Pardon me, I didn’t stop to think: that meme had the forbidden “V” word in it.
Or is it Covid that’s controversial? (Covid is the subject of this thread, though.)
My daughter is recuperating well from the surgery, except she (stubbornly) exerted herself too soon and as of yesterday she has a bulge…. maybe a hernia. So she has to go in and get that checked. She was under a lot of pressure from her ex (very recently finalized divorce) to get some of her stuff moved out of the house. We all told her to get help and to not lift anything, but that’s how it goes.
Back to the subject at hand… I recall from last March or April, when the number of Covid deaths was lower than today and when Covid looked nowhere near as serious as Spanish flu, folks said it was too early to use those death numbers because it surely would get worse. And the numbers have gotten worse, all right. It’s been just about one year since Covid came onto our ‘radar’ (so to speak) and, in that time, well over 2.2 million deaths worldwide have now been chalked up to this virus. Breaking out my calculator, about 0.029% of the world’s population has succumbed to it. If we were to guess that this virus will continue to devastate the world at the same rate for 2 more years, we’ll lose 0.088% of the world’s people to Covid.
Looking at the Spanish flu death toll, estimates range from 17 million to 50 million people. Taking the lower number of 17,000,000 for an optimistic comparison, and accounting for lower world population back then (1.6 billion), we see that Spanish flu killed at least 1% of the world’s people. If the upper number of 50M actually died from it, the death toll was 3.1. So, the real number probably lies somewhere between 1 and 3.1%.
If I assume the lower number for Spanish flu deaths, and if I assume that Covid will rampage unabated for 2 more years, then it is plain to me that Covid might actually wind up being almost one-tenth as bad as the worst influenza outbreak in recorded history.
similar report from USA congress, vaccinated members, even with both doses, still catch and test positive for corona. Even if they remain asymptomatic, they continue to be contagious to others.
“researchers found that people with HIV who were taking tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and emtricitabine (FTC) were far less likely to be hospitalized or placed in the ICU when compared to other HIV-positive people taking different ART medications.”
Any RA sufferers here. I was wondering what your doctors have been telling you about RA medicines and covid? I know they change your immune system which probably could make you more vulnerable to covid? Or maybe they prevent your immune system from going crazy fighting off covid?
Rexlion - interesting numbers. Have you compared the two outbreaks and death tolls in regards to people's ages? The Spanish flu killed mostly young people. Wikipedia has it at 99% of the deaths in the US the first year were people under 65 and half in the 20-40 year old range. That's nothing like what we are currently experiencing.
That’s an interesting observation. I wasn’t aware that Spanish flu was so much more deadly among the younger people than Covid-19 is. Thanks!
It’s a valid comparison. Actually, the reason I made the comparison was because, when some of us said last March and April that Covid was nowhere near as serious as the 1917-‘18 flu outbreak, others shouted it down by saying it was way too early to make the comparison. Well, it’s no longer too early to compare, and our early assessment has proven to be correct. But in the meantime, everyone’s been scared out of their wits. People are utterly traumatized with fear of catching this ’deadly pestilence’ (the one that gives the vast majority of patients mild flu-like symptoms).
I don’t see a point of this thread if only certain viewpoints are permitted to be discussed. I feel bad for SB, not an easy situation to deal with. I appreciate that there’s at least one place on this global forum to talk about a thing that’s disrupting everyone’s lives, but if only certain people get to share their grievances, experiences, concerns, fears, or even opinions, I begin to have issues with it. I feel like there is justification for banning the topic entirely under the premise of it being BudgetLightForum, and the long standing rules prohibiting controversial topics. If milk toast and regurgitation of mainstream news stories is all that’s allowed, I feel like we don’t need it here.
I know I should just continue to keep my mouth shut and not share my 2 cents. I’ve ignored this thread about 85% of the time, and when I’ve indulged, it never seems to be a beneficial exercise.
I share this with respect for everyone and their individual experience and perspective. I wish this wasn’t so difficult.
I believe the idea behind the rule, if I’m not mistaken, is to prohibit certain topics, not to prohibit any viewpoints about each topic that is permitted.
Thankless job it is too. Sb’s done a great job IMO keeping the peace and still allowing us to mostly express our opinions. When he asked some time ago if we should eliminate this thread, I had mixed thoughts. Now I’m glad we didn’t. I like this thread as a place to blow off a little steam about what can be a volatile subject. Better here than buttin heads with somebody out in the street, don’t you think? JMO
Wellp, problem is that there are a lot of people (and make no mistake, on both sides), who simply Must Be Right, and will dog you ’til you drop. And aha!, you made a spelling error, so obviously your whole point of view is thus wrong and can be dismissed in its entirety, etc.
And like a dog with a chew-rag, they Just Won’t Let Go. If they “correct” the slightest detail to try to poke holes in your arguments, that can descend into calling The Other Side things like idiots, evildoers, conspiracy theorists, Nazis, whatever.
And that’s just toilet-paper over vs under, crumple vs fold, “Laurel” vs “Yanni”, you name it. Doesn’t need to be politix or religion or anything.
