high cases in the US may be a good thing ........ despite the hysteria

[ACautionaryTale]

The US has been having ever rising cases every day. 40-50K a day for the last week or so but even before that, 30K+

Yet, the deaths are lower - very low as a % in fact.

One theory is that those who are vulnerable are avoiding the hotspots and avoiding catching it.

If this continues, then it goes to show what many have been saying for a long time... if you are not in a vulnerable group, the death rate is no worse than flu.

Which does back up what I and I know many people have said all along - shield the vulnerable and let the rest get herd immunity by catching it.

I find the blasé attitude of some people shocking.

This is a novel virus. Scientists are barely scratching the surface of knowing true IFR, long term implications, modes of transmission, ways to prevent it or treat it. So little is known about it. How can it possibly be sensible to adopt the attitude of letting it burn through a population with no understanding of the consequences - both short and long term?

When it was first discovered, for example, there was talk about it causing infertility (predominantly in men I think due to testicular involvement). I've not heard further reference to that but it was a theoretical possibility and won't be recognised until later on. Imagine if it's true and you end up with millions of infertile men for the next couple of generations?

Given there's so many unknowns how on earth can it be wrong to proceed with caution rather than a "fill your boots" attitude?

I'd rather us be cautious and then realise that it wasn't as bad as feared than the opposite.

@Derbygerbil

You can change the country at the top where the name of the country is: covid19.healthdata.org/slovakia

No, Mexico isn't like that because previous governments had left us with very poor healthcare provision and a spike would have meant turning people away from hospitals, so we closed down relatively early, after eight people were reported with infections in the whole country.

Compassion is really about the person giving it, rather than receiving it - compassion to ourselves and others makes the world a better place.

I think it is too easy to dismiss the suffering of others, for whatever reason.

As a person experiencing long-tail covid, who works full-time in a well-paying job, let me just be clear that PIP holds no attraction whatsoever. Re-gaining full health does.

It's not the death rate that's the issue it's the long term complications for young healthy people. The flu doesn't leave you with neurological damage or lung injuries.

@Wolfsony

Of course it can

"Patients who survive influenza A (H7N9) virus infection are at risk of physical and psychological complications of lung injury and multi-organ dysfunction"

www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17497-6

That isnt to minimise the effects of covid, but people who think other viruses dont have similar effects are deluded

Compassion isn't very compassionate when it's being used aggressively.

Why must people say if you don't agree with me you're deluded or whatever insult they can find? The effects of corona have not been comparable to influenza but that's not to say you can't have long term complications from it, of course you can. Kawasaki like illness in children is new, the extent of the lung injuries we are seeing are new, the cardiovascular and neurological issue are all new. This is not the flu. This a novel and nasty virus. It's not well characterised and the data we do have is troubling. Letting it tear through the population unchecked would not be responsible.

Im not insulting you but stating flu doesnt cause lung damage or other problems is not true. I never said it was the flu. But people that minimise covid by saying "it is just flu" actually minimise the flu as well. Flu is a massive burden on the nhs every year and that is with a vaccine. There is a reason why they wanted to push covid out of flu season when hospitals are full of flu patients. A friend of mine got encephalitis from flu years ago and it put me in hospital for a week in my 20s. Alot of people have a notion that flu is a cold and it is not.

Children have had kawasaki illnesses post viral forever and whilst scary it is nearly always treatable. Flu and RSV are vastly more dangerous than covid for kids and that is something we should be massively grateful for.

Im not minimising covid. Covid is absolutely shit. But we need to remember post viral fatigue, chronic fatigue and long lasting effects after viruses are more common than we think. Covid typically causes pnemonia and that can be months of recovery.

I wasn't aiming the deluded thing at you in particular, sorry if came across this way. But the way people go on on here is like every other virus you just recover and that's it. Two years ago I had to come home from disneyland because they thought my mam had a heart attack. Turned out to be myocarditis triggered from a viral infection. Only in a pandemic will we see millions of people struck down with same virus at once... Of course we will see other effects. It is absolutely rubbish but I dont know why it is that surprising.

Despite what some people say (who seem to act like government sponsored shills) the US deaths are spiking again, expect that trend to carry on for the foreseeable future as they continue this abomination of a reopening attempt.

@Bignet182

Yes, deaths do seem to be increasing... Given the gap between infection and death, this perhaps isn’t surprising. It took a while for U.K. Covid deaths until 24 March to report over 100 deaths per day... the outbreak had been building for weeks before it got to that point (quietly at first due to little testing taking place.)

The US is really a story of 50 states having 50 different experiences, so whilst deaths at a country level may be declining, they are definitely increasing at local level in several states - attached is Florida and Texas. They both have steadily increasing infection rates too, so the death rate is unlikely to start coming down any time soon.