Re: Corona Virus: is it the beginning of the end?
Let's get some facts straight here, before we go off half-cocked and make bigger fools of ourselves.
The CDC claims that America has approximately 2.7 million confirmed cases (I'm rounding down a little here). Of those cases, approximately 129000 people have died.
This is a death rate of something like 0.46% (again, rough math), which conflicts very badly with Accman's numbers. I'm getting mine from reputable sources.
From what I've managed to dig up, Pennsylvania has an overall population of approximately 12-13 million. They've had close to 88000 Covid-19 cases, of which about 6700 resulted in death. These are actually really weird numbers, since nearly 7.5% of people infected in Pennsylvania apparently die from the disease. Just let that sink in for a minute. Forget all the numbers about ventilators. Don't equate being on a ventilator with a clean bill of health. Clearly, if Pennsylvania has all those tools, and still has such a death rate, that's significant.
This is not a matter of leftist propaganda trying to scare you. These are the numbers in a well-developed country which has either the greatest or second greatest per-capita infection rate in the world. If other countries have slightly higher death rates, you should note that America's health system is one of the best in the world, and so those who get sick have a much better chance of receiving enough help that they can fight off the virus and return to health. It also bears mentioning that many European countries had better luck fighting off Covid-19, and had a considerably smaller per-capita infection and death rate. It couldn't be because these countries took the pandemic seriously, now, could it?
Some states are much better than others. It's entirely possible that Pennsylvania is one of the good states, as far as overall cases is concerned. Less than a hundred thousand cases in a population over twelve million is an infection rate of less than one percent...though, with that said, this is relatively consistent with America overall, where the infection rate is not currently over 1%. Again, this doesn't mean you cannot or will not get the virus; we've still got months of this to deal with, and scientific projections suggest that anywhere from 20 to 50% of the globe is going to get sick at some point in the future. New York, after all, has taken things very seriously after being one of the first epicenters of infection earlier in the pandemic, and Pennsylvania is not too far away. However, states like Florida, Georgia and Arizona are noticing new spikes, and if folks in America - and for all I know, in other places as well - are not careful, we're going to experience another wave.
Again, this is not a leftist trying to scare you. This is a leftist who decided to fight ignorance with facts. I don't want anyone who reads this to be scared or to lose hope. What I am hoping for is a clear and rational response to a disease that kills about one in every two hundred and ten people that it infects. That doesn't sound like all that much, really, and it's lower than initial projections of 0.5-1%, but it's not so drastically low that those projections look like lies. The nature of a pandemic is that comprehension and a big-picture perspective evolve with time. the other thing to bear in mind with a pandemic is that you must be prepared to act early, and not simply be reactionary and sluggish. Please read that Atlantic article I mentioned before. One of the reasons these numbers are so high in the United States is because the Trump administration had an extremely slow and sloppy start to how it handled this pandemic. The pandemic is by no means the fault of right-wingers or of Trump himself - it was a horrible accident, and the blame game helps no one - but let's stick to those facts I mentioned. If you handle the pandemic better, fewer die. If fewer die, the overall toll on the system is lower. If the overall toll on the system is lower, then the long-term effects, while still incalculable and somewhat alarming, are probably less so.
Again, I'm not trying to scare anyone. But I'm just not going to sit quietly by while somebody tries to dissuade you or presents only certain pieces of the puzzle in order to suit an agenda.
Accman, what I will say for you is that if (when) numbers in your state begin to spike again, I hope that you re-examine your position of noncompliance. There's no sense being overly terrified, obviously, but there's equally no sense in ignoring the bigger picture. Remember: the leftists you so gleefully try to insult did not create this virus, and they didn't deliberately try and spread it, and they have not been trying to lie about its impact. America has a lot to answer for, as a country, for how it has handled things.
One thing though. Nice job trying to politicize it by slamming the folks who tried to stand in solidarity with George Floyd at his funeral. Are you seriously trying to tell me that because some other people may be making poor decisions, this gives you the right - nay, the moral imperative - to also make poor decisions? Let me tell you something, and this is coming straight from a self-proclaimed leftist. If anyone, regardless of their motives, affiliations or beliefs, enters into a social gathering without some sort of mask, or does not maintain appropriate physical distance, they're acting somewhat recklessly. This doesn't mean they're bad people, only that they're making questionable decisions. This applies either to someone who went to Floyd's funeral and didn't wear a mask, or someone like you, who basically says they're done listening to the government and refuses to wear protection. I am not condemning one person while ignoring the rest. I'm not coming down hard on one demographic while giving others a free pass. And most other leftists worth their salt are in exactly the same boat. We know that social gatherings are problematic, so we're trying to get people not to engage any more than they can help. Or, if they must, we wish they'd be careful.
I just find it extremely telling that rather than focusing on, say, white republicans who are gathering en masse in certain places for whatever reason, you immediately tried to load this by making it about Floyd. Let's be real here. Americans, Canadians and people around the world are flouting personal protection rules, regardless of their personal or political affiliations, and we're seeing spikes again. Well, I say that, but funnily enough, my own province of Ontario has been in slow but steady decline for awhile now, at last check. Not out of the woods yet, clearly, but we're trying. One thing I think you've lost the sense of here is that I can see not only what you write, but what you're very likely implying when you write it. Quite obviously, I can't read your mind, but when you use the phrases you use, make the comparisons you make and highlight specific things over others, it's a very clear picture you're painting here. I'd ask you to re-examine your bias and to start thinking more rationally, but when it comes to you as an individual, I'm not even sure you're capable of such.
So go on. Do what you're going to do, I suppose. But please realize that if you spout misinformation, I will counter it. if you try and encourage people in any serious way to ignore health restrictions, I hope like hell that they laugh in your face and refuse to indulge you.
I'll go one step further. If there were a way for you to get Covid-19 with a guarantee that you would not die, and a guarantee that you did not suffer any permanent health effects, I almost wish it would happen to you. There is a considerable part of me which, if the former caveats could be true, wants you to experience this disease on an up-close-and-personal basis so you understand all the way down what folks are dealing with. I guess you've kind of forgotten that approximately a hundred and twenty-nine thousand Americans have died in the last four months of this disease. Think of all the lives ended prematurely, of all the families shattered, of all the dreams that will now never be brought any closer to fruition because those individuals are dead now. If you want to run around in public without a mask, you might end up being the reason that another person joins the death tally. How does that sit on your conscience? I feel like having this disease affect you very directly might be the only way to get you to understand the seriousness of the situation. Remember, too, that because we can't actually guarantee those things, and I know this, I am not wishing you or any of your friends and family any actual ill; it is a theoretical point. Frankly, I want to see this treated, brought under control and ultimately vanquished sooner rather than later. But I can tell you one thing. We're not going to vanquish it with ignorance, noncompliance, public gatherings and the dismissal of health and safety protocols, that's for sure.
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