I wish I was allowed to access the internet for nonprofessional use while at work.
Yesterday a coworker, defending Trump's handling of the pandemic and minimizing how bad COVID-19 is, asked me if I realized that there are 80,000 to 100,000 deaths every year from the ordinary flu. I knew instinctively there was something wrong with that argument, but A) I had work to do and B ) I didn't have the chance to look up the statistics to rebut his argument.
In 2019 there were 22,000 deaths from the flu. All year. 22,000. 1/10 the deaths from Covid so far. And the year's not over by a long shot.
Furthermore, we have a flu vaccine. Covid-19 is also about 30 times more deadly than the flu, judging by hospitalization mortality rates, and it spreads more easily than the flu. That's why "we don't shut down the economy and lock people away at home for the flu," in his words; the flu, as serious as it can be for at-risk populations, is relatively tamed compared to 100 years ago when it was a pandemic.
If only we had a White House, a Republican Party, and a cable news network that spent their time explaining these facts to people instead of denigrating, downplaying, and denying them. Soon, maybe. Well, 1 out of 3 won't be bad.
7
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.And sometimes it is much more than 22,000, an exceptionally bad season might be 60,000. But all the co-morbidity arguments they try to use against COVID also apply, In 6 months with massive national effort (although nowhere near as massive as many other countries have applied) we got it down to 250k in 60 months. So 500,000 in one year. 10x a really, really, bad flu season - with massive social participation. We know without that it could easily be 10x that so 100x a really bad flu season.
Ultimately you just have to ask your friend / co-worker / frenemy: "What if 250,000 Americans had died on Hillary Clinton or Obama's watch?" Would you have ever let them sleep? Would you have locked them up and sentenced them to death for 250,000 counts of homicide? Quite possibly yes. So yeah, it's on you Trump because if you'd actually gotten you shit together we could be at a mortality rate closer to New Zealand with just a scant 2,000 deaths so far. Way, way, way less than a typical flu season.
prometheus
Level 7
Oct 16, 2020
1
America has 5% of the world population and 20% of the world's covid deaths. This can't be anything other than a failed national response.
@Paul4747 unfortunately the top two characteristics of GOQ [sic] supporters are
a) lack of empathy
b) lack of math skills
And as most of us realize statistics is like math on steroids, much of it is very counter-intuitive, so putting the nation at the mercy of Republicans is like putting someone with a splinter at the mercy of a drunk with a chainsaw...
Basically that is all very true, except that I have a slight issue with. "the flu, as serious as it can be for at-risk populations, is relatively tamed compared to 100 years ago when it was a pandemic." Since there is no 'the flu' as such. The flu comes in at least 200 different basic strains, all of which have and can have, a different effect, and to all of which, the populations herd immunity, is different. There is therefore a real possibility of another major outbreak with widespread deadly consequences. There may be as yet unknown strains, and mutations, to which we have not yet vaccinated out there, or even for which we do not have vaccines yet.
The great 1919 Swine Flu is a prime example of what could happen, since it was noted that it mainly killed young people. The reason for that being most probably, that a weaker but related strain had infected the older generations in the previous decades, perhaps several times, giving them a degree of immunity. I do not therefore think that we have 'tamed' the flu, we have just been lucky.
Fernapple
Level 9
Oct 16, 2020
0
It’s all there, like you found the facts so could these other people. When I was still on FaceBook I spend time educating various randoms that my friends were connected to, but in the end I gave up.
Good luck with the polls, I hope the fall out from the result isn’t too dangerous for you guys.
girlwithsmiles
Level 8
Oct 16, 2020
1
Cheers. At least the PM seems to have been somewhat humbled by his visit to the hospital. Our conservatives, not so much. Evidently, since someone with the very best health care the richest nation on the planet can provide pulled through, there's no reason for anyone to worry and we should just get on with it. 
@Paul4747 wow, just looked at wealthiest Countries: new measurements have been used and the Western Countries we know aren’t doing as well as we think:
[worldatlas.com]
The UK and Australia aren’t even on the list.
@girlwithsmiles "Nation with some of the wealthiest people"
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