That makes more sense than what I thought you were suggesting. I donât agree with it, but that is more reasonable. I was also reacting to the post above about the worldâs massive overreaction. I donât think we overreacted, I think we mostly under did it given how poorly our country responded.
I think you can argue that point that Sweden did better in the long run, either in terms of cases and deaths, or economically. But itâs also important to keep in mind that they did impose more restrictions eventually. At first they didnât do much beyond advocating safer practices, limiting big gatherings, and their lead public health official was advocating herd immunity (without vaccines) would give them better outcomes later (it didnât, their 2nd wave was as bad as everyone elseâs and worse than their neighbors, see: https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)32750-1/fulltext). They changed course and did put some restrictions on businesses when it became clear that they were so much worse than neighbors.
They didnât shut down schools or daycares - otherwise life in Sweden looks very much like what it does here. Everyone non-essential is working remote and restaurants are at self imposed limited capacity. My colleagues over there havenât seen each other in person for over a year. Mental health issues due to prolonged self-isolation are rising. Theyâre actually very concerned about a new wave, and arenât going to be completely back to normal any sooner than we are.
I remember early on hearing about how traveling outside your immediate hometown in Sweden was very much frowned upon. Tourism was definitely shut down. There was hope they could isolate and stop the spread - but a bad nursing home death spike, and general overall spike in cases squashed that.
ABC News: CDC: COVID-19 cases increase in young adults | WNT.
The New York Times: Virus Variants Threaten to Draw Out the Pandemic, Scientists Say.
âI donât wish this on anybodyâ: 24-year-old receives lung and kidney transplant after testing positive for COVID-19
Good news on the variants
Ray says that although experts in areas where the new strain is appearing have found an increased number of cases in children, he notes that the data show that kids are being infected by old variants, as well as the new ones. âThere is no convincing evidence that any of the variants have special propensity to infect or cause disease in children. We need to be vigilant in monitoring such shifts, but we can only speculate at this point,â he says.
We deal with mutations every year for flu virus, and will keep an eye on this coronavirus and track it,â says Bollinger. âIf there would ever be a major mutation, the vaccine development process can accommodate changes, if necessary,â he explains.
We need to re-emphasize basic public health measures, including masking, physical distancing, good ventilation indoors and limiting gatherings of people in close proximity with poor ventilation. We give the virus an advantage to evolve when we congregate in more confined spaces,â he says.
Transplant is done for COVID-19 in just a handful of cases. Worldwide thereâs probably fewer than 100 cases that have been done to date."
Flu Symptoms & Complications | CDC).
Other possible serious complications triggered by flu can include inflammation of the heart (myocarditis), brain (encephalitis) or muscle (myositis, rhabdomyolysis) tissues, and multi-organ failure (for example, respiratory and kidney failure).
That was mostly my point about Pneumonia, that you stated more effectively.
To be clear about this report, itâs not saying what is being reported isnât factual but that the focus is on the negative aspects of the disease. There is little to no reporting on the positive trends.
NA proves this point when he posted above from Yahoo about the guy needing the organ transplants. 132 mil cases worldwide and less than 100 needed organ transplants. Not to mention that getting the flu can cause the same issue (where is that article). Yet, Yahoo does a story on it and it worked. Somebody clicked on it and then forwarded/posted to a message board. Most people read the headline and move on with a fear that if they get COVID it could likely cause organ damage. An irrational thought if you read the whole article or do a little research.
I prefer to stick to the non-news websites to get my info about COVID. Anything tied to CNN, MSNBC, CBS, Fox, ABC etc could be skewed a bit. Same with CDC or WHO. Those are government organizations with agendas. Carries more weight than news orgs but it will be skewed.
Just my opinion.
Just wondering who are your non news websites you get information from. You did not list those.
The info I shared above is from John Hopkins. The link is in the post.
Okay. Only saw Yahoo and CDC when drive by browsing. Where else do you usually go for go to sourcing?
Some good info here too. A little dated though.
Are the new strains of COVID-19 more dangerous?
Some information suggests that the U.K. variant may cause worse disease than previous strains, but researchers need more data to confirm this.
So far, the Brazil, California and South Africa variants do not appear to cause more serious illness or increased risk of death than previous strains of COVID-19.
Are children more likely to get sick from the new strains of COVID-19?
In the first wave of COVID-19, for reasons that we still donât know, COVID-19 was more likely to infect adults than children. But in the past two to three months in the U.S., there has been a significant increase in the percentage of children diagnosed with COVID-19.
At this point, it doesnât seem that the new strains have anything to do with this â but eventually, they could. Weâre keeping a close eye on it.
Again, for the most part, the new strains do not appear to lead to more serious illness for the individuals they infect, including young people and children.
But there are two pieces of good news:
First, the existing vaccines still offer some protection against all of the variants. The protection is just reduced a bit.
Second, the science behind these mRNA vaccines makes them relatively easy to adjust â so even as Moderna and Pfizer are producing more vaccines to roll out across the country, they are figuring out how to tweak the mRNA for future doses to better protect against new variants.
You can usually find good info from different hospitals or research universities. Read it all and form an opinion. It changes so fast sometimes though that it can be difficult to keep up.
I understand getting totally unbiased information on COVID 19 is hard but the news sites ultimate goal is to get clicks/audience. Bad news sells unfortunately.
This argument reminds me of the actuaries behind the calculated decision to eliminate an $0.11 bolt cover on the Ford Pinto that would have prevented the punctured fuel tanks that caused the death of some, but not all Pinto owners. The logic employed there, and here, is the decision of what the âacceptableâ losses of human life are. Ultimately, a total of 27 people were killed in rear-end crashes involving Pintos. But Ford Motor Company was found to be liable for wrongful death claims. And the scandal almost took the company down.
You said âonly 100â otherwise healthy, young people had major organ failure like this 24 year old guy (letâs assume that is a real #). Then there are the hundreds of other people experiencing other complications, not to mention the number of infections (many of which are causing long term issues that are being documented), and deaths from the virus:
How many deaths and other negative outcomes does it take in your book before you stop telling us all that we have âirrational fearâ of this virus?
In my wifeâs immediate family, we had someone admitted just a few days ago with Covid symptoms. Within 48 hours, he was paralyzed from the waist down from the virus. It has since creeped up his spine and is now affecting his respiratory / pulmonary functions. He has been placed on life support and the doctors are telling the family to pray for him.
Is our fear and pain irrational? How about any of the other people who have faced death or permanent disability of themselves or their loved ones?
Tell us what amount of pain and misery qualifies for the removal of that irrational fear tag?
With attitudes such as those on display here and about, the good news is, we have a good shot of meeting those #s, no matter how lofty the goal.
Wait for itâŚ
I get enough information from the frontline of my wifeâs work and her circle of influence, Doctors, pulmonoligists, ER staff etc. to know how I want to make my decisions at this point. I have stopped searching out data since it only seems to be a form of picking sides when you try to present it in a rational adult way. I do know of a sales rep who got Covid at grocery store last Spring and had to get a heart transplant this fall so do not know where he fits in the data points presented. Also had a 62 year old family friend pass of Covid 2 weeks ago so it is still pretty real in my world. I have 15 year old twin boys and as soon as they can get vaccinated I will allow it. IMO the irrational fear seems to be about the vaccine. I have seen what the disease can do first hand but have seen nothing that makes me fearful of the vaccine. In the long run I may be wrong but life is dangerous as presented in this thread.