You will never disentangle COVID-19 deaths from deaths caused by other health conditions. This is especially the case when every official attempt to count covid-19 deaths is invariably 100% political.
Total deaths for all causes is a useful starting point. Right now, we're on track for roughly 10% more deaths than average in 2020. That's a big bump consistent with a very bad flu season. It is not consistent with a deadly global pandemic.
We also have no idea what that number means until we can compare it to the next 5-10 years and dig into the causes more thoroughly. Are suicides up because of the lockdowns? Definitely. Are people dying of preventable health conditions at home because no one is going to hospitals? Also yes. Are fewer people dying in car accidents because of reduced commuting to work? Probably. Will there be fewer deaths related to other health conditions in the next five years because covid-19 more or less fastracked some of our elderly and sick? Most likely.
Even when you throw out obvious cases of sabotage (like the five democrat states that seeded the virus in nursing homes), there's a decent chance our numbers end up on the wrong side of Sweden's. The lockdowns might very well have increased deaths over time by delaying herd immunity.
The biggest takeaway for me: this wasn't even close to the black death, but you wouldn't know it based on our reaction to it. Is this shit show going to happen every time there's a moderately more lethal flu? And how fucked are we going to be when there's a legitimately lethal virus?
"The biggest takeaway for me: this wasn't even close to the black death, but you wouldn't know it based on our reaction to it. Is this shit show going to happen every time there's a moderately more lethal flu? And how fucked are we going to be when there's a legitimately lethal virus?"
Same here, all this has shown me is that if we ever have to face a truly deadly and infectious disease, we are straight fucked. I'm talking major societal collapse within weeks of international spread.
You will never disentangle COVID-19 deaths from deaths caused by other health conditions. This is especially the case when every official attempt to count covid-19 deaths is invariably 100% political.
Total deaths for all causes is a useful starting point. Right now, we're on track for roughly 10% more deaths than average in 2020. That's a big bump consistent with a very bad flu season. It is not consistent with a deadly global pandemic.
We also have no idea what that number means until we can compare it to the next 5-10 years and dig into the causes more thoroughly. Are suicides up because of the lockdowns? Definitely. Are people dying of preventable health conditions at home because no one is going to hospitals? Also yes. Are fewer people dying in car accidents because of reduced commuting to work? Probably. Will there be fewer deaths related to other health conditions in the next five years because covid-19 more or less fastracked some of our elderly and sick? Most likely.
Even when you throw out obvious cases of sabotage (like the five democrat states that seeded the virus in nursing homes), there's a decent chance our numbers end up on the wrong side of Sweden's. The lockdowns might very well have increased deaths over time by delaying herd immunity.
The biggest takeaway for me: this wasn't even close to the black death, but you wouldn't know it based on our reaction to it. Is this shit show going to happen every time there's a moderately more lethal flu? And how fucked are we going to be when there's a legitimately lethal virus?
"The biggest takeaway for me: this wasn't even close to the black death, but you wouldn't know it based on our reaction to it. Is this shit show going to happen every time there's a moderately more lethal flu? And how fucked are we going to be when there's a legitimately lethal virus?"
Same here, all this has shown me is that if we ever have to face a truly deadly and infectious disease, we are straight fucked. I'm talking major societal collapse within weeks of international spread.