[December 31, 2021] Based on our analysis of data from the Center for Disease Control, as of December 31, 2021, COVID-19 was the 3rd largest cause of death among Americans thus far from 2021.
For every person that has died in the US from 2021 from COVID, 5 have died from other causes, mostly preventable, such as accidents and heart disease.
For cases other than Coronavirus, this data is taken by pro-rating for the 356 days thus far from 2021 from the Centers for Disease Control data for 2017, the latest available. These causes of death are fairly constant from year to year.
[April 16, 2020] Based on our analysis of data from the Center for Disease Control, as of April 16, COVID-19 is the 7th largest cause of death among Americans thus far in 2020.
For every person that has died in the US in 2020 from COVID, 20 have died from other causes, mostly preventable, such as accidents and heart disease.
For cases other than Coronavirus, this data is taken by pro-rating for the 107 days thus far in 2020 from the Centers for Disease Control data for 2017, the latest available. These causes of death are fairly constant from year to year.
[April 16, 2020] Deaths in the United States from All Major Causes Through April 16, 2020, Year to Date
- Heart disease: 189,802
- Cancer: 175,628
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 49,816
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 46,962
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 42,911
- Alzheimer's disease: 35,589
- Diabetes: 24,497
- Influenza and Pneumonia: 16,320
- Deaths from coronavirus 28,554
[April 9, 2020] Just to be clear, of course, lockdowns decrease the fatality rate from COVID-19, just like they would do so with the flu or any other infectious disease. You could decrease flu deaths every year by keeping society locked down. You could also cut down on the huge number of motor vehicle accidents each year. In the United States alone about 32,000 people are killed, and 2 million injured, from car crashes every year.
But we don’t shut society down to prevent car crashes, or the annual flu, because the overall costs to individuals and society as a whole would far outweigh the benefits of doing so.
Epidemiologists are concerned only with how to prevent or limit the spread of an infectious disease. They are not qualified, or concerned with, assessing the overall costs to society of a lockdown.
The purpose of democracy is to allow individuals to make their own decisions, based on their own judgments, about the best course of action for themselves and their families.
If you give up on people to make that sort of decision, especially in times of crisis, you have given up on the entire idea of democracy.
An Angry Reader:
I profoundly disagree. I am the daughter and sister of doctors, including one on the ICU frontline, and to compare this pathogen's impact on hospital beds and resources to flu just doesn't fit with either the experience of those doctors or the actual hard data coming out of the overwhelmed healthcare system. Take a look at the photos coming out of New York -- makeshift morgues in warehouses in Brooklyn -- a state whose death toll now surpasses two 9/11s and tell me with a straight face that flu has the same impact? If that is true, why don't we see makeshift morgues every day of the year? If your answer is that influenza kills more quietly and steadily... well, exactly. Impact on the healthcare system and everyday life is as important a consideration as the raw numbers of the dead.
The numbers you've cited for comparison are all annual -- and it hasn't been even a quarter of the year since this virus has ravaged through US (or the UK) society. By most projections, the annual loss from COVID-19 will far surpass that of flu.
Finally, it's not merely morbidity that matters. Even if you don't die, you could end up in the hospital -- a typical stay is up to 28 days. And profiles of victims, both of those hospitalized and those who ultimately die, should give pause to any oversimplification of who is vulnerable and who isn't -- twenty-somethings with no underlying health conditions have died. (As have thirty-somethings, and, very rarely, so have teenagers.)
This is a coronavirus. We know nothing. The influenza has been present in society for at least a century. I find the comparison facile and unhelpful, and note it is one typically made by those with a political or economic agenda (Trump, Elon Musk, etc). No public health expert has credibly put forward that view.
There is no Constitutional right to go shopping or watch a football game in a large crowd. But there is a restriction on yelling fire in a crowded theater. That restriction, while not directly applicable, exemplifies the right of the government to limit individual behavior that could have a catastrophic impact on a crowd. Just like transmitting this virus could.
Our response
Annualized causes of death from CDC:
- Heart disease: 647,457.
- Cancer: 599,108.
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936.
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201.
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383.
- Alzheimer's disease: 121,404.
- Diabetes: 83,564.
- Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672.
US deaths from the virus as of April 9 - 14797
The best model, the IHME model (from University of Washington) yesterday revised total projected U.S. deaths from over 80,000 to 60,000. The original screaming from people like you was for "millions of deaths". Then 100,000-240,000. Compare that to numbers at top of this email, which occur a year in, year out.
And no, the numbers aren't coming down due to social distancing, but due to the fact, the projections were always alarmist and unfounded.
Regardless of what photos you see, or what orthodox views you hear - from people just thoughtlessly repeating each other in an echo chamber, these numbers are facts.
And you're absolutely wrong, and showing a profound ignorance about the US Constitution and US laws; there is a basic premise of freedom of movement, and the right to congregate. To go shopping, to go to a football game, to do whatever people damn well please to do in a free country. And you have the right to stay home if you do, please.
What there isn't in the Constitution are some restrictions on my freedom because of people completely incapable of independent thought and rational analysis of costs and benefits panic and decide to huddle in their houses like caged animals.
[April 8, 2020] As we update this page today it’s becoming increasingly obvious – at least to those closely following facts and not headlines – that the lockdown will be far more damaging than the actual virus, and this entire episode will go down in history as one of the greatest examples of mass hysteria humankind has known.
As of April 8, there were about 83,000 confirmed deaths from the virus around the world. To put that number into context, in 2020, under normal circumstances, about 14,250,000 people have died from other causes, so the virus has caused an increase in the overall death rate of about half of one percent.
The results of the lockdown are as follows:
- In less developed countries, where many people live hand to mouth and governments can’t afford massive aid, and food chains have been shut down, many people will starve to death.
- In developed countries, the deaths from heart disease will skyrocket, and heart disease is a far greater killer than the virus.
- Economies around the globe have been shut down, with literally hundreds of millions of people becoming unemployed.
- In the US, politicians, facing an election year, have enacted staggering stimulus programs – over $200,000,000 for every single death in the US, and this includes only the first stimulus program and none of the actions of the Fed to increase liquidity in financial markets. These programs will saddle future generations with debts that are impossible to pay.
- The massive amounts of handouts will completely corrupt the small business system, as corruption and fraud will be far more profitable than actually trying to restart businesses.
- Hundreds of millions of children around the globe will be denied a complete education.
- Dramatic increases in domestic violence and Divorce.
- Perhaps most importantly, the lockdown shows the complete failure of educational systems to ingrain reasoning skills, to analyze information within a context, and not to have judgments skewed by sensationalized news reports. The vast majority of people support the lockdowns, and that is a sad commentary on the ability of power-hungry politicians and the media to sway public opinion.
- Around the world, we’ve been shown how vulnerable democratic institutions really are. People have been imprisoned like animals, massively, all in the name of an “emergency”. Where did leaders of the democratic world take their lead on how to handle the crisis? From Communist China, a ruthless dictatorship that allows no challenge to authority at all.
- We’ve also been shown how weak non-governmental institutions really are, even in “advanced democracies” like the US. There has been no real challenge to the government mounted by lawyers or non-profit institutions.
- Everyone has meekly submitted. Democracy has lost the great battle, at the first big test of a new century. Now that politicians and big media realize how much they can get away with without being challenged, they hold the whip hand. Democracy won’t recover.
- Social Media and all forms of modern media have how shown they have an ability to transmit fear, but not really help or solutions, as people chose the crudest possible path; huddling by themselves, shutting down, and avoiding all contact with other people.
- Human beings have shown themselves for what, at root, they really are; a great mass of organisms unwilling or unable to think for themselves, following whatever leader screams the loudest and offers the easiest, crudest solutions. Really, like dumb animals, but without any of the dignity or beauty of animals in the wild.
Tired of being locked down like an animal? So are we.
The pandemic is serious, but the response is wrong; you don’t save lives by treating the whole world as a prison, and you don’t win a war by imprisoning your own troops.
If you care at all about human freedom, then you have to be terrorized by the idea that politicians around the world have all appointed themselves dictator, telling people when they can leave their own houses.
Are those of us living in democracies really going to follow the lead of China, a ruthless dictatorship where the virus began? Or are we going to #Followtheswedelead.
We lived through the AIDs epidemic. At the time, the world was awash with the idea that anyone could catch AIDs, and the media was preaching the idea that the world would be overwhelmed with a tsunami of AIDs victims, including millions of heterosexuals. That was simply not true; AIDs was terrible, but it didn’t destroy the world, and the victims were overwhelmingly those who received a tainted blood transfusion or engaged in homosexual sex. We’re not making a judgment; we’re just dealing with the fact of what happened.
COVID-19 has thus far, as of April 4, killed about 60,000 throughout the world, mostly the elderly with preexisting illnesses. By comparison In 2017 alone, just in the United States, there were 70,237 recorded drug overdose deaths, and of those deaths, 47,600 involved an opioid. Currently, an estimated 130 people every day in the United States die from an opioid-related drug overdose.
People dying from opioid overdoses are almost entirely young, so the actual life lost to opioids is far, far greater than to the virus, yet we don’t shut down the world; in fact, opioids are still sold.
Around the world, approximately 1,350,000 people die every year – year in, year out, in car crashes. Yet not only do we not stop the world, but everyone continues to drive because it’s an important part of life.
Already in 2020, over 15,000,000 people have died from causes that people always die from; cancer, heart disease, accidents, etc. Deaths due to the coronavirus are a tiny part of overall deaths. That means that for every death from the virus, there have been 250 deaths from other causes. Life goes on, or it should.
The mainstream media is, as usual, united in bringing everyone a single point of view; that a total world lockdown is vital, at any cost to freedom, personal choice, and the economy.
We think there’s room for a different point of view, and we want to make sure those other points of view are known. In some cases, we’ll link to sites we’ve created, and sometimes to those of total strangers; whatever gets the point across.
Our main point is that the costs of a lockdown have to be considered as well as the benefits. Will the lockdown save some lives? Yes. But at a horrendous cost.
And more people will die from the lockdowns than are saved, in the long run.
We live in a world where OneSpeak seems to have taken over; no matter the issue, one prevailing opinion seems to sweep the world. If you want to think that I’m an insensitive idiot for challenging the prevailing wisdom, that’s fine. Hate away. But before that automatic, robotic response kicks in, just #CONSIDERTHECOST of the lockdown.
For some (very rare) sane technical analysis of this issue, see this email that the CEO of tech firm MicroStrategy sent to the employees of his company.
If you want to be outraged by our take on the crisis, see theoutage.com.
If you just want to get through the crisis with your mind and spirit intact, find some good news and uplifting content here.
A lot of our readers find the daily positive quote helpful in times like this; sign up for the email or get it via Twitter.
Remember when you could travel the world and see all the beauty it offered? That’s why we created the Indo Art House. We offer our pictures to remind you of all that beauty that you can find on the site, on Instagram, or on Twitter.
Of course, you should stay safe, but you also need to stay sane.
This is also a great time to use our tool to take a deep dive into your entertainment options.
Join our campaign to #EndtheLockdownNow on social media.
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I sincerely believe that it’s due to efforts like yours that people are beginning to awaken to the truth about the BS called Covid-19. Thank you very much!
I am in the highest risk group for contacting Covid-19: old, diabetic, and fighting cancer.
For my safety I am self-quarantined.
Not everyone needs to be quarantined, only those that don’t want to spread the virus.
It saddens me that you actively advocate abandoning the best available way to prevent to spread (best until there is effective treatment or a vaccine). Do you agree that thousands of lives have been saved by the practice?
I enjoy the Positive Quotes.
Thank you for them.
Much as I have enjoyed the “positive quotes” each day since you resumed doing this a few months back, I am going to unsubscribe to receiving this information.
The frequent messages you are displaying to end the lockdown are dangerous and are not at all appreciated or appropriate for my tastes. Having two friends in my local church that tested positive for the virus, I am aware of the extremely difficult time they had dealing with the virus. Fortunately they have recovered but they suffered terribly.
I also know a couple of retired educators in my community that both died from the effects of the virus. These are just a few samples of how the virus has interacted in my life. While the POTUS continues to ignore his own advice by not wearing a mask, not practicing social distancing, and making outlandish claims about so many things (for instance, the internal use of disinfectant), he sets a very poor example for the American people. Even today, he was talking smack about Anthony Fauci and his expertise.
There is enough negativity in this world without subjecting to myself your emails pushing people to end the lockdown, putting the life of many of our citizens in the back seat of what is important.
I will click unsubscribe on the most recent email, but I wanted to let you know WHY I was unsubscribing.
Hi Sir,
Firstly I want to say thank you as I’ve enjoyed the quote emails for ages and ages and though I subscribed to your twitter feed I did so miss the emails when they went away. Thus their return made me rejoice. I hope they’ll remain past our current hellish season even if we have to pay or donate to make it so.
I’d also like to thank you for your tireless advocacy in helping bring this hideous lock down situation to an end. It buoyed my soul more days than you can ever possibly know. This mess has been hard for everyone but especially for those of us with disabilities let me tell you. Losing the autonomy over the most basic aspects of our lives such as the procurement of food and the like has been extremely emotionally and physically distressing.
Thanks once again for the quotes and for just being you. I appreciate you.
Take good, good care.
I have been reading your daily messages for a long time. This last reading of the Coronavirus was excellent. We are a conservative family and greatly appreciate your factual information.
I have sent your article to many of my more panicked and sheepish friends during this crisis. I hope they join your website and your philosophy.
Thank you!
You failed to mention the number of deaths caused by abortion. Staggering statistic that can be 100% avoided.
There are still valid reasons to continue the lockdown in many parts of the country. In the community of about 25,000 where I live, there were two woman from my church that tested positive for the virus and both had VERY DIFFICULT dealing with it. I know a man and his wife who both got the virus and died from it. Another person I am acquainted with was in a medically induced coma for a few weeks while being treated for the virus and was released to do rehab in a nearby larger city.
Knowing these people makes the threat of the virus a very real thing. I do not plan to be out and about in the community any time soon!
More than half the cases said to be coronavirus deaths and not even corona related.
COVID 19 causes Oxygen Deprivation//5G disrupts the uptake of oxygen to cause Oxygen Deprivation///British Crown//Pirbright//COVID 19 Link
As a functional medicine MD, I’ve studied Covid19 with interest. It’s clear that death statistics have been falsified by labeling those dying WITH Covid 19 as dying FROM the virus. Furthermore, we have no clue how many have been exposed and have cleared the virus without incident.
Fauci, who is in bed with Bill Gates, intimates about having the entire planet’s population vaccinated. If you watch Vaxxed II currently on YouTube, you will see that the lead investigator Thompson had a twinge of conscience and was caught admitting that the CDC falsified the MMR/Autism connection. Data was deliberately destroyed. This is scientific fraud at its worst. Stephanie Seneff with MIT projects 80% of boys will be on the autism spectrum by 2032. Are these the same types of investigators we will trust to fast track an unproven vaccine on the populace? It is my firm belief that the vaccine will be mandatory if you cannot prove immunity.
Lastly, why is virtually no one from mainstream medicine recommending anything to strengthen immunity? A Nigerian study where the mortality from measles was 15%, dropped 80% with just vitamin A and zinc.
It is time to open businesses back up. If a person wants to self quarantine-fine.
Why don’t you go, in person, to a hospital emergency for covid-19 and do a interview for us with the nurses who are working there to collect some data too. Who knows? We might have more good info as well…
From a friend. Chris
….. the National Vital Statistics System (there are so many federal agencies you pay for and have never heard of it is terrifying) explicitly and expressly telling physicians and hospital administrators “COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death.” Read that again and reflect for 15 second: you have both an“assumed” and “contributed”, so you have guesswork squared when it comes to filling out the documents CDC is relying on. So the numbers in what you shared are almost certainly wildly inflated.
https://twitter.com/fionamflanagan1/status/1245466416880418822/photo/1
By the way, Trump was right about Easter.
I always look forward to your Positive Quotes and was happy when you resumed sending them. I’ve got to tell you though that this post is misleading.
You tell the readers that there have been 22,115 COVID-19 deaths since the first of the year. What you do not tell them however is that 17,000 of those deaths have been just since April 1st .
What would the other causes of death numbers look like if they reflected lonely those occurring since April 1st?
While I, like many, want the quarantine to end I would much rather be safe and know others are at less risk as well.
I hope you will address this in a future post.
As a physician who has long supported and enjoyed your site, I find this terribly irresponsible. I suggest you take a trip to NYC if you want to see first hand what we are trying to prevent
#EndtheLockdownNow
Thank you for bringing a ray of sanity to the general lockdown hoax.
I pity the fool who claims to be a physician then goes on to call irresponsible those of us that do not live in a cluster and are being treated as if we do.
The virus is not the boss of thinking Americans.
Your end the lockdown campaign could kill people. I think it’s absolutely terrible that you keep sending these quotes with that hashtag.
Absolutely not joining, trying to be responsible and stop the spread. Wish you were as responsible as you seem to say you’re positive!
I love it that you are back with your positive quotes.
I do have to tell you that I agree with the lockdown. I have strong connections with honest friends/teachers in China who have been teaching from home for going on two months now. It has really helped China to start winning over COVID – 19,
I am personally involved because I have retired. My husband is getting on top of lymphoma. So, of course, I realize it is important for us to stay home and we do so willingly and gladly. We use curbside pickup for grocery shopping and cleanse the packaging immediately. We walk around the neighborhood staying away from everyone. My husband would still be working were it not for his cancer, but he would have stopped to help solve this problem as well. And I would not object to jobs of mercy and necessity. But if having restaurants and stores, etc. close, I agree wholeheartedly. I believe those businesses will all snap back when the battle is over. If there is a depression similar to the 30’s, that would be stressful, but I know once everyone went back to work, the depression would soon end.
I believe strongly in my personal rights, but I also respect the rights of others. Part of that is working together to get past horrible coronavirus.
Thanks so much for the daily quotes.
Dear Mr. Groom,
Thank you for resurrecting Outrage & Positive Quote of the Day. I missed those.
I admire your courage in outright defying and challenging the utility of the lockdown. As a “numbers girl”, I totally agree with you, especially regarding the actual affliction rates relative to population & other causes of death. Since day one, I felt this situation was way overblown, and still do. However, I am a coward with voicing this contrarian view except to my family members (who disagree with me). It irks me the way the media exploit the deaths–yes, they are tragic–but that news should be counter-balanced with the far greater numbers of recoveries. In the meantime, I continue to work from the comfort of my home as ordered. I am a Registered Nurse who teaches in a pre-licensure nursing program and I am very impressed by how our nursing students have embraced the online platform for continuing their studies. How well the virtual clinical experiences transfer to competent bedside nursing practice remains to be seen.
I’m also looking forward to seeing the results of Sweden’s recognition that adults can make informed decisions on their own regarding how best to cope with this virus.
Best wishes, Mr. Groom, and know that you have supporters that share your perspective.
Your logic is flawed and ill-advised regarding the lockdown. If the country were to follow your lead, the outcome would be FAR worse than what is being estimated up to this point. The reason the numbers will not be much worse is because of the restrictions that have been put in place. The hospitals are already being overwhelmed with the number of patients and can’t even provide the necessary level of care for those currently being admitted. Following your recommendation would put those same people in a much more precarious position, including the health care workers. And it would also jeopardize the care of those patients with other illnesses or medical conditions because there aren’t enough resources to care for them. Stick to “positive messaging” and leave the response to the pandemic to the experts.
To address your conclusion that the stay-at-home measures will cause heart disease, you are making a big assumptions that in staying home, people cannot exercise, their diet will be poor, and their stress will be exacerbated. Human beings can make of this moment whatever they want. They can use this time to cook healthy, nourishing meals that heal, they can exercise at home like dancing or use a plethora of online options (many free on Youtube), and they can also practice stress management via many online free tools (also tons free on YouTube or free phone apps like Insight Timer.)
You can make of this moment what you want. It can be a great opportunity, or you can choose to be miserable and look at all the downsides. We all make that choice with where we put our focus. It can be a moment of expanding our personal resources, for growth, improvement, or strengthening of personal habits and nourishment in our home life. It is simply how you look at it and approach it, which is your perspective and in your power.
Yes, they “Can” do those things, but the fact is they’re not. So, in reality, the lockdown causes lack of exercise, poor diets, and you can’t really argue seriously about the stress from media?
our logic is flawed and ill-advised regarding the lockdown. If the country were to follow your lead, the outcome would be FAR worse than what is being estimated up to this point.
– – Not true, and you have no empirical evidence for that. See results in Sweden as a control group.
– Overall hospital occupancy rates across the US are actually a bit lower than normal, and only 2.5% of beds are occupied, nationwide, by Covid patients.
Stick to “positive messaging” and leave the response to the pandemic to the experts.
– The “experts” are usually wrong. Like the financial experts who believe in efficient markets, the economic experts who keep preaching the advantages of socialism, and art experts who believe in novelty as art, etc.
The fact is, as in most cases, the “experts” have no clue, and they don’t consider the costs of their actions, only the benefits. In this case, the costs far outweigh the benefits.
What I’d really like is to be able to make my own decisions as to what danger I might face – like I used to be able to do when I lived in a free country, and one that tolerated dissent.
Thanks for the response, as I certainly was not expecting one.
As for your point about empirical evidence, there is more empirical evidence supporting my position than yours. As for the results in Sweden, I think it’s a bit too early to be flouting their success in combating the virus: https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3078587/did-sweden-get-its-coronavirus-strategy-horribly-wrong
As for the percentage of hospital beds being taken up by Covid patients, I don’t know if that is accurate. But , even if that is accurate, those patients ARE using up a disproportionate amount of medical resources. The idea about social distancing and quarantining is to spread the cases out so that the sick do not inundate the health care system, which is what is happening right now. If we could trust that people would voluntarily do what is needed, then we could possibly do what Sweden is doing (but let’s not be too quick to say that what they’re doing is working). But the people of our country, for the most part, are proving that that is not possible (e.g., large church gatherings, spring-breakers, etc..).
The ”experts” are usually wrong? Seems like a pretty general statement. I’ll borrow your line: “you have no empirical evidence for that”. While I’m sure we can find an expert in every single area that has been wrong about one thing or another, I find your statement illogical. Just as you list a few examples of “experts” that have been wrong, I can find tons of evidence where “experts” got it right. As for the costs far outweighing the benefits, we won’t ever know the answer to that.
Even with the restrictions in place, which vary depending upon which state you live in, you still have choices as to the dangers you are willing to face. Are you practicing social distancing? Are you washing your hands for at least 20 seconds? Using anti-bacterial products? Are you wearing a mask when you go outside? If the answers to these questions are “no”, then you are exercising your free will. And if you are exercising your free will, I hope you are informing those that you come into contact with that you are not adhering to recommended practices so that they too can decide what dangers they want to expose themselves to. Wouldn’t that be the right thing to do?
Unlike others who can’t seem to disagree without throwing a fit or launching into an expletive-filled tirade, I appreciate your honest and respectful retort. The world can use more of such honest, respectful candor so we can better understand the opposing point of view. The world needs more of this kind of discussion, as opposed to the divisiveness that is growing more exponentially than the virus itself.
Regards,
Rob
Holy Bat Crap, Batman, the idiotic sheeple are out in force in these comments. Not one of them is capable of logical reasoned thought.
From utilitarian perspective, the benefit of good economy outweighs the harm of more deaths from COVID-19.
From categorical imperative perspective, should we all act to protect other people, or not? Those that are sick and dying, or have loved ones in that situation, would argue we should all self-isolate to protect the vulnerable, regardless of economic cost.
People not exercising at home is on individual choice and responsibility. As a society, we have responsibility to protect others?
Self-isolation as practiced for COVID-19 does not protect people from AIDS or opioid overdose, as those are not air-borne diseases. Those problems have other solutions. I think to say, “We don’t shut down freedom and economy for other problems, why should we do that for COVID-19?” is “Straw Man” logical fallacy. For car crashes, I guess everyone staying at home would eliminate deaths from car crashes, but I think people accept car crashes as a known risk when driving. Whereas COVID-19 is a largely invisible threat for which short-term self-isolation (I heard maybe two years?) would help to save many people.
I suspect self-isolation ends when herd immunity becomes the case or vaccine becomes available, whichever comes first. People don’t want what’s happening in Italy or Spain, where there are so many preventable deaths because “the curve” is overwhelming the supply of health staff, supplies, and equipment. Over-reaction (mass self-isolation) and fewer deaths is better than doing nothing and suffering from uncontrolled and preventable deaths.
I for one support self-isolation to protect my elderly parents. “Logic” is not always better than emotions. People are afraid of artificial general intelligence because pure logic with no emotion or care about others is scary.
Very upset and disappointed that you would issue your ill advised call to end the lockdown. I have enjoyed the positiive quotes newsletter for years and will miss it. Unsubscribe me ASAP
You must be a moron.
Have you visited a local hospital? Ours are overwhelmed. People with regular treatable problems are going to be unable to get treatment.
If you and others wish to go out, please create a list with your names so that when you need treatment one day, you can be denied for your stupidity.
Actual nationwide hospital utilization rates are 2.5%.
You know yours are overwhelmed because you have actually seen them, or you have just heard that?
So disappointed. I’ve loved receiving quotes, but can’t support this idea. Put yourself in an area that is being ravaged – or worse yet, experience it yourself first hand. Or screw it all — choose to thumb your nose at the restrictions, and go forth with your normal life — they aren’t be enforced in most areas anyway. .Then report back, after you’ve put you and yours at risk.
Yes, believe me, I certainly would go forward with my normal life if I was allowed the freedom to do so, and make my own judgments. But since the government ordered just about everything shut, I can’t do that, can I?
While the point is well intended if we resume all the gatherings of people- gyms, restaurants, contact sports the death toll in the US will rise from a hopeful only 100,000 to significantly more. Models show without quarantines ( nothing done) the death toll would be close to 500,000 in a short window of time. I would challenge the assumption here and request you move to rates of death vs totals. During this surge the CoronaVirus will take a significantly higher rate than heart disease.
You are trying to drive a good point home however …. but your reasons are not very strong – HIV does not spread in minutes like COVID hence the lockdown -, you need to make that point much stronger from A different perspective otherwise you end up sounding almost insensitive and ill informed about the disease
What is spreading more quickly than the virus is the panic, and that is very much like the AIDs epidemic.
Temporary restrictions is a small price to pay for the health and safety of those who are susceptible.
Really? How Temporary? And completely destroying economies and lives around the world is a “small price to pay”? I don’t think so.
I was looking at the cost to the government of supporting the businesses here in the UK – I think if that same amount was spent on building hospitals we could build quite a few!
In my view, economies need to go in cycles in order to under-cut debt-fuelled spending and excessive speculation. Eternal economic growth is not possible because Earth’s resources are not finite. Self-isolation to save the weak and vulnerable (which could include oneself and one’s family members) is the right thing to do, in my opinion. I could agree that exercise is important to prevent heart disease. Nothing preventing people from getting exercise at home.
Sorry, I meant Earth’s resources are not infinite.
New York City has 140,000 positive cases today so it’s obviously put a unparalleled strain on health care resources unlike anything since 1918-19 pandemic.
But damage to the economy is hard to overestimate. Hopefully we can move our supply chain back after this is over.
It’s true that highest risk are the elderly, obese and diabetic. Or any age with asthma or type A blood. In a perfect world we could lockdown that group but many carriers are asymptomatic. Doesn’t seem to be a significant issue in rural areas.
You’re in an alternative universe… go volunteer in one of the new york hospitals for a week… then call me.
Yes, everyone is focused on New York, not only because that is the epicenter of the virus, but also the epicenter of the media world.
But the fact is that only about 2.7% of hospital beds in America are being used for Covid treatment. You don’t shut down the world to save New York City.
End the lookdown now is a great ideaespically since thr patriot act was started and put into effect in 2011and was never repealed. At this point they can call marshal law in effect
which give new meaning to shelter in place, now with military stopping people from going from state without a good reason. What next are we going to issued papers to carry with us at all times ???? With goverment controling our movements and what we are doing you may as well say we wards of the state