COVID-19 Outbreak Information Updates (Reboot) [over 150.000,000 US cases (est.), 6,422,520 US hospitilizations, 1,148,691 US deaths.] (8 Viewers)

WSJ put out an article about the young people going out to pubs and beaches... kinda like Florida and Mississippi. o_O

If you mean Melbourne, Australia and not Melbourne, Florida, that's not quite right. Until this past Wednesday, we were in a state of partial lockdown (e.g. people required to work from home wherever possible, food etc. limited to takeaway only) and mandatory facemask coverings outside as numbers gradually increased, but now have basically transitioned to full lockdown with only essential businesses still open and an 8pm curfew. Those will be our arrangements for a minimum six weeks, which means Monday 14 September will be our first day out - at this stage. That just so happens to be the Saints opener v the Bucs at 6.25am in the morning. I am desperately hoping my buddy can come over for that.

The genesis of the second wave was really returned travellers. We have a 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine for anybody coming into the country. However, it seems like a few of the private security contractors hired to run the hotels decided it would be a good idea to have sex with bored females. Quite a few of them are of the Islamic faith and subsequent to contracting the virus from these activities, went and congregated with their families for Eid al-Adha (I believe). In a lot of instances those family gatherings exceeded 10 people which was against the rules at the time in any case. Anyway, they became a petrie dish and now there is significant community transmission arising from that which has really spread across the entire Melbourne metropolitan area. It sucks because a few months ago we were tracking at daily new cases in the single digits and all of known origin.

Victoria is about to announce 725 cases today, which marks the high point of the pandemic in this state and anywhere in the country. In broad terms I have been impressed by our leadership but there's an alarming lack of personal responsibility being taken by some people and unfortunately, with a virus this infectious, that's all it takes.
 
I'm kind of shocked (ok, not really), that far UVC lights (non damaging to human tissue) haven't gone full bore manufacturing to install in public transportation, HVAC, schools, etc. Phillips has various UVC lights (not sure about specific far UVC), that are available for commercial applications. Can't the company just tailor the wavelength to the safer value and go make a killing in the market? Some of this research is from 2 years ago. You can already use regular UVC in your HVAC, you just need to make sure the light isn't shining on anyone.

We have the technology and the money to go all in on antiviral solutions for public spaces and commercial spaces... far UVC lights (not regular UVC, you might give people skin cancer or cataracts), hepa filters, other types of airborne sanitization, open up the windows, get outside air in more. Copper fixtures (kills viruses and bacteria quickly) too.
 


At this point, the only stat I trust is morgue capacity. They have trouble faking that. At this point the delta of actual deaths (all causes) over projected deaths (all causes) is the metric that counts the most. Whether the deaths are classified as "dead directly from COVID" or "systemic organ failure of unknown origin", you can just count how many extra deaths there are.

From there, you can also project how many people had severe COVID are still be alive but with temporary or permanent COVID damage -- just work backwards.

Still the only stat that matters -- how many people is this killing? If this was happening anywhere else, there would be giant mass concert fundraisers for crissakes. Are we that numb now?
 
At this point, the only stat I trust is morgue capacity. They have trouble faking that. At this point the delta of actual deaths (all causes) over projected deaths (all causes) is the metric that counts the most. Whether the deaths are classified as "dead directly from COVID" or "systemic organ failure of unknown origin", you can just count how many extra deaths there are.

From there, you can also project how many people had severe COVID are still be alive but with temporary or permanent COVID damage -- just work backwards.

Still the only stat that matters -- how many people is this killing? If this was happening anywhere else, there would be giant mass concert fundraisers for crissakes. Are we that numb now?

I think total cases matters, not because of the absolute number, but because of the number of moderate to severe cases that are capable of causing both short and long term changes in physical and mental health. Deaths are no doubt a key statistic, but don't tell the whole story.
 
I have heard that we have too many tests. In fact, we have the best test in the world and cases will drop if we test less.
I think I’ve heard that somewhere before. Just imagine if we simply ended all testing Covid would go away, hospitals would be empty, people would stop dying, butterflies and deer would start singing and dancing, rainbows and unicorns for everyone.
 
At this point, the only stat I trust is morgue capacity. They have trouble faking that. At this point the delta of actual deaths (all causes) over projected deaths (all causes) is the metric that counts the most. Whether the deaths are classified as "dead directly from COVID" or "systemic organ failure of unknown origin", you can just count how many extra deaths there are.

From there, you can also project how many people had severe COVID are still be alive but with temporary or permanent COVID damage -- just work backwards.

Still the only stat that matters -- how many people is this killing? If this was happening anywhere else, there would be giant mass concert fundraisers for crissakes. Are we that numb now?
I don't think that a big concert is a good idea right now.
 
This really could be it's own topic, but it fits with Covid-19 too. It is worth the read.


If you “do your own research,” you can no doubt find innumerable websites, social media accounts, and even a handful of medical professionals who are sharing opinions that confirm whatever your preconceived notions about COVID-19 are. However, do not fool yourself: you are not doing research. You are seeking information to confirm your own biases and discredit any contrary opinions. Each time you do this, you exemplify the problem of anti-science bias that Dr. Fauci warned about in June:

“If you go by the evidence and by the data, you're speaking the truth and it's amazing sometimes, the denial there is. It's the same thing that gets people who are anti-vaxxers - who don't want people to get vaccinated, even though the data clearly indicate the safety of vaccines. That's really a problem.”
 
This is why we can't have nice things

This underlines my thinking on all of this. We can sit and point fingers at politicians but at the end of the day the people doing these things are the truly responsible parties. Selfishness and greed run our country from top to bottom. It's disappointing.
 

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