Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

It's amazing, isn't it? A lot of the same people who claimed the early death projections were way too high are now saying 800k deaths is no big deal.

 

Never said it is the same, nice try. I said it is similarly not dangerous to the young and healthy and should be treated the same as any other virus with the same risk profile.

And yes, I don't believe it is OK to ask 90% of the world's population to put life on hold for 10% of the population, especially given that many in that 10% are completely willing to take on the risk of interacting with others. My own grandparents are in their 80s and have cancer. Neither are vaccinated and while I am, my wife and son are not. Before we visited I asked if they are OK with that - they told me definitely as if it is their time it is their time. When I'm 75 I'm not going to ask the whole world to stop going around for something when I'm perfectly capable of getting all the vaccines I want, wearing 7 masks and ordering my groceries online to get dropped of into my trunk (which pretty much every store does now).

Whose priorities are messed up, the 90% who want the 10% to take precautions or the 10% who think 90% of the world should just stop for them rather than taking responsibility for their health and safety?

 

Sure it's a big deal, but using data and facts we can figure out who is likely to have complications and keep them out of society if they choose. No need to tell me I need a covid permit to eat at a restaurant. Thank the good lord I live in Tennessee, where the only impact we had from covid was a couple weeks of shutdowns until our government figured out it wasn't risky to almost anyone.

Approximately 1.35 million people each year are killed in car accidents. Does this mean that we should enact laws that limit driving to and from work and essential services (doctor appointment, grocery store max once per week, etc...). No, probably not, but it does mean that we should have policies to limit risk like forcing the elderly to take driving tests regularly, keeping people with certain health conditions off the road, and enforcing vehicle safety standards. We don't just shut it all down and make people ride bikes.

 

18-49 deaths due to Covid, even with all of the NPIs and higher vaccination rate, are about 11.8x higher per year (assuming Covid over 2 full years to be conservative in the analysis) than flu deaths from prior to Covid (I used the 2017-2018 numbers). Comparing apples-to-apples (i.e., flu deaths in the same season with Covid restrictions), that number escalates to a little over 53x. "Similarly" seems to be a pretty big stretch.

 

So you've got your non-vaccinated family visiting your non-vaccinated cancer patient grandparents. Tells me all I need to know.

 

Less than 40K per year die from auto accidents in the US and still we have a tremendous amount of regulations over cars and driving. More than 800K have died from covid in less than 2 years. So we have well over 10 times as many people dying per year from covid as we do from auto accidents. But no big deal, right?

 

After the Gator football season and the last month of basketball you’ve paid your dues. This should be easy by comparison.

We are getting quite a few positive tests at work/work-from-home on the west side of the state. More than we’ve seen all year.

Get well soon.

 

The legend himself is vaxed, boosted, and proud of his admin’s work supporting the development of vaccines and treatments. I agree with him. The US did a great job up until adoption of vaccines.

 

Good for him. He's right. His stats are a bit exaggerated but this is what he should be doing. He's in a unique position to change the narrative and it is too bad he waited until now.

 

Well a lot of his supporters are dying from covid. He needs them to get vaxxed.

 

This is incredible

Omicron Variant Accounts for 73% of U.S. Covid-19 Cases, CDC Says

The CDC said Monday that Omicron had overtaken the Delta variant of the coronavirus in the U.S. and accounted for an estimated 73% of infections for the week ending Dec. 18.

In many parts of the U.S., Omicron now makes up more than 90% of cases, the CDC said. Infectious-disease experts have said they believe the true share is likely even higher than that.

A week ago, the CDC’s data showed Omicron had

 

If it's moving this fast hopefully it will burn out fast too.

 

Then why have the majority of the those hospitalized or died are among the unvaccinated?

 

Must appreciate the complete bold-faced selfishness to put the deaths of the elderly, or diabetic or severe hypertensive on the same level as him perhaps having to carry a covid card. Oh the horror.

 

Most who have died had underlying conditions, over weight or over the age of 60

 

You've just carved out a substantial chunk of the population. Possibly 40-50%.

 

But it still leaves one with the tough moral decision of having to weigh wearing a mask, or worse, having to carry a covid card vs an older person or diabetic dying.

 

Not to long ago, I went to a family wedding in a small town in Arkansas.
We ended up leaving early due some flags being flown and fights breaking out…. Seems Grandad just died of Covid because antivaxer son talked him out of getting vaccinated. One of their other friends managed to spread it around doing Church home visits.
Sometimes it feels like I am still at that wedding.

and in a related point about crap, allegedly, per NPR,Florida and a few other states get the most accurate spread data from testing sewage, because that is all we test

 

All true, just look it up

 

No not really. If you're truly worried about getting covid or the flu stay home