Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

On My Mind: They Blinded Us From Science

Think this speaks to the Media peddling doom and gloom and not presenting the facts to the public. This is from the Florida discussion posted by jmoliver but thought it should be in the U.S. discussion as well.

 

I have a hard time believing people don't know the actual numbers. How is it possible to avoid them, they are everywhere. It would be interesting to see a survey where they ask for actual numbers rather than percentages. I wonder if these results just indicate that we are bad at math rather than misinformed about the spread of the virus.

 

Respectfully disagree. Believe most people are misinformed. Very difficult to find the data when most of the media paint everything in the worst possible light. It's not just Covid that the media does this with. It's everything, from Obama for 8 years and Trump the last 4. Fox treated Obama terribly and the MSM has treated Trump very poorly(though he brought most of it on himself).

 

The US isn't the only country infected with idiocracy:

Wuhan hosts massive water park party as coronavirus concerns recede - CNN

 

Believe it Phil. I work both in an office and as a coach.
Teens have basically zero risk- but they are panicked. (Not all, but enough.)
And a colleague, who is college educated, in management, etc, is out of her mind worried on this.
Like- going to the Wal-Mart and buying up all the Lysol wipes worried. (She is 45-50.)

Most people are not as well-informed as the TH folks.
They just get a general sense of things from the news, and since the network news is losing their minds on this, they think that is accurate and applies to all groups equally.

 

I don't understand the need to diminish someone who is concerned and taking precautions. I mean, "out of her mind" or hysterical would be one thing. But in reality, there is a non-zero change of dying if you catch covid. It's pretty damn easy to take a handful of steps for peace of mind that can pretty much eliminate your chance of catching it. Limit contact with others, wear a mask when you have to be around other people, wipe down objects/surfaces that have been touched by others. Eliminate the vectors, eliminate your chance of catching it. Pretty simple really.

I mean, the other option is to put your head in the sand, and let it run unchecked until we reach a theoretical herd immunity. That would probably require 250+ million people to get infected, and at just a 1% fatality rate, could mean 2.5 million dead Americans.

Given the two extremes, I think I'll take your colleague who is being overly cautious with the Lyson wipes...

 

Probably already debunked by now. Havent read this thread in several days...
But Snopes says "False" to this one.

Are 'Neck Gaiters' Worse at COVID-19 Transmission Than Foregoing Masks Altogether?

 

Yeah, big help she is if she buys out ALL the Lysol wipes.

 

Where do you live? I live in a red state and 95% of people have masks on everywhere I go, and here at work in our offices and retail buildings it is 100% and that is with hundreds of people a day coming and going.

You are confusing people complaining about masks with people wearing them.

 

You live a purple state. After November, you will likely have a Dem governor, and a Dem senator. And Dems will likely make gains in the House too now that your congressional districts aren't grotesquely gerrymandered.

 

Perhaps you would. It's easy though to take a false choice, like you just did, or actually approach this with the real stats in mind.
My colleague, at one point, was absolutely obsessed.
Like if another colleague was out (for vacation, work travel, or another reason) openly speculating as to whether they had COVID and whether that person had passed it to the office.

And then it got worse from there. But perhaps you are like this too- I have no idea. (Which is why you are defending it- makes sense.)
I can tell you it really hurts morale and causes a lot of lost respect.

I know you're going to hate this, but there is a 3rd way outside of going insane, gossiping about others, and buying up 25 containers of Lysol wipes so no one else in our small town can get them. (Yes this really happened.)

And that is to look at the numbers, and assess the situation based on the numbers and facts. What a concept!

The fact is that for healthy adults under 55 this is closer to the flu.
In fact the death rate up until July 29 was 2 in 100K for those 45 and under. Obviously, this will go up as time goes on, but that is basically nothing.
And that includes those w/ co-morbidities and other hazards.
Adjusting those with special risk factors out means it is close to zero, or again, like the flu. And much less deadly than alcohol, motor vehicles, etc.

Now, for those over 65, I also agree with 95. My (limited) experience is that they don't take it seriously enough.

 

I generally agree with the points here, with the addition that COVID-19 causes permanent organ damage to various internal organs in some victims and it has not been studied well enough to understand the percentages of people impacted like this.

There is too much focus just on whether or not people survive and not enough on permanent adverse health conditions arising from this virus.

 

Focus on the long term has to follow the preservation of life. Basic triage.

 

I was in your state less than a month ago and that wasn't my observation at all. I saw tons of people in restaurants that weren't practicing social distancing, bars that were clearly open with people congregating, and went to the grocery store where many people (at least half) weren't wearing masks. We spent a night in Georgia driving back and forth and even the employees of the hotels weren't wearing masks.

In New Orleans, people wear masks. Outside the city, there was far less observation of masking.

 

I don't disagree, but we cannot say that we understand risk if we only measure one aspect of risk (death) and ignore permanent injuries.

This is particularly important in a country where its still up in the air as to whether people will get affordable health care coverage with preexisting conditions. If any health care at all.

 

It is pretty consistent that there is about 60-70% adherence to the mask request from the governor of North Carolina. That is not my "view", that is information reported on the news. In grocery shopping settings that grows to over 90% and in other non-grocery retail we are seeing pretty good adherence as well.

However, distancing seems to be lost on people and people act like as long as they know someone, they must be safe. Just driving around my neighborhood at night I see block parties and/or multi-house gatherings that spill out onto the streets. Move away from the urban areas out into rural settings you are more likely to run across people who are completely dismissive of the virus......while at the same time some of the worst outbreaks in North Carolina have come in these same areas.

All in all, it is a mixed bag for North Carolina, but more good than bad after greater buy in on the mask request. See the new case trend for 8/18....not great, but very much in the correct direction.

 

Here is another survey where they ask people about percentages and get wildly wrong answers.

COVID-19 Opinion Tracker - Edition 4

In the US people say 20% of Americans have the virus and 9% of Americans have died. That would be something like 65 million infected and 30 million dead.

How could that possibly be the average of what respondents in the US believed about the numbers in the US?

In this survey, like the other one, respondents were asked about percentages. I'm still convinced that the wildly wrong numbers are a function of trying to translate from the totals that are easily accessible to percentages.

 

I'm going to go with the person who lives there everyday over a person visiting.

 

Bars are not even open in North Carolina. They have been closed all along. That has been a huge point of contention, but they are closed by state order. Literally every restaurant in our town that I have walked into makes you wear a mask until seated and has every other table closed. 70% of FF chains are drive thru only still.

It is easily 90% here in Wilmington.

What town were you in?