[Artcore]

But, but, but...

[TADSLOS]

Quick! Throw mo’ money at WHO and NIH!!

[cba123]

Not sure you are correct, we will see.

[Berlin_Freeper]

I had a girl friend who actually called for Last Rites because she had such bad flu.
We were called back and I canceled it.
You never know how close you are.
She got better.

[11th_VA]

I remember when AIDs had just become a ‘thing’. A military doctor came to talk to our unit and said, “Everyone look around you, one out of every five of you are going to die from AIDS”; such BS ... (AIDS was 99.99999% preventable)

This virus can go wherever it wills - and you’ll never know until you’re infected and showing symptoms

[null and void]

To be fair, it did have a head start...

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[Dogbert41]

Anyone ever seen China react to a virus like the way they are now? And since when has China told us the truth about a damned thing?

[kaehurowing]

This is such BS. Coronavirus is 100 times more deadly, it just hasn’t had the chance to kill thousands yet, but it is quickly getting there and the scary thought is it could end up in the millions.

[Oscar in Batangas]

But those j⅞~10,000 deaths were caused by the 'good flu' Media have to worry about the one or two deaths that were caused by the 'bad flu' or they're won't get their headlines

[Maudeen]

And not to mention the numbers who have died from taking the flu shot. It certainly hasn't kept especially the elderly from getting the flu. Even physicians are sick and cancelling appointments. Two friends of mine had appointments cancelled by two different doctors in two different towns.

[Jane Long]

yahoo *news*....lol.

[Vermont Lt]

I hate to use bad words, but someone has to be reta....mentally challenged not to realize this not the flu.

Stop comparing it to the flu. It surpassed SARs in short order.

I am not saying it’s the apocalypse. I am not running out and paying $50 for masks (I already had them.).

What I am saying is there is smoke on the horizon. You can ignore or you can ride out and take a look.

[Nifster]

US death rates for flu caused deaths always run between 15,000 and 35,000

[kaehurowing]

The flu has killed 10,000, this says.

The death rate from corona virus if it is what they say, will be at least 380,000 deaths if it infects the same number of people as the flu.

[Stingray51]

A couple thoughts:
1) The Coronavirus is a disease that is in addition to the annual “ordinary” flu. So it is not one or the other.
2) If credible-seeming reports out of China are accurate, the Chinese government is massively lying about the extent of the outbreak (and why would we expect them to tell the truth). Chinese people get seasonal flu also so this is an enormous problem that is on top of that. The WHO figures you cite are almost certainly a fraction of the real figures.
3) Still, the human mind is ill-suited to handle statistics. Whether it is school shootings or shark attacks or even domestic terror attacks, we tend to get led by the nose to embrace the latest panic and ignore the real dangers. The regular flu kills a lot of people but the scary top line numbers are not adjusted for the fact that it largely kills the old and already infirm. I would say be careful driving, make sure your kids are not hit by a car, that kind of thing are probably a lot more important statistically.
4) All that said, this would be a good time to separate ourselves from Red China. From their crappy goods, their slave labor, their spying students and researchers.... when they join the civilized world with labor standards & democracy, and stop eating bats and other oddball gross stuff, maybe reconsider....

[calenel]

This season, the flu has killed 10,000 dead out of 19,000,000. 0.05%. Lower than the usual 0.1%. The flu has a reservoir of hosts in the general populace at any time of millions, so we know what to expect, year after year.

The Wu Han Virus has killed only 638 out of some 31,372 confirmed cases (based on the CCP’s questionable numbers, but we’ll go with those for now). 2.0%. Of the resolved cases, 29% have died and 71% have recovered. There is no reservoir of hosts, every case is new exposure.

This is no joke. Be vigilant. Make sure you and your family have supplies and can hunker down in your house for a month. Or longer. Don’t panic, but don’t make light of the situation.

[Darteaus94025]

The NUMBER of flu deaths is very different from the RATE of flu deaths. And the government knows that, but insists on obfuscation.

Roughly 22,500,000 people caught the flu last year and the number of deaths was 10,000.

The death rate from the flu is 10,000 / 22,500,000, or 4.4 deaths per 10,000 infected: .04%.

The reported death rate of the Coronavirus is 2.5%, meaning that if the same number of people catch the more highly contagious Coronavirus, the number of deaths will be: 22,500,000 x .026 = 585,000.

Most people will recognize that 585,000 is significantly higher than 10,000.

And that is exactly why your servants of the people are not telling you about it.

[Pikachu_Dad]

You are comparing apples and oranges !

[kingu]

More than week old numbers, and inaccurate numbers at that. The CDC has strict criteria for what is recorded as a flu related death, and out of the 8 flu deaths in my county that I know of, none of them were recorded by the sheriff (also our coroner) as being flu related.

[zeestephen]

Someone forgot to do the math...

In the USA, influenza kills approximately 0.2% of the people who catch it.

In China, the corona virus is killing 2.0% of the people who catch it.

In other words - the corona virus is killing TEN TIMES more infected people in China than influenza kills infected people in the USA.