Notice that the flu was killing far more people than the virus until the end of March and that the flu is still killing more people than the virus in some areas. And it is also important to note that the criteria to define a death as 'Covid related' is very broad.
A big part of the reason for the virus' rapid spread is because most of those infected (60% to 80%) show little to no symptoms. Compare that to the flu. And the mortality rate is not level across all ethnicities. But if you are a white middle aged person with no underlying health issues, the mortality rate is well below 1%. Just how far below may never be known because of inadequate testing and selection bias.
I am really confused, there are currently 56,000+ dead in in the US alone 6 weeks, and we are debating the fatality percentages in single digits?
I fail to see how this matters, I thought most thought EVERY SINGLE life was important, and mattered, not percentages? Why is it important, other then reducing the death toll to zero?
Confused, huh? And you really don't know why the mortality rate matters?
Because the United States economy has been thrown into reverse. They are printing money faster than ever before which devalues ALL of the money already in circulation. Because people's financial lives are being destroyed. Suicides and domestic emergencies are rising. And on and on.............
You readily accept this 56,000 number that is being thrown around without having any idea how that number was arrived at. That is the point of the two links. This virus does kill people and there are certainly those that should take pertinent precautions, same as any bad flu season. But the data that is coming in does not show that this virus presents enough of a danger to enough of the population at large to justify the very real damage that is being done.
Stop and think for a moment what is going to happen if the United States is all but shut down every time a virus or influenza comes along that can kill less than 1% of the population. That scenario would play out every couple of years because there have recently been several flues that were just as virulent as this virus, if not even more so.
That is why the real data matters and is important.
Yup, now I am confused why you think it matters to need to debate the death rate.
Your above reasoning just seems very self centered, it's rather common nowadays.
Never said it was not important, or inconsequential, bur debating it at minute percentage accuracy rates, when over 50K have died, is rather callous, IMO.
And if you still are passing this event off as another "flu season", we have diametrically opposed value systems, and I have little confusion about that..
Last edited by jcc; 04/28/2006:33 PM.
"When one’s appeal is emotional, it does not matter if there is no substance."