You all keep discussing mortality as if we’re the only critical factor. As tragic as each death is it isn’t what will drive the problem. I haven’t focused on mortality for at least two weeks. The critical factors are hospitalization, ICU usage and health care worker exhaustion/ burn out and illness. These are facts you conveniently try to ignore. Had New York, New Orleans and other city centers not shut down the health care system would have been overwhelmed. BTW the big city urban areas still drive the economy so if they crash we all do. I tend to agree that everyone will be exposed sooner or later. I’d rather wait until there’s a vaccine or better treatment so I, my friends and loved ones have a better chance. Guess what the last month or two have seen advances in both. Antivirals show more than promise. Genetic treatments that slowdown the immune response that has caused so much of the death in ventilator patients has turned survival percentage around. They are testing the use of plasma of survivors is helping There are 70 vaccines in trial. Even the mortality rate for those most at risk is improving. Without flattening the curve these may not have been developed and available. So what do we do with this opportunity? We start opening up under controlled conditions. I agree that those at risk need to isolate while normally healthy people get out and back into work. Use masks, distancing disinfection and the other lessons learned. There’s a balance and it’s ever shifting. Earlier drastic action was called for. Now we need to begin recovery and get back on our feet.
Dude ... I focus on mortality data because that is the only real data. Case data is not accurate. Further, I’m not against “flattening the curve”. My argument to you is I think we would have done better with the Japan model vs the US/Italy/Spain/France model. If our healthcare system gets overwhelmed, it’s not due to a lack of social distancing, it’ll be because we simply were not prepared for a massive pandemic. It’ll be because we have a slothful, unhealthy population that sits around on their asses and waits for someone to come along and make everything alright, primarily located in the liberal centers. The study I referenced suggest that we could have just wore mask, been a little careful, and the outcome would have been the same as what we have shutting down the economy. Switzerland put in every measure available, Sweden didn’t do shit. The “model”says Sweden should be dead by now. But the fact is the nation that didn’t do shit (Sweden) has a death/million of 139, whereas the nation (Switzerland) that put every measure available has a rate of 153/million. We don’t have another USA, so we have to look to other data. The above IS that data. And is covered here. https://wattsupwiththat.com/daily-coronavirus-covid-19-data-graph-page/
Maybe the virus is more dangerous to some racial and ethnic groups than others. Switzerland is an amalgamation of German, Italian and other euro groups while Sweden is largely Scandinavian. The Japanese and Chinese are both Asians but they probably have different predominant strains of DNA in them. Somebody should look into that aspect.
There is that possibility that race and ethnicity play a role in who is more susceptible. New York and New Orleans are both cities with a large mixture. Italy was one of the worst places. There are a lot of people of Italian descent in both New York and New Orleans. Do those people have a higher rate of infection than Jewish people or Latinos. If so the doctors in hospitals in those cities should have noticed. I mentioned that there is a large discrepancy between China and Japan. How is it affecting other Asian nations?
I’m not afraid of the race issue. Screw a bunch of liberals and black people if hearing the truth hurts their petty little feelings. As opposed to getting butt hurt, it’d be better for them to listen and learn and maybe contribute to their own better outcome. Bottom line, the Virus doesn’t hav eyes ... and it really don’t care what color you are. There have been reports in the news about MI and WI, and a personal communication about Shreveport. COVID19 is hitting Black people the hardest. There can be several reasons for this ... 1) over crowded inner city dwellings, 2) poverty leading to poorer nutrition, 3) higher incidence of pre existing conditions, 4) cultural stupidity in some groups who think they can’t get COVID19, 5) a high level of vitamin D deficiency coupled with type 2 diabetes. Contrary to what the racists little black virologist at NIH thinks, it is not due to a lack of access to healthcare, nor is it due to doctors consciously choosing to refuse treatment, like oxygen, drugs, palliative care or vents. The reality is, once you go south, the outcome is more internal than external. In fact the same applies to whether or not you go south. I’ve said it before ... I’ll say it again. Virus + Low risk Patient = mild to moderate flu like syndrome. Virus + High risk Patient = critical event and death. No healthcare system or doctor or anyone else can force each individual to be healthy. That decision will always reside with the patients themselves.
I see black people hanging out by convenience stores all the time just like always. Very few of them wearing masks and they congregate a lot closer than 6 feet. I asked the cashier in one store why she didn't wear gloves because she had to handle a lot of transactions with people paying in cash with filthy money. She said, "Oh, you can't catch it that way."She is young and probably won't get a serious case but she surely passes it on to her customers and family and friends.
