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.
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.
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 :
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?
As far as I can tell, it is those who deny the seriousness of this situation who compare to the flu. This argument, a focus on early absolute numbers, and ignoring rates gets quite tiresome. Given the amount of explanation already provided, at some point one has to assume wilful ignorance.
Pandemics can be far more destructive and deadlier than wars, so I’m not sure where the surprise is. If anything that’s an argument to have a much stronger response.
Shutting down economies is a tremendously unpopular and disruptive move, so if typically slow moving governments around the world are taking this risk and acting relatively quickly, it should give an idea of the scale and urgency of the problem.
Right now we don’t know much of anything about the true numbers of this corona virus and we know nothing yet of how much our world will be damaged by the reaction to the early speculations and wild panic.
I think people need to relax some and keep an open un-panicked mind and wait for the analysis and criticisms that will start being written in the next few years.
I think that history will not treat this event and it’s results kindly.
Waiting before responding is not the advised tactic in expentionally spreading viruses, response must come before all the facts are known, that is the nature of the game in pandemics. Pandemics are the ultimate examples of better safe than sorry.
