Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

How odd Florida and Georgia are showing decreases. Are they following the scientific breakthrough no tests , no cases?

 

Interesting graphic comparing Sweden and Illinois. Similar population and population density. Illinois has had strict lockdowns and mask mandates. Sweden has not. Just food for thought.

 

Only the left because they didn't follow everyone else's stupid decision to shut down.

 

Article on hospitalizations data opaqueness...

As coronavirus cases rise swiftly around the country, surpassing both the spring and summer surges, health officials brace for a coming wave of hospitalizations and deaths. Knowing which hospitals in which communities are reaching capacity could be key to an effective response to the growing crisis. That information is gathered by the federal government — but not shared openly with the public.

NPR has obtained documents that give a snapshot of data the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services collects and analyzes daily. The documents — reports sent to agency staffers — highlight trends in hospitalizations and pinpoint cities nearing full hospital capacity and facilities under stress. They paint a granular picture of the strain on hospitals across the country that could help local citizens decide when to take extra precautions against COVID-19.

Withholding this information from the public and the research community is a missed opportunity to help prevent outbreaks and even save lives, say public health and data experts who reviewed the documents for NPR.

"At this point, I think it's reckless. It's endangering people," says Ryan Panchadsaram, co-founder of the website COVID Exit Strategy and a former data official in the Obama administration. "We're now in the third wave, and I think our only way out is really open, transparent and actionable information."

Internal Documents Reveal COVID-19 Hospitalization Data The Government Keeps Hidden

 

They’ve got ten times the death rate of their neighbors in Finland and Norway.

 

Yes, but it's too late for a different solution. The solution was to use the lockdown to develop a comprehensive plan to combat this pandemic, but we didn't do enough. We did some things, e.g. we've developed far more effective treatment regimen, significantly expanded testing capacity, procured enough ventilators and PPEs for medical personnel, but a critical thing we missed on was an effective strategy to prevent transmissions once we opened back up. For example, protective gear for schools and businesses are lacking, mask mandates have been sporadic and oftentimes poorly enforced, and there was never an effective contact tracing program.

At this point, lockdown fatigue has set in, I don't think more lockdowns are gonna help unless hospitals are being overwhelmed. If sick individuals can't access hospitals then there will be widespread panic and we'd have no choice but to lockdown, but at that point you're just putting out fires with no hope of completely putting it out.

Most people don't wear masks that help prevent

They have by far the highest death rate in Scandinavia, which is I think a more appropriate comparison than Illinois, no? I'd imagine the differences in demographics, culture, and access to healthcare between Sweden and Illinois is a lot more than between Sweden and Norway, Finland, and Denmark.

 

Those countries are smaller and more spread out. Illinois is very close to them is size and population density. I know it doesn't fit the narrative. Sorry.

 

Who has handled the pandemic well? Germany has. And most of Asia. But most of Europe is exploding much worse than the US right now and many of those countries had massive lockdowns. I don't believe Scandinavia is a apt comparison because those other countries aren't the same population density as Sweden. Also, most of the Scandinavian countries don't have mask mandates and most didn't have extensive lockdowns like most of Europe did.

 

I've never heard recovery rates being reported here in Maryland.

 

Sweden- 22.5 people per km^2
Finland- 16.6 per km^2
Norway- 17.0 per km^2
Illinois- 89.6 per km^2

One of these is not like the others.

 

So 88% of the people in Sweden live in Urban areas, the same as in Illinois. Sounds similar to me.

 

Sorry back at you. If every single COVID death in Finland was in Helsinki, the Helsinki death rate would be half of Sweden’s. There have been 178 in Helsinki. There are 1.3 million residents. 178 divided by 1.3 = 137 per million. Sweden is 587 per million.

The most densely populated city in Finland is way under Sweden’s death rate.

Thanks for playing.

 

Good for Helsinki. Doesn't change what I said. Sweden has done very well considering they had not lockdown measures. As opposed to most of Europe, which is going thru crazy high numbers right now even though just about every country had massive lockdowns. Much higher than the US currently.

 

as a aside, hope none of you live in california, bummer of a thanksgiving coming up, can't wait for the christmas edicts, guess no baby jesus with the 3 wise men, not socially distanced and all.

 

It changes your argument against my statement of fact.

 

Nope. Good try though

 

Very Trumpian of you.

You push back on population density. I show more densely populated Helsinki lower than all of less densely populated Sweden. You declare victory. Hilarious.

 

I hate Trump. Good effort again! Keep reaching.

 

You don’t have to like Trump to invent facts like he does. Keep stumbling.