Coronavirus thread

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-12/u-s-trails-other-developed-nations-in-curbing-virus-deaths
U.S. Virus-Death Rate Is World's Worst Among Developed Nations

The proportion of Americans dying from coronavirus infections is the highest in the developed world, according to a study released Monday that shows the U.S. pandemic response left citizens exposed to the lethal disease.
...
Early in the outbreak, the U.S. mortality rate from Covid-19 was lower than in many other hard-hit countries, including the U.K., Spain and the Netherlands, according to the report Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But as spring turned to summer, the U.S. largely failed to embrace public-health and policy measures that have helped other countries reduce death rates.
...
If U.S. deaths after May 10 had occurred at the same pace as in Spain, the U.S. mortality rate would be 47% lower, with 93,247 fewer people dying, the report found. More than 100,000 fewer Americans would have died if the U.S. had the same mortality rate as the Netherlands. Sweden's mortality rate was 22% lower, though it took fewer steps to curb the virus's spread.

The U.S. leads the world in total coronavirus deaths, with 214,776 as of Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Brazil ranks second with 150,488 deaths.
...
Since the global chaos of the virus's first wave abated, "it's quite clear that the United States has been worse than every other country, including high mortality countries, in responding to the outbreak," Emanuel said. "That has produced tens of thousands, if not 100,000 deaths from Covid."
...
An update of another study conducted earlier this year suggests the U.S. also hasn't corralled excess mortality associated with the pandemic. The analysis takes into account factors such as a decline in fatal motor-vehicle accidents and increased deaths from delayed treatment for heart attacks and strokes.
...
The number of U.S. deaths caused directly or indirectly by the pandemic is 20% higher than the public counts of virus deaths detailed daily in the news, said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

More than 400,000 excess deaths are expected to occur in 2020, said Howard Bauchner, editor-in-chief of JAMA, and Phil Fontanarosa, the executive editor, in an editorial in the medical journal on Monday.


"These deaths reflect a true measure of the human cost of the Great Pandemic of 2020," they wrote.

[Todd]

How can you tell when Covid-19 was so completely politicized in the US?

It's easy for me.  It's not easy for others based on posts in this thread.

[71 dB]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-12/u-s-trails-other-developed-nations-in-curbing-virus-deaths
U.S. Virus-Death Rate Is World's Worst Among Developed Nations

The proportion of Americans dying from coronavirus infections is the highest in the developed world, according to a study released Monday that shows the U.S. pandemic response left citizens exposed to the lethal disease.
...
Early in the outbreak, the U.S. mortality rate from Covid-19 was lower than in many other hard-hit countries, including the U.K., Spain and the Netherlands, according to the report Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But as spring turned to summer, the U.S. largely failed to embrace public-health and policy measures that have helped other countries reduce death rates.
...
If U.S. deaths after May 10 had occurred at the same pace as in Spain, the U.S. mortality rate would be 47% lower, with 93,247 fewer people dying, the report found. More than 100,000 fewer Americans would have died if the U.S. had the same mortality rate as the Netherlands. Sweden's mortality rate was 22% lower, though it took fewer steps to curb the virus's spread.

The U.S. leads the world in total coronavirus deaths, with 214,776 as of Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Brazil ranks second with 150,488 deaths.
...
Since the global chaos of the virus's first wave abated, "it's quite clear that the United States has been worse than every other country, including high mortality countries, in responding to the outbreak," Emanuel said. "That has produced tens of thousands, if not 100,000 deaths from Covid."
...
An update of another study conducted earlier this year suggests the U.S. also hasn't corralled excess mortality associated with the pandemic. The analysis takes into account factors such as a decline in fatal motor-vehicle accidents and increased deaths from delayed treatment for heart attacks and strokes.
...
The number of U.S. deaths caused directly or indirectly by the pandemic is 20% higher than the public counts of virus deaths detailed daily in the news, said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

More than 400,000 excess deaths are expected to occur in 2020, said Howard Bauchner, editor-in-chief of JAMA, and Phil Fontanarosa, the executive editor, in an editorial in the medical journal on Monday.


"These deaths reflect a true measure of the human cost of the Great Pandemic of 2020," they wrote.

The US as a society is exceptionally bad at dealing with a pandemic like this. Weak social safety nets, for profit healthcare, incompetent leaders, ignorant scientifically illiterate people who easily believe conspiracy theories and their moronic cult leader etc. all happening during an electric election year! It is a perfect storm. 

[71 dB]

It's easy for me.  It's not easy for others based on posts in this thread.

The fact that you asked: "Is this a Coronavirus post or a US Politics post?" indicates otherwise. 

[Todd]

The fact that you asked: "Is this a Coronavirus post or a US Politics post?" indicates otherwise. 

To ESL posters.

[T. D.]

The US as a society is exceptionally bad at dealing with a pandemic like this. Weak social safety nets, for profit healthcare, incompetent leaders, ignorant scientifically illiterate people who easily believe conspiracy theories and their moronic cult leader etc. all happening during an electric election year! It is a perfect storm. 

Not to be a smartass with "I told you so", but...I predicted back at the beginning of March that the US would be the "first world" nation hardest hit by COVID. It was really obvious. For most of the reasons you gave, but especially the ones I boldfaced above.

[krummholz]

The US as a society is exceptionally bad at dealing with a pandemic like this. Weak social safety nets, for profit healthcare, incompetent leaders, ignorant scientifically illiterate people who easily believe conspiracy theories and their moronic cult leader etc. all happening during an electric election year! It is a perfect storm. 

All of the above are true... but I think that with competent leadership, we're capable of coming together and sticking to mitigation measures that have proven effective elsewhere. So I'd put the current leadership vacuum created by the lunatic in the White House at the top of your list. The US certainly has no monopoly on innumerate and scientifically illiterate people, they exist and are probably even in the majority worldwide. And unfortunately we are not going to completely replace for-profit healthcare any time soon.

The single most important thing we can do this election year to turn the pandemic around is replace the current leadership with competent people who disseminate correct advice on mitigation from experts. The next thing is for everyone to comply with that advice. More easily said than done, unfortunately, but I'm hopeful that we will do the right thing.

[Karl Henning]

All of the above are true... but I think that with competent leadership, we're capable of coming together and sticking to mitigation measures that have proven effective elsewhere. So I'd put the current leadership vacuum created by the lunatic in the White House at the top of your list. The US certainly has no monopoly on innumerate and scientifically illiterate people, they exist and are probably even in the majority worldwide. And unfortunately we are not going to completely replace for-profit healthcare any time soon.

The single most important thing we can do this election year to turn the pandemic around is replace the current leadership with competent people who disseminate correct advice on mitigation from experts. The next thing is for everyone to comply with that advice. More easily said than done, unfortunately, but I'm hopeful that we will do the right thing.

Heartily agreed.

[Karl Henning]

Coronavirus cases are rising in U.S., sparking worries the next big wave has begun

Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Monday he hopes the numbers "jolt the American public into a realization that we really can't let this happen, because it's on a trajectory of getting worse and worse." In a CNN interview, he called the rising numbers "the worst possible thing that could happen as we get into the cooler months."

[T. D.]

Neat animated display:

https://dangoodspeed.com/covid/total-cases-since-june

Arguably this could be posted on the US politics thread instead, but clicking there makes me feel I need a delousing (or worse), so no thanks.

[T. D.]

Lilly CEO Says Covid Will Be 'Endemic,' Even With Vaccines: Q&A

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-13/lilly-ceo-says-covid-will-be-endemic-even-with-vaccines-q-a

[Karl Henning]

Lilly CEO Says Covid Will Be 'Endemic,' Even With Vaccines: Q&A

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-13/lilly-ceo-says-covid-will-be-endemic-even-with-vaccines-q-a

Thanks.

[Daverz]

52 community outbreaks in the last 7 days in San Diego County.  And I was alarmed when it reached 20 several months ago:

https://sdcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/30b5e0fa2a5f4404b1219d8cd16b2583

[Que]

Coronavirus cases are rising in U.S., sparking worries the next big wave has begun

Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Monday he hopes the numbers "jolt the American public into a realization that we really can't let this happen, because it's on a trajectory of getting worse and worse." In a CNN interview, he called the rising numbers "the worst possible thing that could happen as we get into the cooler months."

I feel sorry for Fauci: he warned about this, did everything in his power to prevent it, and now has to watch it happen.

Q

[The new erato]

Neat animated display:

https://dangoodspeed.com/covid/total-cases-since-june

Arguably this could be posted on the US politics thread instead, but clicking there makes me feel I need a delousing (or worse), so no thanks.

The US don't do politics any more, they do tribal warfare.

[Herman]

Arguably this could be posted on the US politics thread instead, but clicking there makes me feel I need a delousing (or worse), so no thanks.

[71 dB]

I feel sorry for Fauci: he warned about this, did everything in his power to prevent it, and now has to watch it happen.

Q

Doctor Fauci is the most stoical man in the US. Anyone else would have exploded because of frustration and anger long ago. 

The curse of being intelligent and educated is to becoming depressed when seeing how stupid a lot of people around you are. In my childhood I was able to look up to adults, but when I became an adult myself I realized many adults are actually morons and the society/World has quite a lot of stupidity incorporated. This has made me less happy person. Sometimes I think I would be much happier as an average Joe with less intelligence and education just minding my own business  not worrying about things like American politics... ...as a system thinker (with mild asperger I believe) I see logical connections between things easily and it leads to the realization that there's not really anything one shouldn't think about because things are logically connected.

Coronavirus has been effective in revealing stupidity in individuals and in society. It's an IQ test in the form of a virus.

[Herman]

People tend to misoverestimate (I'm trying to quote Dubya) their own intelligence.

One's unhappiness with one's surroundings is indeed a test of this.

Our smarts, such as they are, are primarily designed, or rather developed, to make us find our place in the world in a successful way.

Other than that people talking about their remarkably high IQs seems to be a standard feature of the internet's anonymity.

[71 dB]

People tend to misoverestimate (I'm trying to quote Dubya) their own intelligence. One's unhappiness with one's surroundings is indeed a test of this. Our smarts, such as they are, are primarily designed, or rather developed, to make us find our place in the world in a successful way.

Other than that people talking about their remarkably high IQs seems to be a standard feature of the internet's anonymity.

Not me. I struggle in life and for some time I thought it's because of low intelligence, but when I tested it I was (positively) surprised. It isn't intelligence that causes my problems. What then? A few years later I heard about Asperger and studied it and realized I seem to be an asperger and it explains my huge difficulties in social situations and my tendency to pay attention to details other people ignore and why I learn new things slowly, but profoundly (learning slowly was the primary reason for me to assume low IQ)*. I have learned that high IQ is not the same thing as happiness. My life can be (and I believe it is) intellectually rich, but that's very different from being a balanced happy person.

* I learn logical connections between things very fast, but everything else is hard for me. I memorize "random" things very poorly. For example I don't know well the capital cities of various countries. Now that I am learning Japanese it's hard for me to learn Hiragana and Katakana while Kanji seems almost hopeless.  I envy people who learn this kind of things fast.

[Florestan]

The curse of being intelligent and educated is to becoming depressed when seeing how stupid a lot of people around you are.

And yet I know not a few intelligent and educated people who are not in the least depressed by how "stupid" a lot of people around them are. They have long since acknowledged it as a fact of nature and moved on to live their life.

.

My life can be (and I believe it is) intellectually rich, but that's very different from being a balanced happy person.

Well, balance means balance. An emphasis on intellect alone is (one of) the very opposite(s) of balance.