Just to keep track of the nonsense that has wrecked our economy and generally made our politicians run around as if their fool heads were on fire, each day I publish the corona virus total death toll in the US based upon the latest data I can find. A single death is an immense tragedy if you love the person. However, we are not talking about love, but rather public policy, which should always involve a sober analysis of risk and cost. Please recall that in a bad normal flu year our death toll in the US can be as high as 90,000.
Note: this will be a total death toll since the beginning of this bad farce, and not a daily toll. As of the beginning of April 15 the death toll is 26,064 . May the Perpetual Light shine upon them.
A jump in the death toll due to the fact that apparently a fair number of the government officials reporting the deaths do not work on weekends. Forgive my cynicism, but I have seen many “national crises” come and and go during my 63 years, and one thing I have noticed is that almost none of them caused the bureaucracy to change its business as usual manner of “working”. The numbers do not include the 3700 additional deaths that New York is now claiming as covid-19 deaths although the people were not tested for the virus. Of course this is one with a piece of claiming that an 85 year old with stage 4 lung cancer and COPE died of covid-19. Lots of fluff and stuffing in the reported numbers, and a lot of political careers resting on this being a real crisis and not an idiotic stampede over a nasty flu bug.
My sons pointed out that a big problem is that we only hear two stats: deaths and cases. That’s it. There is no real unpacking of details or context or anything. It’s just those two things repeated a thousand times a day. When they dwell on details at all, it always seems to be a story about some young, fit yoga instructor or athlete who got it bad. Otherwise, we just hear those two stats and nothing else.
@Dave G. I agree… how come they’re not adjusting any numbers for people who aren’t sick anymore?
Our county in MD just ordered everyone to wear a “face covering” if you have to go to an essential business. $500 fine. I guess they didn’t anticipate the huge reduction in revenue from tickets, sales taxes, etc.
I would seriously love to see the study that shows that completely healthy spread sicknesses that they don’t have.
My husband is saying that no one is trained on how to use the PPE that they’re forced to wear, and he thinks it’s hilarious to watch them. He was trained, so he can easily pick out the problems he sees. I’m sure that everyone in my county will be using the same face covering day after day without washing it daily.
Our local paper ran a front page news story about a local co-ed who became ill with Covid19. As I read the article, she spent about five days being sick.
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My son was issued a cloth face mask for work. And no, he didn’t have me wash it before reuse. Tonight I will insist.
A big jump in NY decedents was the one-day addition of 3,778 poor people that died at home and they think (they were not tested) they died of COVID 19. [EMTs were instructed not to bring in any victim they can’t resuscitate in the field.] Also notable, 25% of NY deaths happened in long-term care facilities.
A Tale of Two States. NY’s decedents per million was 450 yesterday (it’s likely much higher today, maybe 630). California’s decedents were 18 per million. Total US were 67 per; Germany, a supposed success story, was 37. Caveat: Are we certain that NY, CA, and Germany all use the same parameters? .
Addendum: Just saw on Instapundit that TX death rate is half of CA. The point is the Manchurian media is promoting the Democrat CA governor while silent on Gov. Abbott’s TX success story.
Semper Politics.
Hearing from folks who work with various hospitals in Texas, etc, that the Fed medical welfare payments for the kung flu are significantly higher than for pneumonia.
Be way too easy to go “well, this poor person has pneumonia. They have been exposed to medical personnel, so they have been possibly exposed to COVID-19. Thus I can honestly say it’s POSSIBLE it’s COVID-19.”
If the numbers weren’t cooked, New York would’ve been hit earlier, and harder. Ditto Seattle. Etc.
”
Judge Forces McHenry County, Illinois Health Dept. to Provide Names of All COVID-19 Patients to Police”
https://cnsnews.com/article/national/craig-bannister/judge-forces-mchenry-county-illinois-health-dept-provide-names-all
New York City decided that the “excess deaths” they’ve calculated are all to be reported as COVID-19.
https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/04/14/818384/
In a single pen-swipe, they’ve added 17% to the total deaths for the US.
Was TOTALLY dying of kung flu, not of hysteria. -.-
“My son was issued a cloth face mask for work. And no, he didn’t have me wash it before reuse. Tonight I will insist.”
The Covid 19 lasts 4 days on surfaces. After 4 days the face mask can be used again.
It lasts 3 days on stainless steel and hard plastic. About 1 day on cardboard. About 4 hours on copper.
This was interesting:
We’ve seen confirmed cases explode in my region owing to a hot spot in a meat packing facility. Now the mayor of the effected city wants to force everybody in the city limits to shelter in place for three weeks. This is the 5th week of the Covid-19 outbreak in Siouxland. Next week, when the ordinance will go into effect will be the 6th. The ordinance would lapse (assuming it’s not extended) on May 8th, just shy of the 8 week, mark.
If this guy is right, I’ll know.
Of course, he advises a pharmaceutical company, so he probably can’t be trusted. Not like a NASA scientist studying global warming can be, anyway.
This was interesting:
No it isn’t. Whatever the shape of the curve is, death tolls vary wildly.