Fun with COVID

Posted by $ Abaco 4 years, 4 months ago to Science
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What could be fun about this? My observations. That's what.

Just this morning my wife had the morning news on where they showed somebody getting chest compressions in an emergency department (scary) and they were going on and on saying that in one city the actual case count "could be 24 times more than thought!" Then, one reporter looked at the camera and said "5 to 10 out of every 1000 could be dying from this" (see the math trick there?). I looked at my wife and said, "If this was as deadly as they say we would have seen some of these reporters pass away by now."

Then, there's the epidemiology basics that I've found interesting for a long time that the public is now starting to notice and struggle with. They are: 1- People can get a disease and never know it. Did you know there are many people who've gotten polio but never had any symptoms, for example? 2- It's possible that one could have antibodies and still be susceptible to the illness linked to those antibodies? That's right. Welcome to the medical Twilight Zone on that one. 3- Vaccines aren't 100% effective nor safe. There's a little public hand-wringing on this now. Good luck with that one, sheeple. 4- With this illness, as few as 20% infected show antibodies. 5- (Here's the one not mentioned...yet) It's possible that illnesses are eradicated before the vaccines are available for them and administered. Actually, it's happened in our past. It actually may be starting to happen with this, already. I say "already" because I predicted it will either do nothing here (like the previous SARS epidemic) or die off in a couple years like the Spanish Flu. Can't get a vaccine vetted properly in only two years. 6- And, here's the one I've only heard mentioned once...If there is HIV in this virus is there a possibility it will re-emerge ten years from now like HIV in those who are getting infected now? Nobody knows.

We westerners like to think we've got it all figured out. But, in my opinion our medical systems is getting its ass handed to it by COVID if anything I've learned about it is true...


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  • Posted by freedomforall 4 years, 4 months ago
    "our medical systems is getting its ass handed to it by COVID"
    And nothing Trump has the power to do can fix it to the satisfaction of the biased media.
    If any other person was President they would be praised for the effort and the futility of that effort acknowledged by the media.
    This is overt attempt by the media to prevent Trump's re-election, and that is an obvious violation of their FCC licenses.
    The licenses should be revoked.
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  • Posted by Analog_Kid 4 years, 4 months ago
    The "panic porn" of the news media is pathetic and stultifying, but not surprising. After all, the media is almost wholly comprised of a generation (or two or twelve) who have been raised to believe that reality is illusory and maleable. Welcome to the Primacy of Consciousness in action folks.

    Sigh...
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  • Posted by oldtk 4 years, 4 months ago
    As for kids, more die every year by drowning in back yard pools. But we don't ban those, do we??
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    • Posted by SilentScream 4 years, 3 months ago
      They certainly might try. Up in Penn State a couple years ago, they banned their 100 year-old Outdoors Club from going on any more outdoor activities because nature outside of cell phone reception is "too dangerous" & there have been unfounded rumors of alcohol consumption going on. Many of the former graduates of the school joined in protesting this move sharing their testimonies of how awesome & positively life-changing those outdoor adventures were for them. But I think ultimately is was the over-protective pampering rich parents threatening to withdraw support &/or file lawsuits if their child gets so much as a scratch or bruise that won the influence over the school.
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      • Posted by Flootus5 4 years, 3 months ago
        Some of my favorite teenage and college memories were around events involving some alcohol consumption in out of the way places. And always out of phone range, let alone cell phones. Age of purchase was 18 in Massachusetts back then. A bunch of us would each get a six pack of beer, bags of chips, hike up the B&M rail line a bit, sit in an open box car and discuss the whole world and all of its problems. Much of it from an Ayn Rand perspective. Rusty nails, splinters, speeding Buddliners, Aberjona River rats, and seedy characters.
        Not a problem, we could take care of ourselves. Had it all solved and now 50+ years later, look at it all. Still have all the solutions, though. Humor.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 4 years, 4 months ago
    And don't forget about the many that have been fatally injured by, car accidents, eaten by alligators, gun shot wounds, the regular flu, countless comorbidities...all dying of covid-19!?!?!?
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 4 years, 3 months ago
    If anyone wants a model of the relevant differential equations in epidemiological modeling, contact me. The models are not that hard to derive. The parameter estimation, however, is not. If there were ever a topic to tell someone to "Check your premises.", it is epidemiology.
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