Just in:
My mom’s podiatrist: deceased.
My grandmother’s neighbor since as long as I can remember: deceased.
Some flu season, for the 40 I’ve lived through.
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I personally wasn’t too worried about this…then I realized that having functionally 1 kidney (Right working around 20%, left at 80%) might be an issue
(Testing results from NY are referenced at about the 11:00 mark)
The authors in the Santa Clara study seem to have rushed things (taken “shortcuts”) in an attempt to be “first”, and were not as rigorous as they should’ve been with their methodology. But the fact remains that other people are coming up with similar conclusions. (see Maher video linked above wrt NY testing)
Let’s face it, it just sucks to be old… (57 here)
Sorry to hear my man. It definitely ain’t the flu I think we’ve established that in here by now. One of my childhood friends (first crush actually) lost her dad from it last week. We don’t have a ton of deaths here in Kansas but he is one of them.
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Yes, you’re right.
First…sorry for the loses…but what I wanted to do was thank you for your post.
There is a strong sentiment going around comparing COVID-19 to not being as bad as the flu, car accidents, homicides etc…yet we don’t shut down the Country for those things.
True…but I kept saying to myself “…something is different…” (because I was even starting to be convinced with the “flu kills more people” argument. (By the way? COVID-19 has not reached its peaks in deaths…so I don’t know how or why they are jumping to those conclusions).
Then I realized that saying that is like saying “more people die from flu than Sarin, Anthrax or Mustard Gas…”. No…COVID-19 is not as deadly as those…but unlike flu, it spreads, and spreads rapidly, seriously affecting any susceptible individuals in its path. Flu simply doesn’t behave in that way.
I simply have never heard of the flu (in modern times) wiping out whole families or decimating the majority of patients in a nursing home.
It’s regrettable that there are individuals already calling it the “Fake Pandemic”; and some individuals with influence are talking about writing books and holding seminars on the “Fake Pandemic”.
I just hope that there will be others who will counter this regrettable narrative.
Again; “…something is different…”…
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There’s always going to be a way to spin this to make it not seem like a big deal. Even when the death toll surpasses most really-bad flu seasons (and it already has), people will just say the deaths are overreported. Nevermind the fact that lots of people have declined to go to the hospital and have died at home, untested, and we could be underreporting deaths just as easily. Just don’t expect any people to say they were wrong is all I’m saying.
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Agree, @flappinit…
And I think that it was @BrickHead who bought up the point (paraphrasing)…that even with comorbidities…you rarely see flu infect them and kill them so rapidly…nor do you, or did you see; even in the worst flu season; people dying in such huge numbers with their comorbidities.
(By the way…that is the reason why people with comorbidities and significant COVID-19 disease are listed as dying from the latter. They are not listing car accident deaths, gunshot deaths, etc. as COVID-19 deaths to somehow “pad” the numbers. It’s just getting ridiculous).
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Nah. Never would. People this heavily in denial just blameshift their way into a different way of lying to themselves about it.
It’s fucking ridiculous.
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Look…history will determine the things that were done right…and probably the many things that were done wrong. I am not suggesting that all that has been done is right.
But in the middle of all of this; these armchair quarterbacks; keyboard critics; and conspiracy theorist are adding nothing to help us get out of all of this.
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That’s awful, mate. You’re family is in my prayers, for what that’s worth.
I really hope NY gets over this soon. It’s actually crap right now, I haven’t seen my grandparents in months and am worried that me seeing them would be dangerous.
Fuck this year, honestly.
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Absolutely agree. It’s sickening to watch these armchair generals currently. Everything is viewed through the lens of politics, and it’s disgraceful. I’m so sick of it.
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Agreed. Of course, it’s completely understandable since politicians get involved with everything.
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Not even in NY and probably not seeing my parents for quite a while. I’m exposed fairly often due to my job and I wouldn’t want to do anything to put them at risk. We do about a two hour zoom happy hour weekly with as much of the family as can make it at that time which is usually about 12 of us (sibs/spouses). Doing the same thing with a few friends.
Sucks but glad we have technology to continue relationships even though we’d all rather be in person.
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Hey guys, another shoe that is potentially going to drop, and I have already heard rumblings, is massive strikes as the country tries to re-open. There is a sense among some labor leaders that when the “capitalists” are already brought to there knees, now is the time to start kicking them further because the workers will never have this much relative power again. I get that, but I also think it’s going to draw out a lot more pain and suffering in the short term. I’d be interested to hear what you guys think.
Medicare for all has it’s highest approval numbers. I believe I saw 69% approval in the latest poll. I believe that takes power away from employers. I am guessing universal basic income is also rising in popularity (which I would consider another blow to employers).
As far as strikes, I haven’t heard much.
I’m much happier without them. I haven’t had them for over a year. Technically I keep them active just “in case”, but I don’t EVER check them.
This is the billion dollar question. Right now there’s no easy answer, and we’re seeing different govts take different approaches across Europe/Asia and the US. It’s basically a very expensive high stakes experiment in progress 
Not sure–I’m not privy to the regional genome sequencing that labs in Cal and other places are doing on strains. It’s plausible but I couldn’t say.
Frankly, I don’t think anyone can say yet. This is going to keep viral geneticists busy for years just looking back on all the data being generated now.
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I don’t know who they polled, but 69% of those who responded don’t have loved ones dealing with the VA. On the other hand my wife is an employer, and she would love to not have the hassle of having to offer insurance coverage to her employees.
A general labor strike, sounds flat earth level stupid, but there are people who believe in flat earth, so…