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Question for Covid doubters (non-political)

This is just anecdotal, but maybe more people are getting the flu vaccine. I know a lot of people who are avid anti-flu vaxxers who got the flu vaccine this season. The CDC website says that 193 million flu vaccines were given this season, compared to 175 million last season.
I really really hope that continues to increase, because we might see the flu come roaring back as bad as ever in the next couple of years.
 
@AU_Panther , thick and red. Just like you likem. Me too, btw
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You sir are a scholar and a gentleman. We have to meet so that I can buy you a beer!
 
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For those that think the Covid numbers are inflated; what do you think the motivation is for that? Also, how do you reconcile that numbers of severe cases have been recorded worldwide?

I know that some people still don’t think that Covid is any more severe than the flu based on the lowered overall death rate, but I think they really believe that the numbers are inflated and manipulated by medical professionals. How and why?
Higher compensation for COVID cases.
 
Higher compensation for COVID cases.
Yeah, that’s actually a solid theory, but to what point does that skew the total severity, if that’s the case? Also, would that also explain the high numbers in other countries that use different resource allocation methodologies?
 
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I think Covid is much more severe than Fox News would have you believe and much less severe than CNN and Trevor Noah would have you believe.

I think the numbers are pretty accurate. And I also think some deaths are slightly overstated so they’d get better reimbursements.

Happy to offend you all. Enjoy your Easter weekend.
 
Flu less contagious than Covid and mask and social distancing have significantly reduced flu infections this year.
Yikes. Do people really believe that?
Dude you can’t be serious.

1) Around far fewer people than normal
2) Further distance from those you are around
3) Everyone wearing masks in public
4) Constant surgeon like hand washing
5) Constantly sanitizing surfaces

Is it truly your theory that all of those things wouldn’t substantially reduce the spread of any infections disease? Or am I posting in a troll thread?
 
For those that think the Covid numbers are inflated; what do you think the motivation is for that? Also, how do you reconcile that numbers of severe cases have been recorded worldwide?

I know that some people still don’t think that Covid is any more severe than the flu based on the lowered overall death rate, but I think they really believe that the numbers are inflated and manipulated by medical professionals. How and why?

money and politics bro
 
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I assume you mean for older people, but it most certainly isn't more severe for children and most people under the age of 50.
Why are you embarrassing yourself by repeating versions of this idiotic lie? You have offered several different age brackets and none of them have been remotely accurate. 24k+ people under the age of 50 have died from COVID. 2,500 Americans under the age of 50 died from the flu in 2018-2019.

.
 
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I would not argue that Covid is more contagious than the flu, what I would argue is the validity of the numbers we are given.

Fact is those pushing those numbers have personal agendas driven to force them to”misstate” the numbers.

Ther is no way that the flu was eradicated because of Covid or the simple wearing of mask, IF mask were the sole answer to eradicating the flu the flu would not have existed in Asia since around 2002 when it bacame common practice to wear mask by all.
There is no vast conspiracy by the American medical community to inflate COVID numbers. That's one of the more ridiculous claims that has been repeated constantly during this crisis. We have numerous doctors here on the bunker who have provided first-hand accounts of the serious situation at their hospitals which correlates with the numbers that were being reported nationally during the worst surges in cases and hospitalizations. They have all told us that there is certainly no effort by the medical community to falsely inflate the COVID numbers by misdiagnosing seasonal flu cases.

Children are the primary vector for seasonal flu infection so shutting down many schools and requiring masks are primary reasons why flu cases are down this year. The flu is also less infectious than COVID which is why the measures being taken to stop COVID have been much more effective against the flu. It's also not just the flu which has been drastically reduced, a similar impact has been observed on almost all seasonal viruses across the globe, including countries like Australia which successfully prevented COVID from spreading out of control. You don't have to take my word for it though, this issue has been covered widely and there are many doctors who have offered explanations.

“I’d be very surprised if we have a typical flu season now,” says John McCauley, a virologist who directs the Worldwide Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute in London. “To see nothing so far, it’s difficult to see how it’s going to come up in large numbers in January.”

“But I don’t think it’s the vaccine” that accounts for the mercifully light flu season, McCauley says. Instead, he and others point to COVID-19 measures such as mask wearing, social distancing, and travel restrictions. As in the Southern Hemisphere early last year, efforts that failed to fully control SARS-CoV-2 have brought less infectious seasonal viruses to heel—including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes serious illness in infants and the elderly.


The drastic behavioral changes that the pandemic has forced the world to adopt have almost certainly played a role. Widespread masking, lockdowns, and other measures that helped squelch the coronavirus in countries such as Australia appear to have wiped out other respiratory viruses too. Travel bans, instated to keep people from carrying the coronavirus across international borders, cut off the conduits for other viruses to hopscotch between countries and seed new outbreaks—a phenomenon known to ferry flu viruses between the North and the South every year.

“Flu just tends to be a lot less transmissible, which means it’s easier to suppress it,” says Shweta Bansal, a disease ecologist at Georgetown University. “That’s partly why we’re getting away with an imperfect response right now.”

All these factors together might have cleared a path for the coronavirus to jostle its way to the top, at the expense of other viruses. That tussle might even be playing out directly in individual airways: People’s immune systems tend to remain on guard for a while after they’ve cleared an infection by one virus, bolstering them against immediate invasion by another. This balance of power won’t necessarily persist in the long term, though. Viruses that settle into a population may eventually learn to play nice with one another—perhaps becoming cordial roommates, setting up simultaneous infections in the same individual, even riling one another up.

Many of these measures have long been known to successfully combat the spread of disease. “Each year, we try to get vaccination rates up, to get sick people to stay home,” says Ibukun Akinboyo, a pediatrician and infectious-disease physician at Duke University. “This is the first year we have this many people masking, washing their hands, and being aware of their symptoms.”

 
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For those that think the Covid numbers are inflated; what do you think the motivation is for that? Also, how do you reconcile that numbers of severe cases have been recorded worldwide?

I know that some people still don’t think that Covid is any more severe than the flu based on the lowered overall death rate, but I think they really believe that the numbers are inflated and manipulated by medical professionals. How and why?
You got this
 
For those that think the Covid numbers are inflated; what do you think the motivation is for that? Also, how do you reconcile that numbers of severe cases have been recorded worldwide?

I know that some people still don’t think that Covid is any more severe than the flu based on the lowered overall death rate, but I think they really believe that the numbers are inflated and manipulated by medical professionals. How and why?
Look up an article that was posted in October of 2019. I read it on science direct. Its crossmarked and has sites.

The issue isn't if covid is real. It's that it is a result of virus interference. The study I read is from the flu seasons of 2017 and 2018. There were only two virus interference results from the flu shot. Guess what they were? Corona and a pneumonia
 
I assume you mean for older people, but it most certainly isn't more severe for children and most people under the age of 50.
We now have someone here who can READ and who can understand statistics, distributions and math. I’d argue Jim that the age cutoff is more like 65 and older, but to be conservative I’d go with your 50 cutoff as well.

For those under 50 without a severe comorbidity, COVID can bring bad flu-like symptoms for a week or two or a short-term hospitalization, in the worst case, but statistically it more than likely is not going to kill you (lesser statistical odds than the flu for this category). As anecdotal evidence, I’ve had many people in their 20s and 30s say it was like “having the flu.” Those are the facts and reflective of the stats so take that however you want.

There is no question that policy has NOT
been driven off science since we began to better understand this virus. If you believe it hasn’t been anything but positioning for political gain for the most part, you are either dumb, ignorant or both.
 
There is no vast conspiracy by the American medical community to inflate COVID numbers. That's one of the more ridiculous claims that has been repeated constantly during this crisis. We have numerous doctors here on the bunker who have provided first-hand accounts of the serious situation at their hospitals which correlates with the numbers that were being reported nationally during the worst surges in cases and hospitalizations. They have all told us that there is certainly no effort by the medical community to falsely inflate the COVID numbers by misdiagnosing seasonal flu cases.

Children are the primary vector for seasonal flu infection so shutting down many schools and requiring masks are primary reasons why flu cases are down this year. The flu is also less infectious than COVID which is why the measures being taken to stop COVID have been much more effective against the flu. It's also not just the flu which has been drastically reduced, a similar impact has been observed on almost all season viruses across the globe, including countries like Australia which successfully prevented COVID from spreading out of control. You don't have to take my word for it though, this issue has been covered widely and there are many doctors who have offered explanations.

“I’d be very surprised if we have a typical flu season now,” says John McCauley, a virologist who directs the Worldwide Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute in London. “To see nothing so far, it’s difficult to see how it’s going to come up in large numbers in January.”

“But I don’t think it’s the vaccine” that accounts for the mercifully light flu season, McCauley says. Instead, he and others point to COVID-19 measures such as mask wearing, social distancing, and travel restrictions. As in the Southern Hemisphere early last year, efforts that failed to fully control SARS-CoV-2 have brought less infectious seasonal viruses to heel—including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes serious illness in infants and the elderly.


The drastic behavioral changes that the pandemic has forced the world to adopt have almost certainly played a role. Widespread masking, lockdowns, and other measures that helped squelch the coronavirus in countries such as Australia appear to have wiped out other respiratory viruses too. Travel bans, instated to keep people from carrying the coronavirus across international borders, cut off the conduits for other viruses to hopscotch between countries and seed new outbreaks—a phenomenon known to ferry flu viruses between the North and the South every year.

“Flu just tends to be a lot less transmissible, which means it’s easier to suppress it,” says Shweta Bansal, a disease ecologist at Georgetown University. “That’s partly why we’re getting away with an imperfect response right now.”

All these factors together might have cleared a path for the coronavirus to jostle its way to the top, at the expense of other viruses. That tussle might even be playing out directly in individual airways: People’s immune systems tend to remain on guard for a while after they’ve cleared an infection by one virus, bolstering them against immediate invasion by another. This balance of power won’t necessarily persist in the long term, though. Viruses that settle into a population may eventually learn to play nice with one another—perhaps becoming cordial roommates, setting up simultaneous infections in the same individual, even riling one another up.

Many of these measures have long been known to successfully combat the spread of disease. “Each year, we try to get vaccination rates up, to get sick people to stay home,” says Ibukun Akinboyo, a pediatrician and infectious-disease physician at Duke University. “This is the first year we have this many people masking, washing their hands, and being aware of their symptoms.”

This is excellent. It amazes me that today truth no longer matters to most people.
 
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We now have someone here who can READ and who can understand statistics, distributions and math. I’d argue Jim that the age cutoff is more like 65 and older, but to be conservative I’d go with your 50 cutoff as well.

For those under 50 without a severe comorbidity, COVID can bring bad flu-like symptoms for a week or two or a short-term hospitalization, in the worst case, but statistically it more than likely is not going to kill you (lesser statistical odds than the flu for this category). As anecdotal evidence, I’ve had many people in their 20s and 30s say it was like “having the flu.” Those are the facts and reflective of the stats so take that however you want.

There is no question that policy has NOT
been driven off science since we began to better understand this virus. If you believe it hasn’t been anything but positioning for political gain for the most part, you are either dumb, ignorant or both.
As pointed out above, the statistics prove this is false. 2,500 Americans under the age of 50 died from the flu in 2018-19. 24,000+ have died from COVID. If you want to use your 65 age as a cut off, 8,500 died from the flu in 2018-19 while 104k+ under the age of 65 have died from COVID. Go ahead and expand it out to deaths of all ages from the flu in 2018-19 and you have 34,000 which is still less than one third of the number under the age of 65 who have died from COVID. Anyone who still claims COVID is less deadly than the flu has been duped by right-wing political propaganda.

.

 
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Dude you can’t be serious.

1) Around far fewer people than normal
2) Further distance from those you are around
3) Everyone wearing masks in public
4) Constant surgeon like hand washing
5) Constantly sanitizing surfaces

Is it truly your theory that all of those things wouldn’t substantially reduce the spread of any infections disease? Or am I posting in a troll thread?
Reduce it. Sure. Make it disappear off the face of the earth no matter what NPIs are done? Not a damn chance in hell.
 
Reduce it. Sure. Make it disappear off the face of the earth no matter what NPIs are done? Not a damn chance in hell.
The seasonal flu has not disappeared from the face of the earth. Stop flailing away at ridiculous straw men.

Are you prepared to admit you were lying when you claimed the flu was less deadly for people under the age of 50? Or do you want to try and explain the math on how 2,500 people under the age of 50 dying from the flu in 2018-19 was actually more than the 24,000+ under the age of 50 who have died from COVID? You started out last spring claiming the flu was far more deadly than COVID and once that proved to be completely wrong, you've repeatedly moved the goal posts looking for an age bracket where your downplaying would be accurate. Rather than continuing to lie about this, you should just admit you were wrong and find something else to obsess over.

Deaths from flu = 24-62K

Lol yes you are. It’s more widespread, therefore more deadly.
Imagine wasting hundreds of hours of your life trying to convince people on a football message board to cower in the corner of their closets over a virus that will turn out to be no deadlier than the flu.
No.

Although you are more likely to die from the flu than the China Virus.
You're right, it's not the flu. Because you are much more likely to die from the flu than this.
But the flu is much more likely to kill you, so that wasn’t really true.
 
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For those that think the Covid numbers are inflated; what do you think the motivation is for that? Also, how do you reconcile that numbers of severe cases have been recorded worldwide?

I know that some people still don’t think that Covid is any more severe than the flu based on the lowered overall death rate, but I think they really believe that the numbers are inflated and manipulated by medical professionals. How and why?
SIAP, but CDC changed the way death data is recorded for COVID. The method used since 2003 is still in use but only for those who die and test negative for the Covid. If you test positive for Covid at death, your death is recorded differently using a new set of standards created by the CDC in March 2020. These new standards definitely have influenced the Covid death tallies.
there is the answer to your how.
 
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As pointed out above, the statistics prove this is false. 2,500 Americans under the age of 50 died from the flu in 2018-19. 24,000+ have died from COVID. If you want to use your 65 age as a cut off, 8,500 died from the flu in 2018-19 while 104k+ under the age of 65 have died from COVID. Go ahead and expand it out to deaths of all ages from the flu in 2018-19 and you have 34,000 which is still less than one third of the number under the age of 65 who have died from COVID. Anyone who still claims COVID is less deadly than the flu has been duped by right-wing political propaganda.

.

Deaths are recorded differently for COVID.
 
Deaths are recorded differently for COVID.
That’s another myth that’s been pushed by the downplayers since last spring. There is no conspiracy by the medical community to inflate the covid death toll by recording deaths as covid that were caused by other means. It’s unreal people are still there tying to spin and downplay the the severity of this crisis.
 
That’s another myth that’s been pushed by the downplayers since last spring. There is no conspiracy by the medical community to inflate the covid death toll by recording deaths as covid that were caused by other means. It’s unreal people are still there tying to spin and downplay the the severity of this crisis.
Never mentioned a conspiracy.... the Covid deaths are recorded differently. Not sure honestly the details about why they changed it last March....

the peer reviewed study is linked in the article below. It was published by a reputable journal.


also, I never tried to downplay anything. Just stating a reason why people are thinking the death totals are not accurate.
 
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Never mentioned a conspiracy.... the Covid deaths are recorded differently. Not sure honestly the details about why they changed it last March....

the peer reviewed study is linked in the article below. It was published by a reputable journal.


also, I never tried to downplay anything. Just stating a reason why people are thinking the death totals are not accurate.
That's certainly not a peer reviewed article. It's a blog post on a right-wing site.

The COVID death toll has not been inflated. We know the official death toll is a significant undercount due to lack of testing in the early months. How do we know that? Excess mortality data. 522,000 more people died between March 2020 and January 1 2021 than would be expected in a normal year. The official COVID death toll during that period was 366k so we know that figure is a significant undercount given that there was no other cause that would explain such a huge spike in mortality last year. Here's a credible article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that discusses it.

Excess Deaths From COVID-19 and Other Causes in the US, March 1, 2020, to January 2, 2021

Results
Between March 1, 2020, and January 2, 2021, the US experienced 2 801 439 deaths, 22.9% more than expected, representing 522 368 excess deaths (Table). The excess death rate was higher among non-Hispanic Black (208.4 deaths per 100 000) than non-Hispanic White or Hispanic populations (157.0 and 139.8 deaths per 100 000, respectively); these groups accounted for 16.9%, 61.1%, and 16.7% of excess deaths, respectively. The US experienced 4 surge patterns: in New England and the Northeast, excess deaths surged in the spring; in the Southeast and Southwest, in the summer and early winter; in the Plains, Rocky Mountain, and far West, primarily in early winter; and in the Great Lakes, bimodally, in the spring and early winter (Figure). Excess deaths were increasing in all regions at the end of 2020. The 10 states with the highest per capita rate of excess deaths were Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Arizona, Alabama, Louisiana, South Dakota, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Ohio. New York experienced the largest relative increase in all-cause mortality (38.1%). Deaths attributed to COVID-19 accounted for 72.4% of US excess deaths.

Joinpoint analyses revealed an increase in weekly mortality from non–COVID-19 causes, including heart disease from March 15 to April 11, 2020 (APC, 4.9 [95% CI, 0.7-9.3]), and October 11, 2020, to January 2, 2021 (APC, 1.1 [95% CI, 0.8-1.4]); Alzheimer disease/dementia from March 15 to April 11, 2020 (APC, 7.1 [95% CI, 2.4-12.0]), May 31 to August 15, 2020 (APC, 1.2 [95% CI, 0.7-1.6]), and September 6, 2020, to January 2, 2021 (APC, 1.3 [95% CI, 1.1-1.5]); and diabetes from March 8 to April 11, 2020 (APC, 6.5 [95% CI, 2.8-10.3]), May 31 to July 11, 2020 (APC, 2.6 [95% CI, 0.2-5.0]), and October 18, 2020, to January 2, 2021 (APC, 2.2 [95% CI, 1.6-2.8]).

Discussion
The 22.9% increase in all-cause mortality reported here far exceeds annual increases observed in recent years (≤2.5%). The percentage of excess deaths among non-Hispanic Black individuals (16.9%) exceeded their share of the US population (12.5%),5 reflecting racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality. Excess deaths surged in the east in April, followed by extended summer and early winter surges concentrated in southern and western states, respectively. Many of these states weakly embraced, or discouraged, pandemic control measures and lifted restrictions earlier than other states.1,6

Excess deaths not attributed to COVID-19 could reflect either immediate or delayed mortality from undocumented COVID-19 infection, or non–COVID-19 deaths secondary to the pandemic, such as from delayed care or behavioral health crises. Death rates from several non–COVID-19 diseases (eg, heart disease, Alzheimer disease) increased during surges. The model does not adjust directly for population aging, which could contribute to an overestimate of excess deaths. Other study limitations include reliance on provisional data, inaccurate death certificates, and modeling assumptions.


 
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That's certainly not a peer reviewed article. It's a blog post on a right-wing site.

The COVID death toll has not been inflated. We know the official death toll is a significant undercount due to lack of testing in the early months. How do we know that? Excess mortality data. 522,000 more people died between March 2020 and January 1 2021 than would be expected in a normal year. The official COVID death toll during that period was 366k so we know that figure is a significant undercount given that there was no other cause that would explain such a huge spike in mortality last year. Here's a credible article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that discusses it

Excess Deaths From COVID-19 and Other Causes in the US, March 1, 2020, to January 2, 2021

Results
Between March 1, 2020, and January 2, 2021, the US experienced 2 801 439 deaths, 22.9% more than expected, representing 522 368 excess deaths (Table). The excess death rate was higher among non-Hispanic Black (208.4 deaths per 100 000) than non-Hispanic White or Hispanic populations (157.0 and 139.8 deaths per 100 000, respectively); these groups accounted for 16.9%, 61.1%, and 16.7% of excess deaths, respectively. The US experienced 4 surge patterns: in New England and the Northeast, excess deaths surged in the spring; in the Southeast and Southwest, in the summer and early winter; in the Plains, Rocky Mountain, and far West, primarily in early winter; and in the Great Lakes, bimodally, in the spring and early winter (Figure). Excess deaths were increasing in all regions at the end of 2020. The 10 states with the highest per capita rate of excess deaths were Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Arizona, Alabama, Louisiana, South Dakota, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Ohio. New York experienced the largest relative increase in all-cause mortality (38.1%). Deaths attributed to COVID-19 accounted for 72.4% of US excess deaths.

Joinpoint analyses revealed an increase in weekly mortality from non–COVID-19 causes, including heart disease from March 15 to April 11, 2020 (APC, 4.9 [95% CI, 0.7-9.3]), and October 11, 2020, to January 2, 2021 (APC, 1.1 [95% CI, 0.8-1.4]); Alzheimer disease/dementia from March 15 to April 11, 2020 (APC, 7.1 [95% CI, 2.4-12.0]), May 31 to August 15, 2020 (APC, 1.2 [95% CI, 0.7-1.6]), and September 6, 2020, to January 2, 2021 (APC, 1.3 [95% CI, 1.1-1.5]); and diabetes from March 8 to April 11, 2020 (APC, 6.5 [95% CI, 2.8-10.3]), May 31 to July 11, 2020 (APC, 2.6 [95% CI, 0.2-5.0]), and October 18, 2020, to January 2, 2021 (APC, 2.2 [95% CI, 1.6-2.8]).

Discussion
The 22.9% increase in all-cause mortality reported here far exceeds annual increases observed in recent years (≤2.5%). The percentage of excess deaths among non-Hispanic Black individuals (16.9%) exceeded their share of the US population (12.5%),5 reflecting racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality. Excess deaths surged in the east in April, followed by extended summer and early winter surges concentrated in southern and western states, respectively. Many of these states weakly embraced, or discouraged, pandemic control measures and lifted restrictions earlier than other states.1,6

Excess deaths not attributed to COVID-19 could reflect either immediate or delayed mortality from undocumented COVID-19 infection, or non–COVID-19 deaths secondary to the pandemic, such as from delayed care or behavioral health crises. Death rates from several non–COVID-19 diseases (eg, heart disease, Alzheimer disease) increased during surges. The model does not adjust directly for population aging, which could contribute to an overestimate of excess deaths. Other study limitations include reliance on provisional data, inaccurate death certificates, and modeling assumptions.


I’ll read what you just posted. Can’t tonight but will.
Also, look above and see where I wrote that the peer reviewed study was linked IN the article I posted.
 
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Well there are scientific reports saying exactly that. It's not on Parler.
So then if masks and distance basically made a highly contagious flu virus non existent. Explain how that same mask wearing and distancing just kept sky rocketing Covid numbers? It didn’t trend down, it kept rising and rising and rising while everyone was wearing masks, distancing, businesses shit down, etc. so if that worked so well then why haven’t we gotten back to normal life a long time ago?
 
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I’ll read what you just posted. Can’t tonight but will.
Also, look above and see where I wrote that the peer reviewed study was linked IN the article I posted.
The seasonal flu has not disappeared from the face of the earth. Stop flailing away at ridiculous straw men.

Are you prepared to admit you were lying when you claimed the flu was less deadly for people under the age of 50? Or do you want to try and explain the math on how 2,500 people under the age of 50 dying from the flu in 2018-19 was actually more than the 24,000+ under the age of 50 who have died from COVID? You started out last spring claiming the flu was far more deadly than COVID and once that proved to be completely wrong, you've repeatedly moved the goal posts looking for an age bracket where your downplaying would be accurate. Rather than continuing to lie about this, you should just admit you were wrong and find something else to obsess over.

Ok DM8, I will play as I’ve never claimed Flu was “far more deadly” since I do in fact believe both are deadly. I also believe we needed the original shutdown because we didn’t understand the virus. A year later, we understand it much better and perpetuating fear by using a portion of the stats on this virus out of context is harmful. I will acknowledge that this virus IS dangerous as the Flu would be if you suffer from a severe comorbidity like diabetes, cancer or obesity.

First, it is well known that there are a significant number of asymptotics with COVID. Various studies done in NYC and in California established this last year. Our case count is very likely well understated. Some studies cite 1 out of 5 or even 7 are symptomatic, but let’s use Fauci’s number where he said 40% never show symptoms. At 31 million cases, we probably have more like 52 million who have contracted COVID. With about 64.6% of the cases (an October 2020 CDC number so old here - likely higher % by now) coming from those 50 and younger, you have approximately 33.6 million in that category who have contracted COVID. Our case fatality rate is in the 0.07% category and I’m not even removing the comorbidity cases from your 24,000 which the CDC said were in the 94% range. In addition, there were deaths in the beginning of this thing where we didn’t have a clue how to treat it and got it wrong. Yes, the flu case mortality rate in this age group is roughly in the 0.03% range, but by citing facts without explanation it does feel that you are attempting to make a political point rather than follow science.

Personally I do believe if you are 50 and younger WITHOUT A SEVERE COMORBIDITY (which is what I said) that the probability of death from COVID is a BIT less than the Flu BUT we are starting with very small case fatality rates for the group regardless.
 
So then if masks and distance basically made a highly contagious flu virus non existent. Explain how that same mask wearing and distancing just kept sky rocketing Covid numbers? It didn’t trend down, it kept rising and rising and rising while everyone was wearing masks, distancing, businesses shit down, etc. so if that worked so well then why haven’t we gotten back to normal life a long time ago?

Well, it's a different virus for starters. And I'm not getting into the argument of whether we shoudl have opened back up/returned to normal/whatever... but if you're gonna argue for that, comparing two separate viruses that have different levels of virulence and contagiousness isn't the way to go. We don't handle the flu like we'd handle an Ebola outbreak either, etc etc.
 
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Well, it's a different virus for starters. And I'm not getting into the argument of whether we shoudl have opened back up/returned to normal/whatever... but if you're gonna argue for that, comparing two separate viruses that have different levels of virulence and contagiousness isn't the way to go. We don't handle the flu like we'd handle an Ebola outbreak either, etc etc.
Yea I figured that’s the answer you’d give.
 
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Yea I figured that’s the answer you’d give.

Well what's your answer? Despite those measures, COVID cases soared. It either spreads way more easily than the flu or... what's the alternative? I don't really get the flu numbers as I've said earlier in the thread. It makes sense to me that they are down, but I wouldn't have expected them this low. Seems like what we are doing has worked well for the flu. Is it the whole story? Probably not. Nothing is that simple. But it's pretty logical that congregating less and the other measures we're taking would make spread of the flu decrease. To what extent, I don't know.
 
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Ok DM8, I will play as I’ve never claimed Flu was “far more deadly” since I do in fact believe both are deadly. I also believe we needed the original shutdown because we didn’t understand the virus. A year later, we understand it much better and perpetuating fear by using a portion of the stats on this virus out of context is harmful. I will acknowledge that this virus IS dangerous as the Flu would be if you suffer from a severe comorbidity like diabetes, cancer or obesity.

First, it is well known that there are a significant number of asymptotics with COVID. Various studies done in NYC and in California established this last year. Our case count is very likely well understated. Some studies cite 1 out of 5 or even 7 are symptomatic, but let’s use Fauci’s number where he said 40% never show symptoms. At 31 million cases, we probably have more like 52 million who have contracted COVID. With about 64.6% of the cases (an October 2020 CDC number so old here - likely higher % by now) coming from those 50 and younger, you have approximately 33.6 million in that category who have contracted COVID. Our case fatality rate is in the 0.07% category and I’m not even removing the comorbidity cases from your 24,000 which the CDC said were in the 94% range. In addition, there were deaths in the beginning of this thing where we didn’t have a clue how to treat it and got it wrong. Yes, the flu case mortality rate in this age group is roughly in the 0.03% range, but by citing facts without explanation it does feel that you are attempting to make a political point rather than follow science.

Personally I do believe if you are 50 and younger WITHOUT A SEVERE COMORBIDITY (which is what I said) that the probability of death from COVID is a BIT less than the Flu BUT we are starting with very small case fatality rates for the group regardless.
24,000+ people under 50 have died from COVID. The real number is certainly much higher given that 522,000 more people died last year between March and January 1st than would die in a normal year. The official COVID death toll between March and January first was "only" 361,000 which leaves no doubt that the real COVID death toll is significantly higher than what has been officially tallied thus far. Excess mortality data is a key data set that is used to measure the impact of a outbreak of this scale. When the final death toll is calculated after this is over, it will be significantly higher than what has been reported to date. Meanwhile, only 2,500 Americans under 50 died from the seasonal flu in 2018-19. There is no way you, @Jim in Scranton or anyone else can spin the data to fit the argument that COVID is less deadly or even remotely comparable to the seasonal flu.
 
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A lot of people can’t think.

Not only a lot, but a surprisingly high number.

These same people don’t even try to think.

they theorize without thinking.

Thus......
Sounds like that's the same group that refuse to get vaccinated.
 
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Sounds like that's the same group that refuse to get vaccinated.
They didn’t get there without a lot of help.

(This group is becoming smaller and smaller.....and I’m not considering a certain percentage who currently are, and have always been, crazy anti vax or just crazy. I’d like to think this is a relatively low percentage, but I’ve never thought about it outside a percentage of possible to likely voters. So my “thinking” on this is worthless.)
 
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Ok DM8, I will play as I’ve never claimed Flu was “far more deadly” since I do in fact believe both are deadly. I also believe we needed the original shutdown because we didn’t understand the virus. A year later, we understand it much better and perpetuating fear by using a portion of the stats on this virus out of context is harmful. I will acknowledge that this virus IS dangerous as the Flu would be if you suffer from a severe comorbidity like diabetes, cancer or obesity.

First, it is well known that there are a significant number of asymptotics with COVID. Various studies done in NYC and in California established this last year. Our case count is very likely well understated. Some studies cite 1 out of 5 or even 7 are symptomatic, but let’s use Fauci’s number where he said 40% never show symptoms. At 31 million cases, we probably have more like 52 million who have contracted COVID. With about 64.6% of the cases (an October 2020 CDC number so old here - likely higher % by now) coming from those 50 and younger, you have approximately 33.6 million in that category who have contracted COVID. Our case fatality rate is in the 0.07% category and I’m not even removing the comorbidity cases from your 24,000 which the CDC said were in the 94% range. In addition, there were deaths in the beginning of this thing where we didn’t have a clue how to treat it and got it wrong. Yes, the flu case mortality rate in this age group is roughly in the 0.03% range, but by citing facts without explanation it does feel that you are attempting to make a political point rather than follow science.

Personally I do believe if you are 50 and younger WITHOUT A SEVERE COMORBIDITY (which is what I said) that the probability of death from COVID is a BIT less than the Flu BUT we are starting with very small case fatality rates for the group regardless.
I know it varies a bit by year, but isn’t the flu mortality rate for those under age 50 more like 0.001%?
Regardless of how it is being considered, there are almost no ways to contort the numbers to make COVID less than several times as deadly as the flu. This is not a criticism of you or your post, but in general, at this point, after half a million deaths, it seems like people would stop comparing COVID to the flu other than to point out how much deadlier it is.
 
I know it varies a bit by year, but isn’t the flu mortality rate for those under age 50 more like 0.001%?
Regardless of how it is being considered, there are almost no ways to contort the numbers to make COVID less than several times as deadly as the flu. This is not a criticism of you or your post, but in general, at this point, after half a million deaths, it seems like people would stop comparing COVID to the flu other than to point out how much deadlier it is.

Thank you for raising that. Mortality rate uses total population figures. I was using case fatality rate. In other words, rate of death if you catch it. I concede that COVID is “more” deadly than the flu if you don’t correct for the comorbidity factor and the fact that we didn’t understand this virus - at all - in the beginning. Nobody knew how to detect or treat this virus in the beginning so it was even more deadly. However, I get triggered by those that get stuck in March 2020 and quote stats to bring fear or disbelief (most of the press on both sides). Sorry to ramble but my main point was that if you have a 99.93% chance to survive versus a 99.97% chance to survive don’t abuse that difference to just scare those that are 50 and younger without diabetes, cancer or severe obesity.
 
I just want to know when we are going to start to see less people on the road from all these deaths. So far I see the same amount of people and traffic on the road.
 
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