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LIVE FROM HONG KONG: To Date in 2020, Influenza (the Flu) Accounts for More Than 50 Times the Number of Deaths as the Coronavirus in Hong Kong
GP ^ | 29 Feb 2020 | Joe Hoft

Posted on 02/29/2020 8:15:18 AM PST by datura

More than a month after Hong Kong reacted to the coronavirus and closed its border to neighboring China, the overall damage of the virus is not nearly as severe as originally feared, and compared to the common flu, it is minuscule.

As reported yesterday:

News of the coronavirus reached Hong Kong and the world in early January. Hong Kong citizens were curious at first and then almost hyper-reactive. The Wuhan coronavirus was a big unknown and still is. Hong Kong did very little at first other than observe the actions of the Chinese government in Hubei in response to the newly discovered coronavirus.

By the end of January right before the Chinese New Year, the government of China took the unprecedented move and shut everything down in Hubei Province in China. Road blocks were erected and people were forced to stay home in Hubei Province. After the Monday and Tuesday holidays, all businesses were shut down in Hong Kong and throughout China.

Schools were closed until the end of February in Hong Kong and the following week businesses opened but with the option to work from home. Most companies followed the Hong Kong government’s practices with civil servants and kept their employees home. This has continued throughout the month of February and schools in Hong Kong next announced they would be closed till mid-March and then until April 20th.

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas on earth with a population of around 8 million people. As of this morning there are 94 coronavirus cases confirmed and two deaths in Hong Kong. The percent of confirmed cases to total population is minuscule at 0.001%. Deaths as a percent of the population are thus far at 2 deaths in 8 million.

China has a population of around 1.4 billion. The number of coronavirus confirmed cases stands at 79,251 with around 2,700 confirmed deaths. The percent of confirmed cases to the population is also minuscule at 0.0056%. Deaths as a percent of the population are basically nil. These numbers are based on reported cases which may or may not be accurate.

The US has reported 64 confirmed cases to date of the coronavirus and no fatalities. With 350 million Americans the number of confirmed cases is also at amounts almost nil with no deaths.

Since the beginning of the year the flu in Hong Kong has been much more consequential than the coronavirus:

The Centre for Health Protection announced today that the winter flu season has ended. During this period, 113 adults died of influenza and no deaths from children were recorded. The Centre reminds the public that although the winter flu peak period has ended, citizens should continue to maintain personal and environmental hygiene to prevent respiratory diseases.

So far, the new coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, has led to more than 75,000 illnesses and 2,000 deaths, primarily in mainland China. But that’s nothing compared with the flu, also called influenza. In the U.S. alone, the flu has already caused an estimated 26 million illnesses, 250,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of course, the MSM will continue to parrot Democrat talking points that the coronavirus is the worst crisis since World War II. The data simply doesn’t show this and to date the common flu is much, much more deadly.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: butbutflu; commoncold; democrathoax; wuflu
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To: proust

“People are dumb enough to accept China’s claim that there were only 8 new cases yesterday in ALL of China outside of Hubei.”

but we’re supposed to believe their earlier numbers of thousands infected and hundreds dying, right?

either all of their numbers are bogus and NO conclusions can be drawn about anything or they’re all at least semi-reasonable ... you can’t pick and choose from unreliable numbers to make valid points ...


41 posted on 02/29/2020 9:14:19 AM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: catnipman

I’m not picking and choosing China numbers. I said twice already in this thread that the global data people are relying on is false. I shouldn’t have to say it a third time, but here we are.


42 posted on 02/29/2020 9:17:10 AM PST by proust (Justice delayed is injustice.)
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To: catnipman

May your tongue in your left cheek get the Corona Virus and freeze there until this is over.


43 posted on 02/29/2020 9:20:30 AM PST by Grampa Dave ( Welcome to Mass Quarantinofornia !!!.. Sanctuary State in rapid decline!!!.. Norm's Revenge)
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To: Owen

Thanks.

Would you please post the link for the site you mentioned.

Thanks


44 posted on 02/29/2020 9:21:52 AM PST by Grampa Dave ( Welcome to Mass Quarantinofornia !!!.. Sanctuary State in rapid decline!!!.. Norm's Revenge)
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To: catnipman

[some freepers are claiming it’s asian genetics, but that doesn’t really ring true to me]


It doesn’t ring true, period, because genetics are shaped by natural selection. The Chinese have been eating these things for thousands of years. Prior to the modern era, they probably ate more of them, because efficient animal husbandry is a fairly modern phenomenon. Any vulnerability to invisible creepy crawlies from exotic game animals would have been bred out of the Chinese gene pool thousands of years ago. If anything, they should be *more* resistant to these bugs, in the way that Spaniards were more resistant to smallpox than the pre-Columbian Indians exposed to it for the first time.


45 posted on 02/29/2020 9:25:44 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: FreeReign

A major problem for the world in general is the media desire to hype anything because it is good for the news business.

This is not a good virus (none are), but as far as viruses go it is as others have pointed out in line with what we battle every year - a flu outbreak. The politicization of it should surprise nobody and the fact that is being treated as a pandemic will have an economic impact, but I am not ready to self-quarantine my family and I flew on two planes yesterday to come home from a work trip. I saw a few people wearing masks in the airport, but it appeared to be business as usual.

All we can do is wait and see how this plays out here and abroad, but given the low mortality rate it appears to have I do not think it is a black swan event (yet) despite the hyperbolic nature of the news coverage. An ebola outbreak in the international community would absolutely be such an event - that is a horrific plague with monumental consequences if it breaks containment.

One thing that is interesting from a science standpoint is how the virus has (and will) spread from one region of the world to the others. It will be a good case study on how far worse events can be spread throughout the globe quickly.


46 posted on 02/29/2020 9:26:26 AM PST by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
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To: FreeReign

Hey, you are removing all of the fun re posting horror stories about the Coronal Lite Virus!

“You shouldn’t try to make your argument using a government reaction, such as the closing of schools.

Try using real data.

Number of deaths, death rate, contagiousness...etc.”


47 posted on 02/29/2020 9:26:58 AM PST by Grampa Dave ( Welcome to Mass Quarantinofornia !!!.. Sanctuary State in rapid decline!!!.. Norm's Revenge)
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People say "look at the curve" so let's look at it:

Isn't Xi just awesome? He stopped CV dead in its tracks with one meeting.

This isn't cherry picking, it's the sum total of data out of China and it's garbage.

48 posted on 02/29/2020 9:27:58 AM PST by proust (Justice delayed is injustice.)
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To: SkyDancer

Some flew off the shelves in Costco into our cart.

Since it was our monthly trip to Costco to stock up,the bill was basically the same as last year.


49 posted on 02/29/2020 9:30:19 AM PST by Grampa Dave ( Welcome to Mass Quarantinofornia !!!.. Sanctuary State in rapid decline!!!.. Norm's Revenge)
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To: FreeReign

Well Hong Kong has been significantly successful in limiting the spread. Kids everywhere are notiriously unhygienic so keeping them home is likely a good idea. And since kids under 15 do not seem affected BUT are still likely carriers keeping them indoors may explain Hong Kong’s success so far.


50 posted on 02/29/2020 9:35:21 AM PST by xkaydet65
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To: Grampa Dave
I'm waiting to hear that global warming is causing an increase in virus transmission...depending on which way the wind blows.

And since President Trump took us out of the Climate Accord....all viruses can be attributed DIRECTLY to the President.

51 posted on 02/29/2020 9:41:18 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Sacajaweau

I’m waiting to hear that global warming is causing an increase in virus transmission...depending on which way the wind blows.

And since President Trump took us out of the Climate Accord....all viruses can be attributed DIRECTLY to the President.

There was something about nitrogen disappearing or increasing over mainland China before Corona Lite or afterwards. I scanned, and it confused this poor old man.


52 posted on 02/29/2020 9:54:03 AM PST by Grampa Dave ( Welcome to Mass Quarantinofornia !!!.. Sanctuary State in rapid decline!!!.. Norm's Revenge)
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To: Grampa Dave

“May your tongue in your left cheek get the Corona Virus and freeze there until this is over.”

grin! ... oops, better not do that: corona virus might get in ...


53 posted on 02/29/2020 9:55:44 AM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Grampa Dave

Dave...It’s the flu....We have all different kinds every year. That’s the way it is and that’s the way it has been since the beginning of time.


54 posted on 02/29/2020 10:39:56 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: SkyDancer

No...in 2018-2019 It was about 1/3 of that. About 32,500.

35 million infected.
About 6% of total hospitalized.
About .0091 deaths.

It’s a lot, but nowhere near the numbers I am seeing kicked around today.


55 posted on 02/29/2020 10:48:27 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: catnipman; RayChuang88

I’m beginning to think that the Chinese leadership’s panic was possibly triggered by the effects of the swine fever on swine herds. Something like have of 1/2 of the Chinese swine population has either died or had to be culled. Maybe they thought this coronavirus would have a similar impact on humans.

What they probably missed was that pigs bred for meat are monocultures - they are (incestuously) bred for a high meat to bone ratio, feed to meat ratio, etc, etc. Disease resistance for a good number of plants and animals bred for human consumption is very low. Whereas humans aren’t monocultures. It’s generally natural selection that decides what humans get to pass on their genes. And a good chunk of that natural selection consists of resistance to diseases that Mother Nature throws up randomly.


56 posted on 02/29/2020 10:49:05 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: Vermont Lt

I just punched in a search and those numbers came up.


57 posted on 02/29/2020 11:00:51 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: datura

Tell the SandersBots to go sneeze into their elbow. /eyeroll


58 posted on 02/29/2020 1:16:39 PM PST by sauropod (David Horowitz: “Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out.”)
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To: Grampa Dave

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

scroll to active cases, select graph


59 posted on 02/29/2020 4:28:26 PM PST by Owen
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To: Owen

80,000 was estimate of 2017-2018 flu season:

26 Sept: 2018: AP: CDC: 80,000 people died of flu last winter in U.S., highest death toll in 40 years
In recent years, flu-related deaths have ranged from about 12,000 to — in the worst year — 56,000, according to the CDC...
CDC officials called the 80,000 figure preliminary, and it may be slightly revised. But they said it is not expected to go down.
It eclipses the estimates for every flu season going back to the winter of 1976-1977. Estimates for many earlier seasons were not readily available.

https://www.statnews.com/2018/09/26/cdc-us-flu-deaths-winter/


60 posted on 02/29/2020 5:54:14 PM PST by MAGAthon
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