I like the fact that we have mass testing because it exposes how mild this virus is in the vast majority of cases. However the media are masters at shifting the goal posts.
tHe lOnG TeRm iMpAcTs tHo
My boomer dad literally made this talking point to me yesterday when I pointed out that almost all the recent COVID deaths are in nursing homes.
Download the raw data online, open the .csv file with Excel, sort by outcome and accurate episode date. If you look at the fatalities with an August or September episode date, it's almost all coded as "OB" (outbreak related). Involving people in their 60s-90s. Gee I wonder where there are outbreaks involving people in their 60s-90s. It's gotta be nursing homes right? How many people in their 70s-90s are still working? And I only saw three people in their 60s coded as OB in August and September. I highly doubt those were workplace outbreaks.
If you're not sick enough to be in a nursing home, your odds of survival are very good right now as the virus mutated to be weaker over time.
We only really tested health care workers and people sick enough to be hospitalized back in 2003 for SARS-CoV-1. When SARS-CoV-1 mutated to be weak very quickly, we just assumed that the virus disappeared. We didn't care to think that maybe a lot of people who had common colds and "flus" had SARS-CoV-1.
But now that we know that SARS-CoV-2 is spreading within the community and we think back to March when hospitals in Northern Italy were getting overwhelmed, our society can't let go of this fear. Even though the evidence suggests that this isn't the same virus as before May. The virus is weaker now.
Even in Spain where there are a ton of cases, a high positivity rate (13.1%) and 10,003 COVID patients hospitalized, even in the hot spot of the country (Madrid), % Camas Ocupadas COVID shows as only 21%. I wonder how many people are hospitalized with flu/pneumonia at the peak of flu season in Spain.
I like the fact that we have mass testing because it exposes how mild this virus is in the vast majority of cases. However the media are masters at shifting the goal posts.
tHe lOnG TeRm iMpAcTs tHo
My boomer dad literally made this talking point to me yesterday when I pointed out that almost all the recent COVID deaths are in nursing homes.
https://data.ontario.ca/dataset/confirmed-positive-cases-of-covid-19-in-ontario
Download the raw data online, open the .csv file with Excel, sort by outcome and accurate episode date. If you look at the fatalities with an August or September episode date, it's almost all coded as "OB" (outbreak related). Involving people in their 60s-90s. Gee I wonder where there are outbreaks involving people in their 60s-90s. It's gotta be nursing homes right? How many people in their 70s-90s are still working? And I only saw three people in their 60s coded as OB in August and September. I highly doubt those were workplace outbreaks.
If you're not sick enough to be in a nursing home, your odds of survival are very good right now as the virus mutated to be weaker over time.
We only really tested health care workers and people sick enough to be hospitalized back in 2003 for SARS-CoV-1. When SARS-CoV-1 mutated to be weak very quickly, we just assumed that the virus disappeared. We didn't care to think that maybe a lot of people who had common colds and "flus" had SARS-CoV-1.
But now that we know that SARS-CoV-2 is spreading within the community and we think back to March when hospitals in Northern Italy were getting overwhelmed, our society can't let go of this fear. Even though the evidence suggests that this isn't the same virus as before May. The virus is weaker now.
Even in Spain where there are a ton of cases, a high positivity rate (13.1%) and 10,003 COVID patients hospitalized, even in the hot spot of the country (Madrid), % Camas Ocupadas COVID shows as only 21%. I wonder how many people are hospitalized with flu/pneumonia at the peak of flu season in Spain.