Coronavirus

[emtee]

Interesting info from the CDC (available from multiple sources)...they revised the death count. Apparently only about 9,800 people are listed as dying from Covid only. All the other deaths had at least 2 comorbidities. It was a downward revision of 94%. Not sure what to make of this yet.

[jingle.boy]

Nice to hear that your finally back home, Milena.  That was a long what... 6-7 months??

Almost five, I just took a little break from posting. Had to enter a 10 day quarantine when I came back too, so overall I spent 38 days in govt-mandated quarantine this year  going to a place where masks aren't mandatory and no one cares to really wear them was a bit of a shock as well. I bought some more reusable ones and will be wearing them out and about.

Gotchya... for some reason I thought it was Jan that you went to visit your mom.

Hope all is well for you and your husband - 2020 has been the shits.

[jingle.boy]

Interesting info from the CDC (available from multiple sources)...they revised the death count. Apparently only about 9,800 people are listed as dying from Covid only. All the other deaths had at least 2 comorbidities. It was a downward revision of 94%. Not sure what to make of this yet.

Even if what your saying was actually true, that's tantamount to saying pneumonia doesn't kill anyone, it's lung failure or suffocation.  Liver cancer doesn't kill, it's liver failure.  C'mon.  This is semantics.

But more importantly, you need to up your fact-checking and critical thinking skills Emtee.... What Trump actually did was retweet the patently untrue assertion of a QAnon supporter that new CDC data contained a bombshell: only six percent of people died from COVID-19 alone, meaning that the death count and fear of the pandemic has been falsely inflated. On Sunday “only 6%” was trending on Twitter.

Twitter Removes Claim About CDC And Covid-19 Coronavirus Deaths That Trump Retweeted

[cramx3]

Interesting info from the CDC (available from multiple sources)...they revised the death count. Apparently only about 9,800 people are listed as dying from Covid only. All the other deaths had at least 2 comorbidities. It was a downward revision of 94%. Not sure what to make of this yet.

Even if what your saying was actually true, that's tantamount to saying pneumonia doesn't kill anyone, it's lung failure or suffocation.  Liver cancer doesn't kill, it's liver failure.  C'mon.  This is semantics.

But more importantly, you need to up your fact-checking and critical thinking skills Emtee.... What Trump actually did was retweet the patently untrue assertion of a QAnon supporter that new CDC data contained a bombshell: only six percent of people died from COVID-19 alone, meaning that the death count and fear of the pandemic has been falsely inflated. On Sunday “only 6%” was trending on Twitter.

Twitter Removes Claim About CDC And Covid-19 Coronavirus Deaths That Trump Retweeted

Well, the data seemingly does say only ~9800 died of JUST covid19.  So that may be a fact (I've only read of this CDC update, didn't actually see it myself) but it doesn't really downplay the virus too much though.  To me, it just means what we knew all along.  If you are young and healthy you are very unlikely to die for covid19.  But it also shows exactly what we've known for a long time as well.  If you are old and/or have pre existing conditions, covid19 could definitely end your life early.  And since such a significant amount of americans are obese, I feel that's why the US has a lot more deaths, and more potential for more because we aren't a very healthy nation. 

I don't think this "new" data really changes anything other than maybe if you are healthy and young, there isn't too much to worry about in terms of dying from covid19.  However, we still don't know long term impacts so it's best to just not get the virus at all if possible.

I read this more about just getting the data to be a bit more accurate, but doesn't really change any of the realities.

[emtee]

Umm, why would/did you assume I got that info from a Trump tweet? I had no clue he tweeted about it. I got the info from a local news station while I ate lunch in the hospital break room and then scanned a few sites to check the accuracy.

[King Postwhore]

Ladies and gentlemen,  I have your new mask.

[TAC]

 

[Anguyen92]

No joke, if they can just remove that real hair label, and just find some way to get an image of his hair on a mask, I probably would buy it at a more reasonable price like the price of a regular mask.

[Stadler]

Along the lines of what emtee is saying, I get news feeds each day, and if not every day, then every other day there's something like this: 

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-09-01-20-intl/h_b2168384e6d0848acc82ef10d2bdef80

Trump is full of garbage on a lot of COVID information, but on this, he's right.  This "ramping up" is being delivered as something to be feared (following the delivery of this information, the article says "Only two other countries in the world have over 1 million reported Covid-19 cases -- Brazil and India.  But there's a bit of good news for the US, according to health experts.") but this is actually likely due just as much to better testing and more knowledge on identifying those with the disease, not necessarily malfeasance.

And I read another article this morning that I cannot find now (a trend I've noted a fair amount recently):   The article was extremely critical: it noted the US had 22% of the world's cases (it's actually 24% as we speak) but only 4% of the population.  The implication of course, is that we're severely deficient in our response to COVID, falsely comparing us to every other country no matter how big, small, isolated, or not.   It then cited the Brazil and India numbers.  NOWHERE in the first five paragraphs (I counted) did it even mention China.   China is currently 38th on the list of total cases, with 85,058. Per 1 million pop, that's 200th in the world.  200th!  Out of 215!   The US is not the worst in terms of population adjusted figures; we are 10th in cases per 1 million pop, and 11th in deaths (this is actually an improvement from two weeks ago, when we were 9 and 10 respectively).   If you extrapolate out China's "true" cases, using the same percentage of "cases/1 million people" as the US (not unreasonable), you get over 27 MILLION cases, or more than the entire world so far, COMBINED.   That certainly changes our "percentage of the world cases (dropping it to just over 10%); still more than our percentage of the world population, but a lot more in line with our place as a business and travel hub (our travel economy was a $1.8 TRILLION industry in 2019, largest in the world in absolute dollars.)

I get it - eyeballs, viewers, readers - but why is it so darn hard to just present information, instead of making EVERYTHING a political statement or advocacy piece.  Something I have asked repeatedly:  why can't we be allowed to draw our own conclusions?  Does the press not realize that for all of Trump's nonsense about "FAKE NEWS", when they publish things like that and people - reasonable people, not people prone to conspiracy theories - dig in and find things that don't add up, it just adds to their faltering credibility?   

[Stadler]

Ladies and gentlemen,  I have your new mask.

"79% real hair" invites SO many questions.  I'd wear that, though.

[Grappler]

Regarding the 6% COVID death thingy, I saw this today.  It was written by a friend of my cousin - the friend works in the medical industry. 

I feel that this is more believable and accurate than the CDC just up and deciding to eliminate 94% of COVID deaths.  This is pretty much how I've felt that the virus tends to work, in a similar manner to AIDS.  You don't die of "AIDS," you die of some illness that took hold in you because AIDS decimated your body and it couldn't fight anything off.


Since there’s some confusion, here’s a quick breakdown of the CDC’s weekly update of the COVID death count:

6% died strictly of COVID
+
94% died of things like respiratory failure caused by pneumonia caused by COVID, with COVID as the culprit. This group had other health problems too making it more difficult for them to fight the virus. They also sometimes developed new health problems from the virus.
=
100% of the 160,000+ people tracked by the CDC so far have died of COVID, not 6%.

[cramx3]

Regarding the 6% COVID death thingy, I saw this today.  It was written by a friend of my cousin - the friend works in the medical industry. 

I feel that this is more believable and accurate than the CDC just up and deciding to eliminate 94% of COVID deaths.  This is pretty much how I've felt that the virus tends to work, in a similar manner to AIDS.  You don't die of "AIDS," you die of some illness that took hold in you because AIDS decimated your body and it couldn't fight anything off.


Since there’s some confusion, here’s a quick breakdown of the CDC’s weekly update of the COVID death count:

6% died strictly of COVID
+
94% died of things like respiratory failure caused by pneumonia caused by COVID, with COVID as the culprit. This group had other health problems too making it more difficult for them to fight the virus. They also sometimes developed new health problems from the virus.
=
100% of the 160,000+ people tracked by the CDC so far have died of COVID, not 6%.

Yea, I agree.  Also, question yourself this.... the other 94%, would they still be alive today if they didn't get covid?  I'd guess some would have died in the last 6 months, but certainly not most of them.  Which means covid is still a major reason why the 94% died when they died.

My grandma is an example.  Very old, but she wasn't on her death bed until she got covid.  She'd likely still be alive today if she didn't get the virus although given her age, we didn't expect her to last many more years yet she was taken from us earlier than expected.

[jingle.boy]

Umm, why would/did you assume I got that info from a Trump tweet? I had no clue he tweeted about it. I got the info from a local news station while I ate lunch in the hospital break room and then scanned a few sites to check the accuracy.

Apologies... I did not mean to directly assume that you got the info from a Trump tweet.  Most every source I found when looking up this information referred to Trump retweeting the theory (and I copy/pasted a sentence from an article as such), and other reputable sources debunking the black/white notion and interpretation of the CDC's report that only 6% of the deaths are a result of COVID-19.  I didn't mean to directly imply you got this info solely from Trump's twitter.  My bad.

Interesting info from the CDC (available from multiple sources)...they revised the death count. Apparently only about 9,800 people are listed as dying from Covid only. All the other deaths had at least 2 comorbidities. It was a downward revision of 94%. Not sure what to make of this yet.

Even if what your saying was actually true, that's tantamount to saying pneumonia doesn't kill anyone, it's lung failure or suffocation.  Liver cancer doesn't kill, it's liver failure.  C'mon.  This is semantics.

But more importantly, you need to up your fact-checking and critical thinking skills Emtee.... What Trump actually did was retweet the patently untrue assertion of a QAnon supporter that new CDC data contained a bombshell: only six percent of people died from COVID-19 alone, meaning that the death count and fear of the pandemic has been falsely inflated. On Sunday “only 6%” was trending on Twitter.

Twitter Removes Claim About CDC And Covid-19 Coronavirus Deaths That Trump Retweeted

I don't think this "new" data really changes anything other than maybe if you are healthy and young, there isn't too much to worry about in terms of dying from covid19.  However, we still don't know long term impacts so it's best to just not get the virus at all if possible.

This is kinda dangerous thinking though.  For one, just because there isn't much risk of dying if you're young an healthy, there is A) a good chance of serious health issues, and B) a good chance of spreading it and keeping this damned thing going.  On the former point, I know two people who contracted it, both younger than me.  One had a helluva hospital stay (as well as a hell week leading up to it), and was sent home with an oxygen tank.  The other passed.

Secondly, as I mentioned in another thread, diabetes and obesity affect what ... 2/3's of the US population?  So $200M+ are not "healthy".  Even the slightest insinuation that COVID has only resulted in 9,400 deaths is a dangerous perception to throw out there.

[Stadler]

Chad, I'm not at all saying you're wrong, or even responding to you directly, but this general discussion highlights the difference between "truth" and "agenda".   For all Trump's fake news, and all the criticisms of his lying, it's really about his AGENDA at the end of the day, because the fact is - and yes, I said "fact" - that as a general rule, Col. Jessup was right:  we can't HANDLE the truth.   

[emtee]

No problems J.B., it's all good.

[jingle.boy]

Chad, I'm not at all saying you're wrong, or even responding to you directly, but this general discussion highlights the difference between "truth" and "agenda".   For all Trump's fake news, and all the criticisms of his lying, it's really about his AGENDA at the end of the day, because the fact is - and yes, I said "fact" - that as a general rule, Col. Jessup was right:  we can't HANDLE the truth.

I couldn't agree more.  And for some, that's all that matters to them (politically speaking).

[The Walrus]

I should also clarify, I think ass eating is disgusting and maybe would rather put on a mask before my mouth ever went into someone's anus 

I know a girl who once - maybe still - keeps her ass so clean you could eat dinner off it, if it weren't the main course itself.

[cramx3]

I should also clarify, I think ass eating is disgusting and maybe would rather put on a mask before my mouth ever went into someone's anus 

I know a girl who once - maybe still - keeps her ass so clean you could eat dinner off it, if it weren't the main course itself.

  I've listened to enough Howard Stern to know the process of cleaning an anus before anal "fun" but I just can't get into any of that.

[Zydar]

So.... how about that darn Corona virus huh?

[The Walrus]

 

[Chino]

So.... how about that darn Corona virus huh?

I'd rather no-prep anal over getting the corona virus.

[Stadler]

I should also clarify, I think ass eating is disgusting and maybe would rather put on a mask before my mouth ever went into someone's anus 

I know a girl who once - maybe still - keeps her ass so clean you could eat dinner off it, if it weren't the main course itself.

You have to admire her for being prepared.   

[The Walrus]

I should also clarify, I think ass eating is disgusting and maybe would rather put on a mask before my mouth ever went into someone's anus 

I know a girl who once - maybe still - keeps her ass so clean you could eat dinner off it, if it weren't the main course itself.

You have to admire her for being prepared.   

That woman was - maybe still is - always prepared.

[lonestar]

Regarding the 6% COVID death thingy, I saw this today.  It was written by a friend of my cousin - the friend works in the medical industry. 

I feel that this is more believable and accurate than the CDC just up and deciding to eliminate 94% of COVID deaths.  This is pretty much how I've felt that the virus tends to work, in a similar manner to AIDS.  You don't die of "AIDS," you die of some illness that took hold in you because AIDS decimated your body and it couldn't fight anything off.


Since there’s some confusion, here’s a quick breakdown of the CDC’s weekly update of the COVID death count:

6% died strictly of COVID
+
94% died of things like respiratory failure caused by pneumonia caused by COVID, with COVID as the culprit. This group had other health problems too making it more difficult for them to fight the virus. They also sometimes developed new health problems from the virus.
=
100% of the 160,000+ people tracked by the CDC so far have died of COVID, not 6%.

Local radio personality put it best...if it wasn't for covid, 100% of those people would still be alive.

[Anguyen92]

Awww, I didn't want to shed some tears before going to bed, but seeing The Rock announced that he and his family was deemed tested positive had me weeping a bit.  Thankfully, they are looking like they are on the recovering end of it which is good news.  Here's his video about it below.  He's just naturally a great talker, but we all know that.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1301315778197835777

[ErHaO]

Interesting info from the CDC (available from multiple sources)...they revised the death count. Apparently only about 9,800 people are listed as dying from Covid only. All the other deaths had at least 2 comorbidities. It was a downward revision of 94%. Not sure what to make of this yet.

The death count has not been revised. And you do not need any news sources, the cdc has a whole lot of public data. There is a maddening amount of disinformation or misleading interpretations on the web these days, in general both the WHO and CDC (and other institutions) have comprehensive websites that clarify almost all of the questions a layman may have.

The general covid page of the CDC, with the latest actual data:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm

And here are their actual guidelines for coding covid deaths:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/coding-and-reporting.htm
Including a tutorial video that takes you through a death certificate step by step.



And here is the Q&A of the WHO, which is very comprehensive and continiously updated:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-answers-hub (clicking any of these will lead to a lot of sub questions and sources).



 

[lordxizor]

Regarding the 6% COVID death thingy, I saw this today.  It was written by a friend of my cousin - the friend works in the medical industry. 

I feel that this is more believable and accurate than the CDC just up and deciding to eliminate 94% of COVID deaths.  This is pretty much how I've felt that the virus tends to work, in a similar manner to AIDS.  You don't die of "AIDS," you die of some illness that took hold in you because AIDS decimated your body and it couldn't fight anything off.


Since there’s some confusion, here’s a quick breakdown of the CDC’s weekly update of the COVID death count:

6% died strictly of COVID
+
94% died of things like respiratory failure caused by pneumonia caused by COVID, with COVID as the culprit. This group had other health problems too making it more difficult for them to fight the virus. They also sometimes developed new health problems from the virus.
=
100% of the 160,000+ people tracked by the CDC so far have died of COVID, not 6%.

Local radio personality put it best...if it wasn't for covid, 100% of those people would still be alive.

Maybe not 100% but certainly a very significant majority. With 80%+ of deaths coming in nursing home environments where the death rate is fairly high anyway, there were a decent chunk that weren't making it through the year regardless. Not that that diminishes the severity of Covid though.

[Ben_Jamin]

Regarding the 6% COVID death thingy, I saw this today.  It was written by a friend of my cousin - the friend works in the medical industry. 

I feel that this is more believable and accurate than the CDC just up and deciding to eliminate 94% of COVID deaths.  This is pretty much how I've felt that the virus tends to work, in a similar manner to AIDS.  You don't die of "AIDS," you die of some illness that took hold in you because AIDS decimated your body and it couldn't fight anything off.


Since there’s some confusion, here’s a quick breakdown of the CDC’s weekly update of the COVID death count:

6% died strictly of COVID
+
94% died of things like respiratory failure caused by pneumonia caused by COVID, with COVID as the culprit. This group had other health problems too making it more difficult for them to fight the virus. They also sometimes developed new health problems from the virus.
=
100% of the 160,000+ people tracked by the CDC so far have died of COVID, not 6%.

Local radio personality put it best...if it wasn't for covid, 100% of those people would still be alive.

Maybe not 100% but certainly a very significant majority. With 80%+ of deaths coming in nursing home environments where the death rate is fairly high anyway, there were a decent chunk that weren't making it through the year regardless. Not that that diminishes the severity of Covid though.

If not Covid-19, what is the threshold of sickness they will succumb to?

[cramx3]

Some positive news today

https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-tells-states-prepare-distribution-231945460.html

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told governors last week to prepare for the "large-scale" distribution of a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 1, according to a letter obtained Wednesday by NBC News.
...
It remains highly uncertain, however, whether a vaccine will be ready by then or which manufacturer will make it. The Nov. 1 target date is two days before the presidential election.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/corticosteroids-deemed-an-effective-inexpensive-and-safe-treatment-for-severe-covid-19-230437532.html

The World Health Organization released official guidance on Wednesday recommending that doctors use corticosteroids to treat “severe and critical COVID-19 patients,” a decision timed to the release of a major meta-analysis of research in JAMA showing that the anti-inflammatory drug — used to treat conditions like arthritis — is capable of reducing the mortality rate for COVID-19 patients by as much as a third.

[Grappler]

Did anybody watch Dwayne Johnson's video explaining how he and his family all came down with the virus?  The guy is one of the fittest and healthiest people on the planet, yet he sounded like he got hit by a freight train when he started talking and he mentioned that he's been through a lot of bad times and injuries over his career and that this was the worst. 

My family won't be going to the lengths that his now is as far as quarantining and having all visitors tested, but it's a nice reminder to not get too complacent if you want to stay healthy.

[Stadler]

So... my college buddies and I get together each year around Labor Day for a golf tournament.  Been doing it for going on 20 years now.   This year's is... Saturday.  About 20 of us signed up (usually it's at least 30, some years as high as 40).   I know all the people going, and basically where they've been and with whom.  It's all outside, and I will bring a mask.

But...  I'm confident, but not certain.  I want to go - these are people closer to me than most of my family - but I'm not going to lie, I'm getting skittish.  I just talked with my boss about a major litigation we're in and a meeting in California in October, and he was clear: if it's not necessary, we're not going to be in person.  That's not exactly the same thing; there's travel there, and the meetings are indoors, but still.    I have almost exactly 48 hours to decide (10:15 tee time on Saturday).   

[cramx3]

I'd probably go, outdoors seem to be much safer and I think it might be good for your mental health to connect with other people.  I wish I had some friends gathering to go to, everyone is pretty much skittish but I'm starting to lose my own skittishness, NJ is doing really well.  People aren't really sick here in any great numbers.  I'd love to do something to give me some semblance of normalcy again with friends.

[Chino]

Bill, you'll be fine. I wouldn't sweat it. If you really want to feel extra safe, take your own cart (assuming you're not walking since it's a tournament).

Golfing is the only "normal" thing I've really gotten to do all summer.

[ErHaO]

Regarding the 6% COVID death thingy, I saw this today.  It was written by a friend of my cousin - the friend works in the medical industry. 

I feel that this is more believable and accurate than the CDC just up and deciding to eliminate 94% of COVID deaths.  This is pretty much how I've felt that the virus tends to work, in a similar manner to AIDS.  You don't die of "AIDS," you die of some illness that took hold in you because AIDS decimated your body and it couldn't fight anything off.


Since there’s some confusion, here’s a quick breakdown of the CDC’s weekly update of the COVID death count:

6% died strictly of COVID
+
94% died of things like respiratory failure caused by pneumonia caused by COVID, with COVID as the culprit. This group had other health problems too making it more difficult for them to fight the virus. They also sometimes developed new health problems from the virus.
=
100% of the 160,000+ people tracked by the CDC so far have died of COVID, not 6%.

Local radio personality put it best...if it wasn't for covid, 100% of those people would still be alive.

Maybe not 100% but certainly a very significant majority. With 80%+ of deaths coming in nursing home environments where the death rate is fairly high anyway, there were a decent chunk that weren't making it through the year regardless. Not that that diminishes the severity of Covid though.

Offcourse many people that died of covid where elderly, but the bolded line is not very likely. The flu does that yearly and already did it's usual sweep late 2019/early 2020. And more importantly: the excess death is significantly higher than other years over the last decade, in basically every western nation that tracks it, meaning that a lot more people are dying statistically than other years (which goes against the notion of "would've died this year regardless"). And the increase in excess deaths is even larger than the total amount of counted covid deaths, also to a signifcant degree.

USA excess death data:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

[bosk1]

So... my college buddies and I get together each year around Labor Day for a golf tournament.  Been doing it for going on 20 years now.   This year's is... Saturday.  About 20 of us signed up (usually it's at least 30, some years as high as 40).   I know all the people going, and basically where they've been and with whom.  It's all outside, and I will bring a mask.

But...  I'm confident, but not certain.  I want to go - these are people closer to me than most of my family - but I'm not going to lie, I'm getting skittish.  I just talked with my boss about a major litigation we're in and a meeting in California in October, and he was clear: if it's not necessary, we're not going to be in person.  That's not exactly the same thing; there's travel there, and the meetings are indoors, but still.    I have almost exactly 48 hours to decide (10:15 tee time on Saturday).   

Yeah, 2 things on opposite sides:  I know you intellectually know the first, but I see this all the time, including in myself, and your post sort of went in that direction, so I'll say it anyway:  resist the almost unconscious urge to let your guard down and say to yourself, "I know So-and-So, and he's a good person, so surely he wouldn't have caught it and I'm fine being around him."  I know nobody actually says that.  But a lot of us (again, myself included to an extent) can sometimes act as if that were true, even though we know it isn't.

That being said, golf is about the safest thing you can do.  Unless you are sharing a cart, which you should be able to avoid, I think it's pretty easy to maintain distancing the entire time.  Perhaps less so at meals and other activities associated with the event, but it should be easy to find out in advance what precautions they are taking, and to bow out of any specific activities where proper caution is not being exercised.  The thing that would make me the most skittish is getting on a plane to travel there.  I heard some nightmare stories from early on in all this about airlines promising certain capacities and distancing, only for passengers to see that that was being completely ignored once they got to the plane.  But on the flip side, I haven't heard any of those types of stories lately, and I have a good fried who is a doctor and is very cautious, and he has made a couple of voluntary cross-country flights with his wife, and had very little concerns.  Wearing a mask, and staying distant, etc. (if I was going to get on a plane though, I would probably try to procure an N95 mask--remember, the typical masks most of us wear are designed to lessen the chance of the wearer spreading infection to others; an N95 does the opposite and allows the wearer to be safe in a contaminated environment [but does not necessarily keep others safe if the wearer is infected, because it expels the wearer's breath largely unfiltered]). 

If it was me, I think I would probably go if I was comfortable that I could distance at the event and not attend any events that made me uncomfortable.  But I can't say I wouldn't still be a bit concerned.