The P&R Plague Thread (Covid-19)

[nic]

I just heard that their are more deaths from Covid in 2021 than there were in 2020. Is that true? It might be close, but it still surprises me. And we have a 66% with at least one dose.

[knapplc]

19 hours ago, DevoHusker said:

Understand...this is an insight into why lots of folks don't believe a f-ing thing that comes out regarding Covid...right?

 

Everyone believes something. Everyone trusts one source over another.

[knapplc]

15 minutes ago, nic said:

I just heard that their are more deaths from Covid in 2021 than there were in 2020. Is that true? It might be close, but it still surprises me. And we have a 66% with at least one dose.

 

 

It's true. @DevoHusker posted a link to that info a couple pages back.

 

It's largely because we're trying to get back to normal, and people are going to events, unmasked, unvaccinated, and living like there's no virus.

 

I think it was 97% of the deaths we're experiencing right now are unvaccinated people.

[Guy Chamberlin]

55 minutes ago, Jason Sitoke said:

I agree that a lot of folks are just looking for anything to grasp at to say ‘ah ha!  Experts suck!’.  But I also think hand waving every misstep as a consequence of ‘evolving science’ is a bit white washy. Sometimes people just get it wrong because people make mistakes or miss major considerations when trying to model a problem. 

 

Sure.

 

I think most of us are fighting the tendency to discredit science for its missteps, and replace it with far more baseless assertions. The desire to undermine science, experts, and facts in general goes beyond this thread.  

 

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

20 hours ago, DevoHusker said:

 

As of Wednesday, October 6th, 352k in 2020 and 353k in 2021 https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/coronavirus/johns-hopkins-data-more-people-in-u-s-have-died-so-far-this-year-from/  It's not a stat that anyone was wanting to see, regardless. 

 

You're right in that it was much trial and error based on estimates, predictions and prior best practices. I never said that I had a silver bullet, or that anyone else should have. 

 

I agree that it seems to be the same people turning us in the direction of the dead end in the maze. So, why not put our efforts in continuing forward, rather than regressing? At some point, whether it be 62% or 98% vaccinated, we have to stop the back and forth. 

 

 

 

Got it. I was remembering the number of deaths for one year of the pandemic (March 2020 - March 2021) and not the calendar year. 

 

My concern is that other countries have ebbs and flows over the last 18 months, some of them extremely intense, but the U.S. has remained consistent on the global tote board. I actually don't think there's an obvious answer. 

 

I'm still not sure what you mean by regressing. We threw the doors wide open in June based on the vaccine success we assumed was ongoing, then when Delta spiked the numbers, some states, locales, and private businesses went back to requiring masks indoors. I live in relatively restrictive Marin County, and every business is open, we're going to restaurants, bars, and health clubs again. There are big outdoor concerts and indoor concerts. I'm going to a Warriors game at our 18,000 seat arena next week. Last night they required everyone to wear masks at the high school girl's volleyball game -- including the players -- which a lot of us found a bit silly, given all the other measures being ignored. A different school five miles away has completely different standards. But no one feels particularly outraged, There's extremely high vaccine compliance here. And it does feel like we're moving forward with an unfortunate glitch or two. 

[DevoHusker]

25 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

Everyone believes something. Everyone trusts one source over another.

Sometimes frustrating, but very true.

[DevoHusker]

3 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

Got it. I was remembering the number of deaths for one year of the pandemic (March 2020 - March 2021) and not the calendar year. 

 

My concern is that other countries have ebbs and flows over the last 18 months, some of them extremely intense, but the U.S. has remained consistent on the global tote board. I actually don't think there's an obvious answer. 

 

I'm still not sure what you mean by regressing. We threw the doors wide open in June based on the vaccine success we assumed was ongoing, then when Delta spiked the numbers, some states, locales, and private businesses went back to requiring masks indoors. I live in relatively restrictive Marin County, and every business is open, we're going to restaurants, bars, and health clubs again. There are big outdoor concerts and indoor concerts. I'm going to a Warriors game at our 18,000 seat arena next week. Last night they required everyone to wear masks at the high school girl's volleyball game -- including the players -- which a lot of us found a bit silly, given all the other measures being ignored. A different school five miles away has completely different standards. But no one feels particularly outraged, There's extremely high vaccine compliance here. And it does feel like we're moving forward with an unfortunate glitch or two. 

 

What you've described in Marin sounds like a good situation. Sensible but not manic.

[Guy Chamberlin]

2 hours ago, DevoHusker said:

 

What you've described in Marin sounds like a good situation. Sensible but not manic.

 

Well it's as sensible as many precautionary measures across the county, and more strict than a few. It's mostly about how different parts of the country greet the same restrictions. 

 

 

I don't think we are either ignorant sheep, or righteous virtue signalers. It's not the anti-business/pro-government argument some folks are making.  It's a lot of big businesses and disparate governing entities trying to deal with a pretty huge and evolving public health crisis on the fly. The experts haven't been perfect, but they've been considerably better than the non-experts some people are embracing. 

 

A lot of the arguments floating around really want to frame it in binary political terms.  Scientists, at least the good ones, genuinely keep searching for the truth, even when it's inconvenient. Politicians? No freaking way.

[funhusker]

5 hours ago, DevoHusker said:

 

There aren't many (any?) around here. I guess I should not care as long as they don't try to make their standard everyone's standard. To me, it seems odd to go through life that scared.

There are enough that whatever conference the guy in your Tweet was at made some rules to make them more comfortable.

 

I know my wife is a lot stricter with the kids about hand washing and sanitizer than she was 18 months ago.

[Scarlet]

Shaking hands has always been gross.  I don't miss having to shake some trucker's d!(k skinner dropping off a delivery after a four hour drive.  

[suh_fan93]

 

Not nearly enough.  

[suh_fan93]

 

[teachercd]

Anyone else in Lincoln Saturday?  Not sure I saw one mask.  I did see how defeated a bunch of Dads looked at the father/daughter Delta Gamma "Dad Day" party at Duffy's.

 

 

[DevoHusker]

34 minutes ago, teachercd said:

Anyone else in Lincoln Saturday?  Not sure I saw one mask.  I did see how defeated a bunch of Dads looked at the father/daughter Delta Gamma "Dad Day" party at Duffy's.

 

 

 

Lot's of masks in the stadium, at least while up and about in the concourse. 

[Guy Chamberlin]

18 hours ago, suh_fan93 said:

 

Not nearly enough.  

 

Yeah. A massive and laudable effort, but that number jumped out at me as highly unsatisfying. 

 

But here's another anomaly to work with. India had it's biggest surge of the pandemic with Delta, and for a few weeks was racking up the most infections and deaths in the world. India's numbers have gone back down, and despite having four times the population, it has a fraction of U.S. deaths and infections. But India's vaccination rate is only 19.4%

 

You want to draw simple conclusions, but looking around the world it's hard to make them.