How Can This Be Happening?

May 4, 2020 | Barnacle

[Barnacle]

Most of us have been in lockdown for about six weeks. The objective was to flatten the curve and reduce the total number of victims of COVID-19. Well, the curve has been flattened indeed, but how is it six-weeks later there are 25,375 new cases in a single day?

With all the laws and policies implemented to knock out this virus, I expected we’d be on the last leg of the downward curve by now. But, instead of a peak and decline, we’ve had three peaks and shallow valleys between them.

If people are staying at home, practicing social distancing, wearing masks in public, washing their hands and sanitizing everything in sight, how is it that COVID-19 continues to be transmitted from person to person?

A couple possibilities that occurred to me are that: 1) People flouting the laws, or 2) The virus is phenomenally virulent beyond anything ever seen before ( bio-weapon).

I was fully on board with the lockdown orders when they were issued. It was what we needed to do to beat this. However, we are at the point that the cure is becoming worse than the disease. In addition to what this virus has done to people directly, what about the collateral damage, such as long-term damage to our economy? For instance, consider the first two trillion dollar bail-out. Who pays for it? If you are among the approximate one-hundred-million US tax payers, you do. The federal government just signed your name to a $20,000 loan. Don’t think so? Do the math.

It would be particularly interesting to hear the stories of COVID-19 cases that you’ve heard of in the last couple weeks and theories of how they were exposed.

Should we just let this thing take an inevitable course, or should we double-down on lock-down?

[lightman]

After we put this one the global economy in its grave, we the elite stone age remnant will be better prepared for the next one.

Fixed

LOL.

Are you a Bushie or an Øbamabot?

[reg45]

If you integrate the total area under each curve then you will get the total number of cases. If the areas under the two curves are the same then that means that both curves represent the same number of cases. The strain on the health care system is related to the amplitude (height) of the curve.

[kaehurowing]

My frontline/RN (BSN)daughter, who works in a major hospital in Philly, HUP, says it’s all bullshit. And she comes home every night after work, and none of us in this house have it, and we hug and kiss and haven’t changed a thing. Yes, she works with Covid patients as well as other ICU patients and C-T patients.

---

You do know the protocol, don’t you? Healthcare workers in contact with COVID-19 positive patients must thoroughly wash down and disinfect before they come in contact with family members when they come home. Why is your daughter not doing that??

[Valpal1]

Those spikes merely reflect regional differences in the infection curve. It’s not like the entire US was all infected at once.

[Paul R.]

Oops, forgot to address my 2nd "*".

To begin, I'll restate (slightly better worded, I hope!), because it is an important point, and I misunderstood it too, until recently, and am even now (unsuccessfully!) trying to get more data:

Note that once testing for CV got up to speed, the numbers of tests done became largely driven by demand -- that is, people who have whatever bug (like flu) that has them thinking maybe they have COVID-19 will go to be tested. If flu and other non-CV respiratory diseases are way down, that reduces that part of the demand. Flu we have definitely stomped. Right through the floor.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

One way or another, whether we like it or not, everybody is going to come into contact with this virus.

[Mr. Rabbit]

When looking at public “numbers” such as from Worldometer, you must always remember, Garbage In, Garbage Out.

The “cases” number is, frankly, scientific garbage. It has little to no bearing on the actual number of people who have been exposed to or got the CCP virus. It only counts those who actually got sick enough to deal with urgent care, copayments, long waits in the waiting room, and the chance of just having wasted all that to be told to take some wal-phed. Most people with a cold or cold symptoms just go to Walgreens and get the wal-phed. It’s a lot cheaper and less hassle. It’s turning out that the CCP Beer Virus leaves 97% or so of its recipients with “minor cold” symptoms. Those people aren’t getting into the medical system to become a “case”. They might show up later in an antibody test, if such tests turn out to be accurate in the first place. If it costs me $100 to get the test, many won’t bother. Many won’t bother or will outright refuse even if it’s “free”. So we may never actually know the true number of total infections, and thus the true fatality rate. However, we are getting glimpses here and there. A good example would be the prison in TN where 2000 or so inmates tested positive and almost all had no symptoms or “just a cold bro” symptoms. Only one or two were hospitalized. This is a captive population where everyone gets tested whether they want to or not so you have a more accurate infection rate number. There’s also the recent antibody sampling in CA and NY where if you look at the antibody positive rate, it’s likely that many times more people have been exposed to this bug than have become official “cases”h. Again, most people who get this just get a mild cold. Its only an unlucky few percent for whom it is like being allergic to a bee sting.

The bottom line is that you shouldn’t just trust raw numbers put out by the press. They’re usually incomplete, and incomplete in such a way as to cause maximum fear, to keep you looking at the ads.

Right now, the only numbers from sites like worldometers and the like that I think are reasonably true are deaths and hospitalizations. This is because both have a hard physical record, and in the case of death, a body. Even then, It’s a near certainty that deaths and hospitalizations are at least somewhat exaggerated because of the $$$ incentive to count cases as COVID due to Federal subsidies.

People are dying from CCP Virus, but not particularly more than from a bad flu. It’s dangerous, just like a bad flu, but it’s NOT Ebola or Marburg, either. And never forget that Bath House Barry wanted to import Ebola cases into the US! And actually did so!

The CCP Virus is going to run it’s course, one way or the other and the per-capita death and case counts will end up being similar either way. At this point, pandering to the mentally ill Howard Hughes germophobes is only wrecking our economy and ruining peoples’ lives, livelihoods, and freedom only to delay what is absolutely inevitable either way. It’s time to get back to work.

[Cobra64]

The numbers are meaningless., There are more tests and in some cases individuals are tested multiple time s and being counted multiple times... AND non virus deaths are being attributed to the virus. Are asymptomatic people counted as having the virus?

It’s a pathetic joke.

[Twink]

Excellent post!

I wear the same surgical mask every day when I go to the store (because it’s required). After 7 weeks, I’m sure it has numerous germs on it (yet, I ain’t sick with the china virus and I’m sure I ain’t protecting anyone with it). I wear it to the store because it’s required.

Flatten the Curve meant save our HCS so I went along with it. We saved it. Now it’s time to move on. Only we can’t move on in NJ because our Governor won’t allow it. He wants to crater the economy for middle and working class people.

State and Federal workers are still being paid...like me...and those who never worked still get their welfare and those who are unemployed get unemployment and another $600 per week. The pensioners and social security people are still getting their checks. So here we are.

We’re crashing our economy, heading towards a depression, and the people who will suffer are the middle and working classes, as always.

[jonrick46]

" This virus strain is no more deadly than influenza and the regular flu season mortality."

COVID-19 is more deadly than influenza. When you see dead bodies stacked up in refrigerator trucks, we have never seen such conditions like this. For a check on such false assumptions that say COVID-19 is not worth the concern, please read this Scientific American" article:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-covid-19-deaths-to-flu-deaths-is-like-comparing-apples-to-oranges/

[GreyHoundSailor]

We’re seeing the same in our hospitals; 40 to 50% of the staff laid off. ER’s have less than half the visits they normally experience.

We see more drug overdose deaths in my county than deaths from any other cause.

[Twink]

Bullshit!

[Paul R.]

The peaks and valleys are too regular & largely reflect weekends’ effects on the passing on of data. The infection-by-area variances are in there too, but almost buried by the near sine wave that the reporting system impresses on the data.

[Twink]

Funny but true.

[Twink]

Exactly what my RN/BSN daugther said. She also said the protocol for her hospital changed numerous times in the last 7 weeks so she no longer believes anything the CDC says.

She has to wear her mask for two shifts whereas before had to change out her mask numerous times per day per protocol. And now they’re allowed to wear homemade masks, lol, that someone donated to the hospital. And has to go to work in her clothes, change into her scrubs, then change out of them before she leaves...for two weeks...now it’s back to being allowed to wear scrubs to and from work.HA

But she still has to wear her given mask for two shifts.Apparently, HUP still has a mask shortage.

[dp0622]

Yeah let’s hide like faggets instead of getting it all over with :-)

My mother is 87 and she said let things get back to normal and there will be any number of deaths but it’s better than the whole country falling. My mother is 87 and 1000 times more brave than you

[dp0622]

Clapping right now

[Twink]

Haha!

But you can go to home depot, the grocery store, order out with who heaven knows makes your food but can’t sit in a restaurant or bar, or go to Church, lol.

None of this makes sense.

[CrimsonTidegirl]

It’s not often that I type these words: Sweden got it right.

They kept open the schools for the younger children, protected the elderly and the most vulnerable and kept a safe distance from one another.

Unless it’s necessary, I refuse to use the “S****l D********g” term that the elites and media have been shoving down our throats.

Regarding Sweden, what many people forget is that they keep their distance from strangers, even in normal times.

On Facebook, the number of Karens who went into orbit when our (Alabama’s) beaches were opened, was ridiculous. Obviously, those rocket scientists weren’t aware that the beach was one of the safest places to be. The sun, and the Vitamin D it provides, is one of the best defenses against viruses.

Luckily, in my town, not many people wear masks. That could be because our county has reported only one Chinese virus patient.

I laugh at the sheeple on Facebook whose profile pics are of their faces, proudly wearing their mask. If they only realized how ridiculous they looked.

[thecodont]

County gov’t says we have to wear a mask if we can’t avoid being within 6 feet of someone outside our “household.”