you enforce it? Give them an ID card? It would no doubt be abused, I can imagine those that should wear a mask but for what ever the reason don't want to wear one, telling the Walmart guy (they now require it as do I when patients come to my office) Oh I don't need it because I had it and recovered. Simplest solution is to have everybody wear a mask.
Not doubting the seriousness of this at all. But you have to be analytical in how you approach it. There is no doubt that the young people and vacationers are the engine driving this latest surge.
When the average age of those getting the virus is around 37 or 38 years old obviously it's not just the young partiers getting it. There's a lot of stubborn, careless middle aged people getting it too.
Don't disagree with that nor do I disagree that Public Health officials need stats. But as the public goes there isn't much we can do other than wear masks, wash our hands, try to social distance and avoid crowds. I don't know why that's so hard.
So I don't really understand the "it's just the flu" crowd myself. I know the flu kills people and it kills senior citizens more than young people...but when I see articles like this I just scratch my head. Provo • As she walked up to the podium to speak, one of the moms grabbed a face mask and spit her gum out into it. “It’s garbage,” she shrugged, wadding it up. “It doesn’t work anyway. Not for me and not for my kids.” In separate rallies, Utahns protest mask mandate and demand in-person classes
I know it’s worse than the common flu. I know we should wear masks and socially distance. Is it worth shutting down our entire economy and educational systems? Dunno but not a big believer in doing that.
Is it worse than the flu? Tough to say since the data is so poorly collected and coalated any conclusions are subject to many "BUTs"... Covid appears to be more contagious and more severe in the elderly and compromised. However I've seen more than one chart of data that shows overall death rate is trending lower than flu. Doubt well ever know definitively. What I do know is there is a large portion of the populace that is likely no more at risk than prior to 2020 and yet their lives are being drastically disrupted by heavy handed govt actions.
I'm re-posting below some numbers that allow for 1.5 million extra possible uncounted cases of Covid-19 but allow for only the recorded U.S. deaths without allowing for other possible deaths especially early on in the pandemic that may not have been counted as Covid related: "George... to go with your undiscovered theory of Covid -19 death rates if 5,000,000 have actually had the virus and 139,000 have died then that's a .0278 death rate. If that rate was applied to 35,500,000 million cases of the flu that would be 986,900 deaths." Without the drastic measures that the country has taken to reduce Covid transmission and measures that continue with masks and social distancing the highly contagious virus could probably approach or even exceed the numbers of the regular flu in number of cases..... and be around 1.3 million in deaths if the death rate is actually the .039 that it currently is showing with actual counted numbers.
Some more Florida related numbers: France, with a population of 67 million, reported 534 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday and 18 new deaths. Florida, where 21 million live, put up 13,965 new cases and a new record of 156 deaths on a day its pro-Trump Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed the media for the virus running out of control. DeSantis was saying the media "quit asking" about Covid in May and that led to complacency ( his own?) which was a Trumpian fantasy..... CNN replayed clips of him fielding numerous questions about the virus at different times in May.