If there has been lots of new cases of infections..

[Mummypig2020]

Then why isn’t there an increase in hospital admissions? Or deaths? I know it says it can take 2-3 weeks to die but surely people will be quite poorly?

@SheepandCow

I wonder how many heart attacks, strokes, and pneumonia deaths we've had recently. Whether it's above average. If so, they're possibly coronavirus deaths but not officially recorded as such. Coronavirus can trigger heart attacks and strokes. I think I read somewhere we've had above average for July pneumonia deaths. I might be confusing it with something else.

Not that many, in fact there have been negative excess deaths for the last 5 weeks, compared to the 5 year average.

I think it will be because a higher proportion of cases are occurring in younger people who are unlikely to require hospitalisation, whereas many older people are still being very cautious about going out. Another possible factor might be the initial viral load with which people are getting infected. If that's on average lower due to people taking precautions such as social distancing and mask wearing, maybe that could be affecting severity of infection.

Because such a minority of cases need hospital treatment, what people don't realise is that before lockdown there were loads of cases, and the deaths after lockdown were because the only people getting it were in care homes or hospitals due to the complete incompetence in protecting it.

So at the moment the numbers are spiking up, but still much lower than when there was lots of community transmission. Of course the problem is preventing the community transmission going up so it is high enough for more of the community to need treatment, or for it to get back into care homes.

@sirfredfredgeorge

Because such a minority of cases need hospital treatment, what people don't realise is that before lockdown there were loads of cases, and the deaths after lockdown were because the only people getting it were in care homes or hospitals due to the complete incompetence in protecting it.

So at the moment the numbers are spiking up, but still much lower than when there was lots of community transmission. Of course the problem is preventing the community transmission going up so it is high enough for more of the community to need treatment, or for it to get back into care homes.

Yes this is what I was trying to say but you have put it more clearly.

@SheepandCow

I wonder how many heart attacks, strokes, and pneumonia deaths we've had recently. Whether it's above average. If so, they're possibly coronavirus deaths but not officially recorded as such. Coronavirus can trigger heart attacks and strokes. I think I read somewhere we've had above average for July pneumonia deaths. I might be confusing it with something else.

All cause death rate is currently still below the 5 year average, I believe.

I dont know if number of cases actually has increased or if we're just catching more of them now. Increased and targeted testing may pick up asymptomatic or mild cases which wouldnt have been tested and discovered previously.

I think the strain has became weaker, it’s not so deadly anymore.

You think this based on what?

Your years of experience in the field of virology?

Or are you just another fool on the internet forming opinions about things you haven't one ioata of an understanding about?

😂

Because we are not being told the truth.

When infections started rising in June, Trump crowed about how death rates were down. Now, a month later, they’re running at about 1 death per minute, and rising....

@Derbygerbil

When infections started rising in June, Trump crowed about how death rates were down. Now, a month later, they’re running at about 1 death per minute, and rising....

1 death a minute? That’s horrific

@SengaStrawberry

1,465 deaths reported in the USA yesterday.... 1,440 minutes in a day....

I think the strain has became weaker, it’s not so deadly anymore.

I’ve not seen a shred of evidence to support this. No serious scientist is suggesting this. It may be less deadly in that we have better treatments and we should be able to learn from our mistakes (ie don’t discharge old people into care homes without being tested), but the virus seems as deadly as ever. There is no evolutionary pressure for a mutation with significantly different characteristics to supersede the current form of the virus at the moment.

When I said the virus was as deadly as ever, I meant biologically... We are making it less deadly by how we are able to treat and manage it, but not so much so that the threat is significantly diminished.

[quote Derbygerbil]@SengaStrawberry

1,465 deaths reported in the USA yesterday.... 1,440 minutes in a day....[/quote]
Awful :(

@Mummypig2020

I think the strain has became weaker, it’s not so deadly anymore.

That’s... not how this works. SMH. 😑