The part that you cite is well known for a while now. No it is not SARS or MERS.
A small detail is: do you let a disease that is 10 times as deadly as flu (mind that flu is a huge killer every year, it is not the common cold) become even more deadly, 30 times the flu, by allowing everybody to get it at the same time so that hospital treatment becomes impossible?
My wife is a nurse practitioner working at a NY city hospital . Back in July she had an elevator accident where it fell from the 8th floor to
the basement . She is still at home recovering
As bad as that has been I am sort of relieved she is not back at work yet.
It seems Covid-19 can cause severe long-term damage to one's lungs. Here's an interesting arcticle the shows the virus impact on the lungs via virtual reality technology.
https://www.gwhospital.com/resources/podcasts/covid19-vr-technology
" [...] Dr. Mortman is especially concerned with the possibility of enduring damage to the lungs of those who survive COVID-19. “When that inflammation does not subside with time, then it becomes essentially scarring in the lungs, creating long-term damage,” he said. “It could impact somebody’s ability to breathe in the long term. [...]"
I haven’t heard of flu victims overtaxing the healthcare systems across the world as this has. The flu should not even be in the same conversation as this. These deaths and potential deaths are in addition to, not in place of flu deaths. It serves no purpose to downplay this except to encourage reckless behaviour. If it turns out to be overhyped then consider ourselves lucky.
Whew. Thought at first you said big NUN. That brings back some nightmares… 
Anyway, there are ways of “getting around” that. Eg, a patient who’s circling the drain and is only looking forward to a few more days (or hours) of pain, can be dosed with enough morphine to kill, but it’s officially done only with the intent to ease pain’n’suffering.
Ie, no jury would look too closely at the motive. Someone with a good chance of recovery, sure, but someone who’s already terminal, zero chance of recovery, nope.
Yeah, that’s one of those situations where an “anonymous tip” to the right agency would be warranted. Followed by the not-so-implicit threat that if nothing’s done by the next day, your next call is to the press to swarm the place, “out” it, and point out official inaction/incompetence.
True dat, but I’d guess the majority of those tested are those who are already feeling sick/coldy/fluey, not those who are asymptomatic and get tested just for fun.
Killjoy…
Here in the USA, when there has been a flu outbreak, people wouldn’t change their lives at all. Meaning, for most people, they wouldn’t exercise any public hygiene restrictions. No mask wearing. No sanitary wipes. No gloves. No distancing. After the highly virulent #COVID19 pandemic, I expect that for the next flu, there will be more caution. Knowing us Americans and our relatively “short memories,” that caution will subside. BUT… I expect in Europe, the change will be sustained much longer.
Yikes, that is a pretty scary accident. I’m glad to hear she is recovering.
Yeah, watching NY hospitals going through the same thing that happened in northern Italy I can’t imagine the thought process of someone still stuck on “but but the flu!”.
There are 5 requirements for awarding the Darwin Award: Darwin Awards: History and Rules
Reproduction
Out of the gene pool: dead or sterile.
Excellence
Astounding misapplication of judgment.
Self-Selection
Cause one’s own demise.
Maturity
Capable of sound judgment.
Veracity
The event must be true.
I’m not sure if no women past the age of menopause are ineligible for the award. |That’s not entirely clear. However most men are capable of reproducing well into old age. Maybe the “Maturity” part would eliminate many of the folks who flocked to the beaches in Florida for Spring break.
This is but one context. And there is one other factor not considered — “asymptomatic cases or minimally symptomatic cases” that remain as such. There are people who have been asymptomatic for up to nearly 30 days, then started showing symptoms. The symptomatic cycle appears to be about 2 weeks.
I watched an interview that Trevor Noah did with Dr. Fauci, which was excellent. So far the fatality rate looks higher compared to a severe seasonal influenza…
Citing the total deaths of a previous influenza season and comparing it to the #COVID19 pandemic at this point is out of context. :rage: We haven’t seen the final tally yet. And considering the exponential factor proving out with more testing, it’s even much more dynamic. The death count in the USA will be higher than it could have been, had there been more proactive action taken and some “high visibility” people not peddling false information.
Not sure if this has been posted already, but here is an outstanding, science based video on the effectiveness of face masks in a pandemic:
Exactly what I have thought, it’s not easy for the leaders to make the great decision “To lockdown a country/city or not”, and the leaders will be blamed either way.
Public’s health and economy, you can only do so much to strike a balance between these two.
Exactly. It makes no sense to compare a steady state system to a sudden and substantial perturbation to a system.
The preliminary evidence suggests Covid-19 is several times worse than the flu in several respects. But for sake of argument, even if it were less deadly intrinsically, the perturbation it is causing would still be of serious concern. It’s not like healthcare systems weren’t already stretched to their limits.
Also, it’s not just deaths that are of concern, which is of little worry for younger people, but also hospitalizations, since many younger people do get very sick even if they don’t die. Other diseases don’t vanish while dealing with this pandemic. Covid-19 can kill indirectly by reducing healthcare capacity for non-Covid-19 patients.
No, the world is not ending, it’s not an existential crisis, and the vast majority of people will be just fine. That does not mean it isn’t a serious problem.
There was an earlier comment about not living in fear, with which I fully agree. Importantly, though, a lack of fear should not be confused with recklessness. Courage vs stupidity.
Misinformation and downplaying literally cost lives.
Albert Einstein once said “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”
Exponential growth, and that’s how people accumulate their wealth through good investment.
Unfortunately for some bad things, exponential growth can also become a nightmare, a real nightmare. That’s exactly what crushes the medical system in some European countries.
Nice post! I love that they show and link their sources. I suspect, as the video noted in the last 3 minutes or so, that a partial reason for the recommendations regarding masks has been due to the shortage, leading to advice that prioritizes their use.
I love the quote that channel has in their About section. That alone makes me want to watch the rest of their videos.
Here’s their video on Covid-19:
Much of this information has been mentioned already, including the degree of contagiousness and comparison to other illnesses, but of note at 11:49 :
A copper in the uk fining a shop owner for marking outside her bakery so customers keep a distance between them in the line.
People keep comparing this to the flu and finding the differences, or predicted, or possible differences, but the flu comes and goes killing up to 80,000 Americans in a year without destroying American life, it’s economy and changing it forever.
This has become one of the most destructive events in world and American history, and the biggest of our lifetimes except for the few of WWII age and we have no idea what these reactions and unprecedented actions mean for the future, but we know that the cost is unimaginable.
Wait until we start learning what this shutting down of society did to lives and families and government, it has done the damage that we go to war to prevent, wars that cost many lives, to avoid something we see as worse.
The scale of this nightmarish destructive global reaction is where the argument lies.
With how many deaths caused by an uncontrolled COVID-19 in the US this year do you consider this epidemic worthy of the type of response that China and Europe have shown?