Coronavirus

[astfgyl]

Actually regarding the whole "what if it was your ma?" thing, I think a lot of folks who have lost their parents and grandparents to influenza on top of old age and underlying conditions must feel pretty aggrieved that we didn't shut down the world to save them and must be thinking about how inhuman we were to just accept it as one of those things that happen all the time with fuck all fanfare.... Yeah that's right, for some reason they weren't worth the hassle of locking it all down. Well at least they got the proper full funeral treatment so hopefully that alleviates the pain of the realisation.

Go on, someone take up that argument for the craic. Why did we go on as normal in the face of a preventable illness that claims so many lives every year? Here is a bit of sauce for my thinking on this one https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm (And oh! Fuck! look at those age groupings! Oh the humanity!)

Oh wait we didn't go on as normal, we have a vaccine for it. So even with the magic sponge, we have had to settle on an acceptable level of deaths? That can't be right, surely?

Oh here I already edited this into a previous response but fuck does it deserve a bump... https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40057658.html

[Ducky]

Because the seasonal flu is a known entity, is exponentially less fatal than COVID, there's vaccines for it, no? You have to be trolling with this bullshit now.

[astfgyl]

Because the seasonal flu is a known entity, is exponentially less fatal than COVID, there's vaccines for it, no? You have to be trolling with this bullshit now.

So are you saying that a certain number of deaths is acceptable? But what about those poor old folks that wouldn't have died if we locked the fuck down and did it proper hard style?

Come on Ducky, you have to be trolling with this bullshit now.

Did you read the Examiner article there by any chance? Or did you watch any of the Prime Time debate last night? No? Didn't think so... So what exactly is your argument again?

exponentially
/ˌɛkspəˈnɛnʃ(ə)li/

adverb
1.
(with reference to an increase) more and more rapidly.

Well that's the wind knocked right out of that sail then... Exponentially me hole.

[Pedrito]

'Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn has confirmed the median age of the 1,803 people who have died from Covid-19 is "the late 80s".

He also confirmed that of those 90% of those who died had underlying conditions at the time of their deaths'.

[Kurt Cocaine]

The scientist behind Stutnik V is comparing the virus to people dying in a war. Agenda much....

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/29/scientist-behind-sputnik-v-vaccine-defends-russian-strategy

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Worst flu season of the last 10 years in the US took out an estimated 61,000 people, with the average being about 35,000 annually.

200,000 and counting from COVID in the last 6-7 months.

Whatever about abusing the word "exponentially", taking the figures at face value, there's a stark difference there which wasn't seen to the same extent in Europe, where measures were globally more stringent than in the US, notwithstanding regional variations.

[Yung Led Zeppelin]

Why is the flu being brought up repeatedly in discussions about this? This is not the flu, in so many ways.

[Giggles]

Why is the flu being brought up repeatedly in discussions about this? This is not the flu, in so many ways.

I'd imagine it's because it is like the flu, in so many ways:

- spreads by coughing/sneezing
- can survive on hard surfaces for 24 hours
- covid is being reported to have "flu-like symptoms"
- kills thousands of people every year

While it obviously isn't killing as many people as covid:

The flu is responsible for 200-500 deaths each year in Ireland. In a severe season it maycause up to 1,000 deaths.

... surely it's easy to see why it's being brought up in discussion?

[astfgyl]

My point about 'flu is that while it kills less than covid, the lockdown merchants are running with the idea that every life is precious and "what if it was your ma" and we should all do our bit to save everyone. Why then were they prepared to simply get the fuck on with it and not saying stupid shit like "it's manslaughter" and weren't going around afraid of their shit all the time? That is why I used that comparison. So next year if someone dies of 'flu it must either be answered by lockdown, or accepting that something will finish off a certain amount of people every year. So if a vaccine comes in the next few years, all those at risk can take it and it will save a certain amount of them, just like the 'flu vaccine does. In the meantime though we will have to get on with things or continue to make a fuck of everything else healthcare related and accept that the collateral damage from that is the acceptable level of harm or death. There must be a choice.

It's also worth keeping in mind that there is a vaccine every year for 'flu with wildly varying results but still 60,000 roughly accepted to die from it.

It's on the CDC website that of the 200,000 deaths reported in the US with positive covid test, over 100,000 of them also had influenza. So those figures are so badly skewed it is difficult to make much of them and the question of which respiratory virus actually killed them will never be clearly answered. It does put some perspective on the US faring so much worse than other developed nations though.

Edit: Instead of a new reply, here is something I've been reading. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-020-00808-x I have to admit it's a lot to take in and plenty of things that mean little or nothing to me along the way but what it indicates seems to be a very high level of immunity to covid in the general population. Something in the region of 80% from what I gather. Seems like a proper study too and appears devoid of agenda.

[astfgyl]

Has anyone seen Varadkar's latest comments on cases and how they are interpreted? Sounds like he is having a change of heart.

From RTE:

In an interview published today on The Currency website, the Enterprise Minister said: "What I see other countries doing - Belgium is the most recent example - is that they are no longer using case numbers to make their decisions on restrictions and policy.

"They are looking at hospitalisations, ICU capacity and deaths. It is a job for us as politicians to say to the public health people that maybe we should be focusing on that."

Interesting. I said it already more than once in this thread that while I am no supporter of Varadkar, he is one smooth fucking operator.

In other news, Tony Holohan is coming back as CMO next Monday, so expect the same hardline approach as always from his end.

[Emphyrio]

South Park's pandemic special just came out. Brilliant stuff.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Donald and Melania have tested positive. Looks like all our threads really are coming together now!

[Carnage]

Going for the sympathy vote, I reckon. I doubt every word that comes from that camp.

[Nail_Bombed]

But he can't possibly have got it - it's a hoax, remember?

[Ollkiller]

But he can't possibly have got it - it's a hoax, remember?

One day it'll just disappear. It is what it is.