So, even if for whatever reason one thinks the virus is less prevalent and less dangerous than reported in the media, it is still pandemic.

Hopefully now is a good time for people to gather safely again in casinos. We will know better in 6-8 weeks how it all is working out.

This example probably isn't the one you want to use now.

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/...strategy-wrong

2,200+ new cases 2 days ago, more than double their worst date so far. 1,080 yesterday. Hopefully not a lasting resurgence.

it's kinda cute, that some many ppl itt believe, (all) world leaders just watch telly all day long and b/c "the media" is crazy about this, they get scared into lock down .. it's not like they have experts and run simulations or anything like that ... just a good old panic and crashing the economy

i wouldn't get too exited if i were you ... 'Muricans prolly those, who won't play this year

it's not about death rate, nor was is it at any point. the virus is more contagiousness (than the flu) and those who get infected are longer sick. also, even if you don't die, there are many cases where people need medical treatment in hospitals for a week or longer.

so comparing this with the common flu (where we have a vaccine btw) is beyond stupid. if this virus spreads too fast, way more people get sick and way more need treatment in the hospital compared to the flu season.

so ignoring it, just b/c you believe you're a though guy, just won't work. but yeah, do your stuff and let us buttercups live our scared lives ...

yeah, almost the whole world, liberal and conservative governments alike, all conspire to bring down the great DJT ... do you really think the US of A are the centre of the universe ^^

if trump wouldn't had handled it like the clown he is, he would have been a lock for the re-election ... with all of his recent failures he gave biden a chance.

OK, you've written off the deaths of these ~43,000 as "meh, gonna happen anyway"

Let us know the reason we should we discount the value of the other ~67,000 lives here in the US?

Better yet, don't.

Just stop posting and go back to binge listening your favorite talk radio show. Here is John Oliver's humorous take on your talk radio hero whose drivel you parrot (Start at 5:32 wish I new how to embed time stamp)

You keep saying that but apparently never took the 30 seconds to check the numbers. I'm going to repeat it one more time: We just had a day with 1000 deaths. If that's "dropping like bricks" you just have no regard for human life whatsoever.
For the last couple month, the "Swedish way" was used by a lot of people to make a point about restrictions being useless. At some point, data started showing that the death/capita numbers in Sweden are significantly higher than in other countries with similar high-quality health care systems like Germany. After those numbers got released, reasonable people stopped using Sweden as an example of how to do it right.

FWIW, it's kinda ridiculous to blame stuff on pre-existing conditions when the #1 of those in the US is obesity. We as a society are responsible for everyone and their mom being fat. We can't just say "well, it's those pre-existing conditions" if it's us and our government that are responsible for that.

Not sure on that. Busses definitely run to winstar and choctaw. Avg age on those things has to be 60+ but I haven't been on one in a long time.

In our area, we are 4+ hours to nearest casino. We have two "legal poker rooms" and that is where I'd say avg ave is 55. I'd say the few peop!e wearing masks are under 50.

We have had an uptick in nursing home cases. Several popped up where my step mother is in the past week. I don't think this is due to "relaxing" of social distancing, because I don't think our community was doing that very well to begin with. I really think we were behind the wave, both in terms of cases, and testing.

My main point is, in west Texas, crusty old conservative men are out playing poker. And at first glance, our younger regs have been slower to return.

Is that "day with 1000 deaths" like how earlier in the week the UK had 359 deaths, which was part of a continual downward trend, but because a substantial part of said 359 was backdated several days/weeks the media went nuts?

How in Heaven's name is our gov't responsible for people being fat ? Did a guy in black come out and start shoving Ice Cream cones down our kids throats ? Did they require you to take that extra order of Pasta ? Come on how about just a tiny bit of personal responsibility.

The higher initial death toll was expected and predicted by the lead epidemiologist who consulted with the Swedish government on their strategy. His argument was there was no way to stop the spread and most of the resulting fatalities. He said those who shut down their economies would have a relatively low and flat initial mortality curve but the curve would steepen sharply once they reopen their economies from subsequent waves of the virus. His argument was that the total number of infected and mortality rate per capita would converge across all countries over the intermediate-to-long term, so there was no merit to shutting down the economy. He has since admitted Sweden didn't do enough to protect the at-risk population, specifically those in senior care facilities, via more stringent guidelines on those centers.

The argument against the Swedish model is three-fold: 1) Flattening the curve saves lives by maintaining access to medical care for those infected, 2) Therapeutics would be developed to reduce the mortality rate of those infected, and 3) Vaccines would be developed to stop the spread of the virus.

#1 - If you look at the statistics of those needing hospitalization for COVID-19, particularly those requiring ventilators, the medical outcomes of those patients in terms of morality rate were not materially better.

#2 - The only seemingly effective therapeutic thus far is Remdesivir. The problem is the drug is very difficult to synthesize and manufacture. Hopefully other therapeutics will prove effective as well.

#3 - To date there has never been a successful vaccine against past coronavirus-based diseases. There are lots of vaccines currently in the pipeline, some of which have already been proven to generate an antibody response (but unknown for how long), but more importantly have yet to be proven to impart immunity from that antibody response.

The takeaway is this - it's too early to determine whether the Swedish model is the correct one. It may in fact be proven wrong but were far from being able to make that determination.

Seems like basically the whole country is opened back up and little more than token social distancing/mask wearing is going on. Will there be a second wave? Will the virus peter out? Or will it be a slow and steady killer that as a society we have decided to accept (like mass shootings)?

There are regulations in regards to alcohol, tobacco and drugs but barely any in regards to unhealthy foods. It would be extremely easy to change that. For example by putting a tax on sugary soft drinks like the UK does.

FWIW, I’m obviously not talking about the current government only. That’s something that started a long time ago. If we had a healthier country, the number of Corona related deaths would probably be significantly lower.

My only point was that with a functioning health care system and a healthier population, people might be more comfortable lifting restrictions.

Lol right

It stems from parents. The only thing you could say as a govt would be better meals for students.

But that’s 1 meal a day. Comes down to parenting and making sure your kids are active and not giving them ramen nightly.

I really don't get these shields. It's open air at the bottom right? If he coughed or sneezed it would all fly out the bottom anyway. The same for some of the local news ladies wearing very loose masks that are like 1 inch off their face. What good does that do at all? And it does nothing for protecting from contaminated air you might breath in.

shields are to protect the eyes, you still have to wear a mask obv

Coronavirus, as far as the US is concerned, was over 2 weeks ago, and never more than a negligible risk to anyone under 65. Data will continue to trickle in, but nobody cares anymore.

Once the protests have slowed down the media will pick it up again on Covid 19. Remember it is an election year...

Notice the part a I made bold. That is only the extreme cases. The majority of cases turn out to be very mild symptoms, way less then the flu or totally asymptomatic!

The one company last week had all 150 worked test positive for Covid but only 3 showed any kind of symptoms! Thats why the Covid case numbers are going to skyrocket as employers require testing . More testing equals more cases. If they tested the entire 350 million in the US. They might find that 100 million either have it or show antibodies that they already had it and didn't know it. It the deaths , hospitalizations, long term effects that are the more concerning numbers, not cases.



I'm a big John Oliver fan. Totally disagree with his take on the whole Covid situation. I don't have to agree with someones ideas or their politics to think they are funny.

67,000 lives are a lot. We lose a lot of live every year to other diseases too, Flu, Pnemonia. We lose nearly 40,000 just in car accidents each year. Just to get us places faster. I certainly wouldn't suggest ending motorized vehicles.

I don’t even know why I bother arguing all the flu bro’s anymore, but the car accident analogy is laughable. We have speed limits, seat belts, safety features, driving laws etc. I mean, c’mon. 100k deaths in a few months with extreme social distancing and there are still flu bro’s who think ANY preventive measure is part of some conspiracy or just a media cucking or whatever you people think. It’s ridiculous.

The analogy to car accidents does seem relevant to me. 30-40 years ago, automobile fatalities were 2-3 times what they are today on a per capita basis. Around that time, our government implemented all sorts of national restrictions and regulations designed to reduce auto deaths (including national safety standards, seat belt laws, national speed limits, stricted drunk driving laws, and a national drinking age). Combined with changes in technology (especially air bags) and consumer preferences (shifts to Japanese cars), the fatality rate dropped steadily from 1970-2010.

More recently, auto deaths have been seen as less of an issue, and some of the restrictions (especially the national 55mph speed limit) have been relaxed, and auto deaths have been flat or slightly increasing during the past decade. But there hasn’t been too much push back because deaths seems to be at a steady and politically acceptable level. We -could- keep reducing deaths by mandating more safety features and reducing speeed limits further, but the political and economic trade-off isn’t worth it.

At some point fairly soon, we will need to make a collective decision about what the politically acceptable level of covid deaths is, such that we know we could reduce them further but consciously decide the trade-off isn’t worth it.

Well put. I shouldn't have said the car analogy was bad, but the reference point that user took was bad. It's not either no cars or complete freedom to drive how you want. There are socially/politically acceptable measures put into place to prevent as much unnecessary death as possible.

That had been true all the way until the early 2010s when the numbers increased significantly for the first time in decades. Just from 2014 to 2016, the number of motor vehicle fatalities increased by over 15%.

At that point, people started to wonder if it is a good idea to let drivers text non-stop while being behind the wheel. Since then, that problem has been addressed, at least in parts of the US.

But your overall point is totally true. With stuff like that we usually find an acceptable level for the majority of the population. The question is just how that acceptable level looks like. It's certainly above a couple hundred deaths in a month but maybe below a couple hundred in a day.

The only reason I brought up car accidents is just to kind of say it's a big, big, country.

While 110k deaths from this pandemic seems like a huge number.
40k seems like a big number too. Thats how many die from car accidents every year.
40k Is also around the number of Flu deaths each year.

If 110,000 were dead out of a population of 1,000,000 I'd be afraid to leave the house too!

But's it's 110,000 out of 350,000,000 and the chances are much much lower then that if you are younger then 75 years old!

All that being said, people can be as scared as they want, stay home, be afraid, whatever. That's there prerogative, have at it. Just don't try to tell other people what not to be doing just because you are afraid. Thats the part that bothers me.

Another note from being out on the front lines. It's not the younger crowd that is suddenly "done with the virus" It's the 50+ year old crowd who have been most vocal coming into my store about how their done with it, not wearing masks, etc. Males more then females, but even older females not as worried. The 20-50 crowd while not happy with it seem to not mind wearing the masks and complying.

Thanks for clearing that up, Doctor. (Mail order medical degree, maybe, if that ?)

I don't think airline pilots should drink and fly, but that's just me being all "scared" I guess.

I don't think an asymptomatic typhoid carriers should work in food services or a household cooks, whether or not they are named Mary, but that's just me being all "scared" I guess.

I wear a mask in public places, following the advice of Dr Fauci, among others. I also think it is a courtesy to other members of the public.

The older folks you cite, who are "suddenly done with the virus" have forgotten or choose to ignore that "the virus" may not yet be done with us.

It doesn't surprise me that younger people are more willing to wear masks than older people, for the same reason than many parents are more vigilant about making sure their child is wearing a seat belt than in wearing a seat belt themselves.