patrick.net

mell says

The deaths are real although inflated

I agree. It's an actual virus that exists for sure. Like I said, don't like conspiracy theories, and I'm not there yet with this virus. I think numbers are being inflated as well. We're hitting the "bad" week or two here and I still have only heard of 3 people testing positive that are friends/family of friends. No one I personally know has it.

Our first level sphere of friends and family is rather large. We chopped down the wedding invites from 500 to 300 a decade ago... So only 3 known positive tests of friends of friends. Probably ~3-5k people?

The numbers of people I'm talking about are rather mind boggling for 3 positive tests and that's it. 2 did die, but CV-19 was listed as the cause and in both cases the deceased were at deaths door anyway.

As each day goes by I keep questioning why we're shut down. It's pretty frustrating. Even the media needing this to keep going is reporting on the empty overflow hospitals and setups. 1+1 isn't equaling 2 right now in my mind.

ThreeBays says

WookieMan says

We're hitting the "bad" week or two here and I still have only heard of 3 people testing positive that are friends/family of friends. No one I personally know has it.

Where are you from?

Illinois. One of the "hot pockets" so to speak. Worked and lived in Chicago for a decade. Not going to dox much more, but my wife and I easily know 3k people that would have mentioned something to us personally or via social media about a friend or loved one getting the virus. It's been 3 total. Don't have to believe me, but I'm not exaggerating. Kind of pointless to do so.

ThreeBays says

That's a bit like saying your house is not on fire so don't get the point of putting out the wildfire before it got to your house.

Not at all. You're assuming that there's a wildfire. What I'm trying to say is someone is having a fire in their backyard, contained in a pit, the authorities see smoke and assume there's a wildfire... if that makes sense.

What the hell difference does it make? If it was 5 times more deaths in your city, what would you do differently? Some people love to worry...others don't give a crap...It's always been like that... Do whatever makes you the most comfortable...You aren't going to change anything...If I actually thought I was going to catch it and die, I'd get as far away from people as I could and would not worry about work and money.

It’s hard to say. This isn’t exactly talked about openly and names aren’t even released by hospitals.

ThreeBays says

As far as cases per capita, Cook county isn't in the top 50 counties. It's a 10th of the most impacted county. So if you don't know how much worse it could be in your hospitals: at least 10 times worse.

Again though there's an assumption people are making it to hospitals and overwhelming them and not dying at home. What I've been reading is the onset of symptoms, regardless of how long you've been exposed come on fast and hard. For the grandma sitting in her retirement community (not nursing home) that needs oxygen but can still function could die in less than 12 hours after feeling relatively normal.

ThreeBays says

Hopefully the analogy makes sense. Wildfires spread from tree to nearby tree, until they reach space. Cut enough space between trees and it can't spread further, and burns out. Same here with the epidemic. We mingle, and the virus spreads. You've got community spread in your city. The social distancing has placed space between pockets of burning trees. Thats why it's slowed down significantly.

This analogy makes sense. But if we're talking about wildfires, there's arguments out there that fire control and mitigation just make later fires worse or more frequent. But the analogy still holds true with my approach to some extent. We need to mitigate the forests or sections that are more likely to burn and do an extreme job at mitigating those spaces. So we're on the same page, I just think it's impossible if not negligent to try and mitigate every single wildfire in the world. It's not possible. Some of them are going to have to burn. Some may burn without us even knowing like my example above.

Because we have vaccines and modern medicine, humans for some reason believe they can control mother nature. Mother nature is gonna mother nature and not really care about our actions. This will spread again as we open up. Don't expect to see older people for a while and if you're old or have conditions, get ready for some good 'ole cabin fever. I think it's this class of people that should be getting all the stimulus and the rest of us go back to work while they stay in mandatory lockdown.

ThreeBays says

That's why it's becoming enforced action,

A half assed enforced action....street people still all over the place....stores open with people in them....politicians and reporters in close quarters with no protecttions....It's a joke...

Exercise in social control. When the military brings in the flame throwers, it'll make Jonestown look like patty cake!

Finally heard of someone who died from Wuhan virus with a connection to us, sort of.

The 90 year old father of a French friend. He was in a nursing home in France. Never met him.

Our friend was not allowed to visit him in the hospital, or to attend his funeral. If the father had been a political activist, it would be very suspicious.

Up to nearly 60 cases at work. No deaths.

komputodo says

A half assed enforced action.

In Baltimore City laws aren't enforced to begin with, so I'm not worried about it.