Flu has been around for quite awhile and alot of people caught it and unfortunately some of the weaker individuals died.Because of today’s easy-access media technology, wide-spread random thoughts, ideas and fears run wildly on their own. Facts have shown that masks, social-distancing and hand washing helps to slow it down but unfortunately EVERYONE will not continue this process for years??? until this disease evaporates away.So it’s not looking like it will disappear and we just have to deal with it. Through all the previous flu seasons the country, world did not shut down, the sick/scared stayed home until better and we overcame. Continue to use caution until a vaccine is found ( If ever available ) and in the meantime kick-off that dad blamed football.
Another example that one should not eat lead paint.
Sports in US are in trouble until vaccine is developed. We in US either don’t have the discipline you are suggesting ot don’t believe that damn virus even exists.
I am resigned to watching sports events from Europe until then. Seems like they have the situation under control.
They have it under control, or aren’t testing as much as the USA?
I think hospitalizations and death numbers gives a good view of whether it is under control or not. Also in Europe a higher percentage of population has been tested. You may have a good point about China, Brasil and India.
If Europe has been cheating, it will show up in hospitalization and death numbers and they will pay for it.
The overrun ICU’s in several cities in FL, TX, & AZ tell us this is far from under control & isn’t “the flu.”
Thanks, PJ. I wasn’t trying to make a point, just asking a question.
Lots of conflicting information out there now.
Last time I checked, the number of COVID deaths had decreased 10 straight weeks in the US. Of course, hospitalizations have increased in several areas.
Not sure about Texas and Arizona, but it’s been reported that Florida is using ICU beds for non-critical patients to keep them isolated. The Governor has asked for the hospitals to start reporting the number of actual criticals in those beds to have a better idea of vacancy.
Also, I read a news story from a Florida station before the initial surge of hospitalizations that stated their ICUs were at greater than 60% capacity at that time. So, of their roughly 6,000 ICU beds, 3,600 were already taken by cases other than COVID (some of these may have developed COVID later, or not been properly diagnosed at first, but impossible to know how many). The number of current ICU beds being used is roughly 5,100. 1,500 beds being used for COVID is more than we’d like to see, but it does sound much less scary than saying “of 6,000 ICU beds, we only have 800 left due to COVID”.
That is exactly what has been reported. They say that we now have therapeutic treatments that seem to treat the disease effectively and the recent cases seem to be mostly in age group 18 to 35 who can fight off the disease better.
I do think the drug industry has made progress. Final frontier is vaccine. Would be great if it can arrive early 2021. That is why talk of both football and basketball seasons to take place March through June is not that far fetched.
You really need to get your news from more than “One side of the coin”, all coins have two sides.
I haven’t heard it reported on any outlet and I listen to all of them that any city or state is out of ICU beds, don’t have ventilators for patients that need them, etc, etc, etc.
if you have facts that support your post please share.
Well, here’s a source. (BTW, I said nothing about ventilators. Drs are trying to avoid using them, so the need for them is down)
Panellas County,
Florida overall was using 86% of its total ICU beds and those aren’t all Covid 19 patients due to the fact that so many other surgeries had been delayed or postponed until recently. So much focus on the number of cases being reported while not as much focus on number of recoveries and a declining death rate.
I choose to look at the issue from all sides and stats, not just one.
This is not the normal flu. We haven’t had something like this in America since the polio crisis, which predates most on this board and the last time real social distancing occurred. Yes, a vaccine is the ultimate answer, but in the short run (ie., the next 12 months) we all need to act mature, recognize that we’ll be inconvenienced, be patient, and chip in with the right behaviors. America’s long term overcoming should be worth it.
I do not understand those who can’t, er won’t, align.
You asked me to cite the source. I did. I’m not sure there are “two sides” to the proposition that ICU’s are either about to reach or have reached capacity in several cities where Covid has exploded. It’s either true or it’s not. No one said every city in the country, or even those states, has reached that point.
If you choose to believe this virus is contained or just not that big a deal or has been exaggerated is up to you, but it appears to me it’s a very serious problem.
The March of Dimes collected money for many years trying to control Infintile Paralisis?
It took Dr. Salk a long time to discover a polio vaccine. But in both cases our population world wide was much smaller, much less dense and people generally stayed home most of the time. And neither disease was as fatal as this one. Ignore it at your own risk.
I never said the virus was contained, exaggerated and no big deal.
You said, and I quote “ICU units in several cities in FL, TX, AZ are overrun”.
You could use some help in research and debate framing. Good luck.
The article I cited corroborates several cities in those states are overrun. Of course, ICU populations can change within an hour. My point was, and still is, that stress on hospitals due to covid show that’s very serious & not the flu. It wasn’t to say every hospital was over 100% capacity (although some are.) I didn’t know it was a debate. I just thought I was pointing out something to show this is serious. If you’re trying to score debating points, have at it.
But here’s exactly what the article says:
Hospitalizations across the state have been ticking upward, with nearly 1,700 patients admitted in the past seven days compared with 1,200 the previous week. Five hospitals in the St. Petersburg area were out of intensive care unit beds, officials said. Miami’s Baptist Hospital had only four of its 88 ICU beds available.
“If we continue to increase at the pace we have been, we won’t have enough ventilators, enough rooms,” said Dr. David De La Zerda, ICU medical director and pulmonologist at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Officials in Texas also reported hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed. Hospitalizations statewide surged past 8,000 for the first time over the weekend, a more than fourfold increase in the past month. Houston officials said intensive care units there have exceeded capacity
Not one city or state has run out of ICU beds and they won’t!
I hope not, but that won’t happen only if the infection rate slows down. It shows no sign of slowing right now. Of course, the governors of those states have now started clamping down again, so maybe that will work.
(Another resource that’s getting stressed are the medical personnel treating those patients. Doctors & nurses are reaching their limits.)
This board is not going to change anybody’s mind. I choose to wear a mask because it seems to be a common sense thing to do to help stop the virus. It’s a very minor PITA, but it seems like a humane and decent thing to do. I think the science shows this is a prudent thing to do. Others obviously don’t feel that way.
Here’s a term that should be familiar…
Sealioning (also spelled sea-lioning and sea lioning) is a type of trolling or harassment which consists of pursuing people with persistent requests for evidence or repeated questions, while maintaining a pretense of civility and sincerity. It may take the form of “incessant, bad-faith invitations to engage in debate”.
It would not matter if you showed a reference that 2+2=4. And the prevention of the virus is not black and white, cut and dried. When they tried to get people to stop drinking from contaminated wells to stop typhoid, some people refused to do so because they couldn’t see the little beasties causing the illness.