Well I thought the numbers could be light on the death toll from this due to propaganda. From China of course.
It just looks like the numbers reported for the normal flu in the United States seem about the same if not worse.
Could be it hasn’t spread around enough to do major damage?
Or do you want me to stop reading and leave.
It’s called Chat for a reason.
In the West, this thing is not only in the first inning....it’s the top of the first.
If it cannot be contained (and they seem to be doing well) it would be like China in a few months.
Everyone agrees China is lying. It’s what they ARE doing that has some folksfamiliar with emergency management here a little nervous. Locking down apartment blocks and shutting down cities seems a little extreme.
Sorry to be snappish.
We have had more deaths from the flu this year than this virus so far, that is correct. I don’t see the US government quarantining 10’s of millions of citizens. This is not just a flu and it’s still in its infancy.
I hope I’m wrong and the seasonal flu is the paramount number but it isn’t likely at this time.
when comparing seasonal flu numbers of different nations there are a couple of things I think are important to consider:
Exposure risk:
America is an open society where people may travel freely. The US population is 330 Million. Last year, 80 million people visited the USA - equivalent to 25% of the population.
China is a closed and controlled society. It has a population of 1.4 Billion and a predicted 180m visitors for 2020 - equivalent to 10% of their population.
So while both China and America have native seasonal flu’s, America’s exposure risk is over twice that of China.
Weather:
China is a holiday destination in late Dec-mid Jan, receiving a mass migration of tens of millions from ‘tropic’ countries at a time when there are few active flu cases. Celebrations in Asia bring thousands of people to events. But at the middle of the flu season (midJan-Mar) when winter conditions drive a mobile population into closer contact for longer periods of time due to cold weather, America becomes the return destination for many of those same travelers. And some who pick up the flu elsewhere will die once back in America.
Overall:
A high rate of viral introduction in a gentically mixed population with a considerable number of elderly and disabled, weather patterns favorable for viral growth, lack of caste systems separating populations, and an optional vaccines policy for an annually shape-shifting virus, will drive US flu rates higher than that of a closed society with intense but transient exposure to the outside world. Closed societies better able to publicly fudge numbers for political purposes. Like China putting seasonal flu deaths under an end-stage result, like renal failure, instead of calling it flu-related pneumonia.
That’s how I see it, anyway.