COVID-19 Talk

[PhineasC]

1 hour ago, DCTeacherman said:

Why not?

LOL you still have no idea why these stats are suspect, do you?

[Maestrobjwa]

Just now, PhineasC said:

Learn to read the data and form your own opinions. Everyone here and in the media has massive biases. 

That's just it, though...on something like this where you have somethings that really need more time to be better understood, and then if the data appears one way to you but then you hear somebody else give another interpretation of the data that will make it seem like "eh, it's not that bad"...it's hard to know what to believe sometimes. I'm a person that just wants to be on the right side of an issue...but for this, things seem to still be evolving.

Right now, I have no clue whether what we're doing has been too much or just enough. It's just a difficult situation to assess. But what is clear is that what we are dealing with is a different animal than what most of us have seen in our lifetimes! (unless we have any 102+ year old users on here that survived the 1918 pandemic, lol)

[PhineasC]

1 hour ago, DCTeacherman said:

 

 

Are we still in the “early stages”? When does that phase end. Maybe ask this twitter guy. 

[HighStakes]

8 minutes ago, Maestrobjwa said:

What bothers me is that some people are trying to discredit him and the other experts as if their opinion doesn't have any weight (and as if they're part of some "mass hysteria conspiracy")...It sews just enough doubt to make ya second-guess things.

People like Fauci have no political agenda. His entire life and career is science and data based. His only objective is to save lives and protect the public. When a certain establishment hears information or facts they dont want to hear than they resort to attack methods. 

If you're ever unsure what to believe when watching or listening to the media all you have to do to know what the real truth is to listen to the doctors, nurses and health officials on the front line. 

[PhineasC]

2 minutes ago, HighStakes said:

People like Fauci have no political agenda. His entire life and career is science and data based. His only objective is to save lives and protect the public. When a certain establishment hears information or facts they dont want to hear than they resort to attack methods. 

If you're ever unsure what to believe when watching or listening to the media all you have to do to know what the real truth is to listen to the doctors, nurses and health officials on the front line. 

His only agenda is to understand the virus and minimize deaths. That doesn’t mean his voice should carry weight above all others. A lockdown through December would greatly reduce virus deaths but kill countless others from hunger and delayed treatments for other ailments. 

[SomeguyfromTakomaPark]

looks like another 1500+ death day today.  Lower than last weeks average so hopefully we’re coming off the peak and it’s not just the weekend reporting. 

[PhineasC]

Just now, DCTeacherman said:

looks like another 1500+ death day today.  Lower than last weeks average so hopefully we’re coming off the peak and it’s not just the weekend reporting. 

Does the fact that reports are lower on the weekends say anything to you about the reliability of the stats or do you just assume the virus takes a break on the weekends?

[SomeguyfromTakomaPark]

3 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Does the fact that reports are lower on the weekends say anything to you about the reliability of the stats or do you just assume the virus takes a break on the weekends?

Hey, but like I said last night, in order to try to keep this thread a little more focused and less sloppy I’m going to reduce my back and forths with you.  Cheers!

[HighStakes]

Just now, PhineasC said:

His only agenda is to understand the virus and minimize deaths. That doesn’t mean his voice should carry weight above all others. A lockdown through December would greatly reduce virus deaths but kill countless others from hunger and delayed treatments for other ailments. 

Of course his voice should carry more weight than others . Somebody's has too. There is a reason why he is the director of infectious diseases and leading authority. Most other officials except his lead anyway and are fine with him as the front man. I have not  heard anybody in his field unsupportive of his lead. At this point you're just arguing for the sake of arguing. You understand darn well why his voice carry more weight.

[PhineasC]

Just now, HighStakes said:

Of course his voice should carry more weight than others . Somebody's has too. There is a reason why he is the director of infectious diseases and leading authority. Most other officials except his lead anyway and are fine with him as the front man. I have not  heard anybody in his field unsupportive of his lead. At this point you're just arguing for the sake of arguing. You understand darn well why his voice carry more weight.

OK, so lock down until we hit zero deaths is your call? Or should other voices be able to weigh in?

[psuhoffman]

1 hour ago, HighStakes said:

Of course his voice should carry more weight than others . Somebody's has too. There is a reason why he is the director of infectious diseases and leading authority. Most other officials except his lead anyway and are fine with him as the front man. I have not  heard anybody in his field unsupportive of his lead. At this point you're just arguing for the sake of arguing. You understand darn well why his voice carry more weight.

Don’t question him he stayed at a holiday inn express last night. I stopped going down his rabbit holes days ago. It’s apparent he is trolling. 

[HighStakes]

31 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

OK, so lock down until we hit zero deaths is your call? Or should other voices be able to weigh in?

Once again you know very well that other voices do weigh and are heavily considered and who said anything about a lock down until December or zero deaths. I never heard Fauci day anything like that. 

[nw baltimore wx]

35 minutes ago, HighStakes said:

Of course his voice should carry more weight than others . Somebody's has too. There is a reason why he is the director of infectious diseases and leading authority. Most other officials except his lead anyway and are fine with him as the front man. I have not  heard anybody in his field unsupportive of his lead. At this point you're just arguing for the sake of arguing. You understand darn well why his voice carry more weight.

 

34 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

OK, so lock down until we hit zero deaths is your call? Or should other voices be able to weigh in?

Did Highstakes or Fauci say lockdown until there are zero deaths?

[PhineasC]

1 minute ago, nw baltimore wx said:

 

Did Highstakes or Fauci say lockdown until there are zero deaths?

Fauci has said the same thing the President is saying... glad we are on the same page here.

[nw baltimore wx]

3 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Fauci has said the same thing the President is saying... glad we are on the same page here.

What? You’ve lost me. 
 

I was wondering who said lockdown until there are zero deaths.

[PhineasC]

1 minute ago, nw baltimore wx said:

What? You’ve lost me. 
 

I was wondering who said lockdown until there are zero deaths.

Nah, I think you are reading me loud and clear.

[nw baltimore wx]

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

Nah, I think you are reading me loud and clear.

Ok. But I’m really not. I have no idea what I’m missing.

Eta:  No.big deal. I miss a lot in real life too.

[SomeguyfromTakomaPark]

Holding under 25k new cases for the day and NY with only around 6k, one of the lowest new case count days I can remember.  Hopefully this continues through the week. 

[PhineasC]

Thank god COVID takes the weekends off to give us a breather! I'm sure these stats have nothing to do with hospitals having fewer staff on hand and public health officials being off until Monday. Phew.

[40westwx]

54 minutes ago, Baltimorewx said:

Go have sex with your wife, play ball with your boy, let your dog lick peanut butter off your balls, sheesh. Give it a rest some of y’all 

ESPN2's primetime Sunday night programming has China's Grand Prix racing.. which is apparently open.. hmmm  

[SomeguyfromTakomaPark]

Another good sign I’ve been noticing is case counts and deaths seem to have fallen off a cliff in Louisiana and Michigan.  Glad to see a big downswing in those places. 

[nw baltimore wx]

We need a paranoid emoji.

[SomeguyfromTakomaPark]

Massachusetts and Pennsylvania seem to be a little behind NYC/NJ/MICH/LA in terms of peak.  Hopefully after those two places peak that will be the last major hot spots where we see 100+ deaths per day.  Still possible our region has a later peak I guess but maybe our social distancing has smoothed it enough we’re just less severe plateau.  Either way encouraging signs all around!

[Inverted_Trough]

2 hours ago, jaydreb said:

What are we supposed to use?  We can’t use total deaths, for obvious reasons.  And we can’t use per capita either.  

Just because it makes us look better doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use it.  Can we only use things that make us look worse?

I was being somewhat facetious.  I'd say we should look at the data both ways.  But per capita tends to be used more in the social sciences, such as economics or politics.

Whether your country is 330 million people (like us) or 60 million people (like Italy), a virus has plenty of places to go.  So looking at it per capita gives you a distorted picture if you're trying to evaluate the growth rate.

[SomeguyfromTakomaPark]

3 minutes ago, Inverted_Trough said:

I was being somewhat facetious.  I'd say we should look at the data both ways.  But per capita tends to be used more in the social sciences, such as economics or politics.

Whether your country is 330 million people (like us) or 60 million people (like Italy), a virus has plenty of places to go.  So looking at it per capita gives you a distorted picture if you're trying to evaluate the growth rate.

Yes, very true.  If you look at China, they obviously have way more big cities than anyone but that didn’t preclude them from keeping it confined to one province. 

[PhineasC]

2 minutes ago, DCTeacherman said:

Yes, very true.  If you look at China, they obviously have way more big cities than anyone but that didn’t preclude them from keeping it confined to one province. 

You believe China...?

[PhineasC]

China literally makes people disappear if they speak out about COVID-19... but we believe them when they say they have this contained?

[Inverted_Trough]

Just now, PhineasC said:

China literally makes people disappear if they speak out about COVID-19... but we believe them when they say they have this contained?

It's certainly possible (or likely) that they under-reported at the very beginning.  But it appears they have it under control now.  Starbucks has re-opened 95% of the stores that they shuttered in January.  There was an article recently that described their process for re-opening.  It was quite methodical and they used the data from the local public health authorities there.

Our numbers will never get as low as theirs has (or allegedly has).  We can't do what China did.  It looks like our new strategy will be to get the numbers down to a more manageable level, and play whack-a-mole with new clusters as they arise.  It'll be a smouldering fire but hopefully no second inferno.  It's pretty apparent that's what our strategy has evolved into

[PhineasC]

Just now, Inverted_Trough said:

It's certainly possible (or likely) that they under-reported at the very beginning.  But it appears they have it under control now.  Starbucks has re-opened 95% of the stores that they shuttered in January.  There was an article recently that described their process for re-opening.  It was quite methodical and they used the data from the local public health authorities there.

Our numbers will never get as low as theirs has (or allegedly has).  We can't do what China did.  It looks like our new strategy will be to get the numbers down to a more manageable level, and play whack-a-mole with new clusters as they arise.  It'll be a smouldering fire but hopefully no second inferno.  It's pretty apparent that's what our strategy has evolved into

I don't believe a single thing coming from China on this, and info from the Chinese branch of a megacorp like Starbucks is no exception. It's certain Starbucks would not even be allowed to do business in China if they spoke out about COVID there. 

[Inverted_Trough]

7 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

I don't believe a single thing coming from China on this, and info from the Chinese branch of a megacorp like Starbucks is no exception. It's certain Starbucks would not even be allowed to do business in China if they spoke out about COVID there. 

You're entitled to your beliefs.  There's plenty of ancillary evidence that shows it's contained there.  They also had a two month head-start:  While we were busy chasing snowstorms that never materialized, they were basically in the midst of dealing with this - like we are now.  So it makes sense their counts are much lower than ours currently.