I'm visiting family in Louisiana right now, and had to step into a giant Kroger grocery store yesterday.

It was easily 50% full of customers, maintaining decent distances, but maybe only 25% had a mask on.

No one was wiping shopping carts or handing out alcohol wipes or any such thing, either.

Roads/traffic were almost as busy as normal. I saw lawn crews working in three different spots.

In short, it was confusingly sort of normal. Not sure what to make of all that.

another comment on the data for NY City

confirmed cases 87,028
deaths 5,150

above just for NY City

NY has said 13% of confirmed become hospital patients

87028 * .13 = 11,313 estimate for NY City hospital patients

(sort of consistent w what Cuomo said for overall NY hospital numbers)

here is the issue:

5150 deaths / 11313 = 46%

We really haven't heard that 46% of the NY City people hospitalized have died.

One possibility is that the 5150 death number includes people dying outside the hospitals.

It sounds like once a person is "confirmed", that person goes on a list and they are tracked somehow to see whether they die or recover.

It would be good to know how many died in the hospitals.

What comes, around goes around:

CBS News Plays Italy Hospital Footage — Again — for Report on U.S. Coronavirus Response

I guess getting called out for it once, just wasn't enough.
These people, I got nothing.

^^^^^

You gotta be kidding me.

I am not surprised at all by CBS low-life tactics. What I am surprised by is ABC and NBC not getting caught pulling the same shit.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
Maybe my funny bone has been a victim of all this social distancing and lock down nonsense, but Sam Jackson looking like a black smurf in a beret sitting in Pee Wee's Playhouse and telling me to "Stay the F home" rubs me the wrong way. Maybe Sam and his other Hollywood assholes can "Shut the F Up" and stay out of my life.

bigdeal, the mistake you’re making is paying any attention at all to the message from anyone in Hollyweird. Those folks are all about the delivery. Now, if you don’t find Samuel L. Jackson’s apparent inability to communicate without using MFing bad language funny, I can understand that, but if you are paying any attention to what any of those folks are saying you’re doing it wrong.

Each of the Governors making edicts is failing to ask the simple question, "How is this going to reduce the spread of the disease we are fighting?"

The honest answer in many cases is, "It won't." Dummies issue the edict anyway. It's like you took your car in for a squealing belt and the "mechanic" is replacing brake-light bulbs.

Some of these Fox News headlines/animations are great. Check out this one.

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/s...coronavirus-pandemic

Good news here and it will be interesting to see if this will hold true for other areas.


Germany’s 'Wuhan' has 15 per cent infection rate and low death toll

https://www.thenational.ae/wor...death-toll-1.1004050

A study into Germany’s 'Wuhan' has revealed 15 per cent of the town, where the virus first stuck the country, have been infected but death rates have remained low.

The study is using antibody tests to sample a random portion of the population.

The death rate – fatalities among those diagnosed – has appeared lower than that of the nation as a whole due to picking up mild cases of the virus which had previously gone unnoticed, researchers said.

In the Heinsberg region as a whole, less than 1 per cent of the population has tested positive for the virus, and 44 patients have died, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

The new research comes as Germany's health minister Jens Spahn revealed on Thursday that restrictions on public life are taking effect and are flattening the curve on new cases of the virus.

"The number of newly reported infections is flattening out, we are seeing a linear increase again rather than the dynamic, exponential increase we saw in mid-March," Mr Spahn said.

On Thursday, the national disease control centre announced it is planning to conduct a series of blood tests to determine how many people in the country are immune to Covid-19 and how many were infected without knowing it.

Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, says starting next week antibody tests will be carried out on blood given by donors around the country.

Germany launched the Heinsberg Protocol study to examine the rural town of Gangelt in the region of Heinsberg, where the first virus fatalities occurred.

Unveiled on Thursday, the preliminary findings, using the results of 500 of the town's 12,000 inhabitants, showed that 15 per cent of the population was believed to have been infected

But contrary to the national death rate, it revealed the mortality rate in the town would be 0.37 per cent. It is less than one-fifth of the mortality rate, based on confirmed positive tests in Germany as a whole, the researchers said.

His institute anticipates up to 5,000 samples will be conducted every 14 days, with results starting in early May.

A second survey will examine blood from about 2,000 people from each of four infection 'hot spots' in Germany. And a third will look at a representative sample of some 15,000 people across the country, with results expected in June.

Germany has confirmed more than 113,000 infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

More than 2,300 people have died, a death rate lower than many countries.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wcb6092,

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

We shut down our entire economy over modeled projections that were wildly wrong....

The doomsayers who put all their faith in these technocrats and their bullshit models have driven us off a cliff. It is clearer and clearer every day that they were grossly wrong in their predictions. What we've done to ourselves is nothing short of tragic.

If the mitigation efforts are successful, it will look like we overreacted. That does not mean our response was inappropriate.

Edit to add: Our response in terms of spreading the virus. The economic response is another issue.

quote:

Originally posted by sigalert:
If the mitigation efforts are successful, it will look like we overreacted. That does not mean our response was inappropriate.

Uh huh. Quite some time ago in this thread, I pointed out how this defense will be used after all the "experts" miss the mark by a country mile. "Of course the numbers are lower than estimated! Because we fucked up everyone's lives and force-fed them this 'social distancing' HORSE SHIT! That's why our estimates were off. No, no, it certainly was not because we were talking out of our collective, sensationalist ASS!!!"

You can't win for losin', guys. If their estimates were right, they'd say "See?". And if their estimates were wrong, they'd say "Oh, well, the precautions made the difference."

quote:

Originally posted by sigalert:
If the mitigation efforts are successful, it will look like we overreacted. That does not mean our response was inappropriate.

Causality Dilemma pure and simple. I agree with Para's assessment. Those that believe the social distancing worked will always say that without it, eleventybillion people would have died.

Denmark and Sweden are running this experiment. Similar cultures and economies. So it will be proven one way or another.

quote:

Originally posted by sigalert:
So it will be proven one way or another.

Of course it will, sure, and the result will be (somehow) that all the "experts" with fucking obscene estimates and their stupid fucking economy-and-job-killing "guidelines" were right, 100%. They were right and will continue to be right, no matter what the evidence actually shows, because the the news media will make it so.

Again, we can't win for losin'. They'll make up whatever fucking fairy tale they want, complete with the requisite numbers (and politically correct kind) of "heroes"

To say that this game is fixed is an understatement.

They keep harping on this Chinese coronavirus hitting "people of color" dis-proportionally.
Such bullshit.
Sure, it is more likely to spread in densely populated urban areas... which happen to be proportionally more black. They are also more Democrat. Why don't they say the virus hates Democrats? It would be just as true.

There may be an issue regarding the self quarantining among the urban population as well. There was a large block party in Cincinnati last week in disregard to the recommendations. Not that I concur that the government can necessarily shut us in but I'm just saying that maybe the urban population isn't doing the basic stuff to stack the deck in their favor.

All around me I see people getting very angry at all the restrictions. I have realized there really is no difference in Dems or Republicans, they are all out for themselves and love controlling us "deplorables" who are beneath them. It's Democrat and Republican governors/mayors doing all this damage without a peep from legislatures.
They know people are seeing improvement and getting upset, so now the gov't. comes out to predict a big surge in new cases this summer if stay home orders are lifted. They love this power trip and how easily so many have just been intimidated into blind obedience to them.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
They keep harping on this Chinese coronavirus hitting "people of color" dis-proportionally.
Such bullshit.
Sure, it is more likely to spread in densely populated urban areas... which happen to be proportionally more black. They are also more Democrat. Why don't they say the virus hates Democrats? It would be just as true.

Yeah, it's bizarre. Or not really.

This from the shit rag The Boston Globe. One of my New England shipmates just showed it to me.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/20...nderlying-condition/

With coronavirus, racism is the underlying condition

By Jeneé Osterheldt Globe Columnist,Updated April 10, 2020, 2 hours ago

In the era of coronavirus, we are all fighting for our lives. But that struggle is nothing new to Black Americans.

The inevitable has happened. Early data on the virus show Black and Latinx people are being infected and dying at higher rates.

Blah, blah, blah, you get the point. Best I can tell, this wasn't even an OP-ed. And just what the hell is a Latinx?

quote:

Originally posted by mutedblade:

Causality Dilemma pure and simple. I agree with Para's assessment. Those that believe the social distancing worked will always say that without it, eleventybillion people would have died.

And we'll never get to go back and take the other path.

All of the experts are idiots and all of the internet people are not.