Admiral Rockwell Tory
Diamond Member
Health officials are most concerned with covid 19 hospitalizations because increases in hospitalizations are a strong indicator that the number of deaths will start increasing with a few weeks. Today 7 states are reporting increasing covid 19 hospitalizations compared to 3 states 2 weeks ago. Total number of new cases are not near as import as increases in percent of positive cases found in testing. This is good indicator of upcoming increases in hospitalizations.The only numbers we should be fixated on is the number of people hospitalized with severe cases of Covid 19 and the number of people who have died as the result of Covid 19. Note that I said those who died AS A RESULT of Covid 19...not those who died from other causes but have been lumped into the Covid fatalities number because hospitals get paid more for those deaths!Unfortunately, scaring people into doing what is needed to stop the spread of an epidemic is probably the most effective tool in controlling it. If people weren't afraid for themselves or their family, they would not be social distancing, wearing masks, or getting tested and infections and deaths would skyrocket. The idea that we can return to normal by just ignoring the virus is just plain dumb because people will not ignore it as the number of sick and dying rise.You'll notice that the narrative is not about the number of Covid deaths taking place now but the number of new "cases"! The reason for that is that the number of deaths from Covid is WAY down now so it's not scary enough! So the main stream media switches over to the number of new cases in an attempt to keep the economy shut down for just a bit longer!We are testing people who are not sick, test positive, and never get sick.The purpose of testing is finding positive cases so they can be quarantined to slow the spread of the virus. Whether they show symptoms are not is irrelevant because if they test positive, they can spread it. Patient Number 31 in South Korea Infected thousands with Coronavirus and had almost no symptoms. There are a number of cases of asymptomatic patients that are super spreaders. In fact the less symptoms a person has the more likely they are to transmit the virus to others because they don't feel sick.Of course it is. Why do you think Trump wants to cut back on testing when he knows it's been the most valuable tool in finding cases to quarantine which prevents the spread of the virus. The more testing, the more cases will be found increasing the seriousness of the disease in the minds of the public which could hurt Trump's chance of reelection. A good president would be doing everything he could to increase the number of tests because it is in best interest of the nation to do so regardless of the election. However, that takes real courage, something Donald Trump would never be accused of.I do believe that politics are heavily involved in all of this. Can't hardly trust anything or anyone anymore.
We are testing people who have no symptoms of the virus, locking them away for two weeks, and finding out they never got sick! That skews your stats so badly they are useless.
Unfortunately, our president only aim is to stopping the increase in the number of reported cases and the surest way to do that is reduce testing, ignoring the fact that finding positive cases and quarantining them is one of the most power tools in stopping the virus.
My state has no COVID-19 deaths yesterday.
The number of actual cases really isn't something to freak out over. We should have been exposing the healthy part of our population to this virus back at the start of the year. If we HAD then we'd be closer to having it run it's course! But people like you scared healthy people into self isolating and now that they are going out in public again...they're coming down with the virus anyways which means for the elderly and the infirm...it's still not safe to come out of isolation and won't be for months!
During the first couple of weeks of March when hospitals were being slammed with cases and there was a shortage of tests, there may have been some cases that were classified incorrectly. Within a few weeks, hospitals had both nasal and blood tests to diagnosis the disease plus Covid 19 in the lungs is easily identified by CT Scans. Also the CDC issued a bulletin to hospitals stating that deaths due to Covid 19 should be marked "Due to Covid 19" on the 1st line under Contributing Causes and reported as such. I suspect only a very small percentage of the 122,000 deaths are incorrectly classified.
Scientist have determined an infection rate of 70% plus or minus 5% of a population will be needed for herd immunity to stop the spread of the virus. That means we would need to reach a point where about 238 million people have been infected in order to stop it. A far better plan than to do nothing and wait for herd immunity is do all we can to suppress the spread of the virus and push for a vaccine which now is looking like one will be available in the early part of next year. This approach would not only same lives over doing nothing and waiting for the herd immunity but will most likely be less of an impact on the economy because herd immunity could take years. There is also another problem with just waiting for herd immunity. Herd immunity does not exist for all viruses. We could be waiting for it come and never occurs.
This is why virologist and epidemiology don't recommend wait for herd immunity.
A vaccine may take many years to develop you know.
Scientists have been working on an aids vaccine for 40 years and still don't have one.
No vaccines yet are available for syphilis, emphysema or cirrhosis either. I don't think that locking up the economy on an indefinite schedule is any kind of a plan.
Initially, the idea was a 15 day lockdown to "flatten the curve", not indefinite to "find a vaccine"
The problem right now is the media to doing its best to increase alarm, even as deaths are decreasing.
There are vaccines for all of those diseases:
Syphilis - Don't fuck around!
Emphysema - Don't smoke!
Cirrhosis - Don't drink!