I don’t appreciate being called a “moron.” Freepers are conservatives/libertarians. We use REASON, not pink hat emotional diatribes. To answer the points you raised:
1) We are not Italy. Our population is younger, smokes at a rate 50% less, and we don’t have socialized medicine. All of Italy’s dead are super-seniors/seniors with serious underlying health issues. I have read multiple reports that even before Covid19, if a super-senior was taken to an Italian ER with life-threatening conditions, they were “rationed” out of care. We don’t do that in the USA.
2) China has 1.4 billion people, and they have 5,000 deaths. That’s a fairly small number of dead, considering that the flu kills tens of thousands of Chinese per year.
3) I am not denying the existence of the China Virus and that, if contracted by an older person with serious respiratory issues it could be fatal. I question whether it is any more deadly than the flu or other pathogens that get passed around.
You have absolutely no idea that this data from China is true, but do carry on.
“All of Italy’s dead are super-seniors/seniors with serious underlying health issues.”
Nope. Plenty of younger folks getting sick. The claim it’s an old people’s disease is based on the skewed demographics from the early cases and the fact that the weak die faster.
“I have read multiple reports that even before Covid19, if a super-senior was taken to an Italian ER with life-threatening conditions, they were “rationed” out of care. “
The Italian HCS crashed. For them, right now, 60 is “super-senior”. Not that they can really treat anybody right now.
“We don’t do that in the USA.”
Isn’t that what you are doing right now? Let’s get back to work and screw the useless old geezers. That’s even worse, actually. You are willing to actively endanger those useless eaters.
“China has 1.4 billion people, and they have 5,000 deaths. That’s a fairly small number of dead, considering that the flu kills tens of thousands of Chinese per year.”
As stated countless times on countless threads to countless FluBros, the Chinese numbers are bogus. Whether you believe the whistle-blowers from the Wuhan crematoriums or not (at least 200,000 dead), why did China tear up the roads and cordon off Wuhan with the military?
” I am not denying the existence of the China Virus and that, if contracted by an older person with serious respiratory issues it could be fatal. I question whether it is any more deadly than the flu or other pathogens that get passed around.”
The best results from any large scale infection is 13 times as deadly as the flu, at best. So even if it doesn’t crash our HCS once we let it have free reign, and somehow only the same number of people get it in spite of no vaccines or existing immunities, it will still KILL hundreds of thousands. That’s not a bad flu year, that’s a national disaster and will trash the economy by itself. And cost the next election. Neither of which is as important as the loss of lives, short term, but it seems paramount to some.
If you scale the age distribution for this thing to reasonable penetrance levels for the conditions that exist (like 70 to 90%) and overlay that on the population-age distribution for the US population, there won’t be many people over 75, or even 65, left. Saves Social Security and Medicare, I guess.
Bort, I’m with you. I don’t appreciate being called a moron either.