Conavirus......

[bae]

It turns out that while covid is more contagious than the regular flu it is not catchy in the way the Spanish flu was, and the absence of restrictions leads to no worse infection rates than the presence of them:

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53741851

"In Sweden, there have been more than 5,500 deaths in a country of 10 million, which is one of the highest death rates relative to population size in Europe, and by far the worst among the Nordic nations."

[JaneV2.0]

Taiwan is an example of doing it right. They implemented strict measures in January, and have had no new cases--except for people trying to enter the country and quarantined--for some time. The last new case among citizens was in April. They have had seven deaths. Our response--or lack thereof-- has been a complete disaster.

Also, there was a comparison on the news last night of cases in areas of the Midwest with mask mandates, and those without. As I recall, the infection rate was about 2 to 1 in the freedom-lovin' mask-floutin' areas. Masks work.

Third, COVID19 isn't the flu.

[bae]

Fourth: It's pretty easy to cherry-pick headlines from media articles to shore up one's belief system.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Well no it's not as contagious as some things, I don't think any expert ever thought it would be, popular fears perhaps (my fears sometimes), and it's even less contagious with all the measures being taken. And that's why the death toll isn't even higher, most people have still never been infected. It's not so much that it's not so deadly as anticipated, it can be deadly (though not Spanish flu level), it's more that it doesn't seem to spread quite so readily as one might fear with the measures being taken.

[Teacher Terry]

Many countries have done better than us such as Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam.

[JaneV2.0]

Sweden's surging again:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN27E29W

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, registered 2,820 new coronavirus cases on Oct. 28, the highest since the pandemic began and the third record number in a matter of days, Health Agency statistics showed on Thursday.

[bae]

Well no it's not as contagious as some things,.

In Western Washington state, as of a couple days ago, the reproduction rate, r, was 1.34...

So, not-good.

[Yppej]

Dado you are correct that the article did not discuss the Spanish flu, but I thought it was common knowledge that it was killing people of all ages left and right back in the day.

A customer came into the office today and as he works at a healthcare facility one of my coworkers was asking him about his experience with covid. He said he had it and his only symptom was a headache for 3 days. He said there were numerous deaths at the facility, one person in his 70's and the rest in their 80's or older. He said all the fatalities were not only old but had other medical conditions. He said the vast majority were morbidly obese. They had numerous survivors as well including a woman in her 90's. He was praising Sweden's approach of protecting the vulnerable and letting younger people go about their lives.

[bae]

FFS

[catherine]

A lot of Great Lakes shipwreck events are going to be online. I can’t tell you how happy I am.

Yes, I have "attended" a few really cool events online--a couple of historical "walking tours" and an author event. I agree that it does make learning more accessible.