Are the Fears Justified?
Are your fears of COVID-19 justified? Please note that I am looking at the stats collected by the State of Utah. You can find all the numbers on the state website. I write under the assumption that they are good data collected by the healthcare workers.
As of today, there have been 80 deaths due to the coronavirus across the state.
The current mortality rate is at 1.1%, which seems a bit high even by flu standards. However, I would like to remind everyone that testing is still focused on those with symptoms. The actual number may be lower when including asymptomatic cases.
A fun stat is the gender distribution. It's closer than I thought. I have seen things on the internet claiming men are more susceptible, but looks like the gap is shrinking.
The key take away is the average age of persons died from the virus. At a glance, it is obvious that seniors over the age of 70 should be aware. It should come as no surprise that most of the patients had some sort of pre-existing condition.
Another point of interest is the statistics on nursing homes. They account for 31 of 80 deaths in the state. With 188 still infected, it is reasonable to assume some of them would succumb to this disease. The challenge for these facilities is to prevent the virus to spread like wildfire. They are centers for the most vulnerable and high-risk people.
The table above further reinforces the notion that the elderly are the main victims. So, if you fall within that age group and have some existing health issues, stay safe. It might not be a bad idea to take some precautions when going outside.
We are at the middle of May. By the end of this month and into June, the state should have a better idea about the reopening. The disease is only part of the battle. The social and economic impact that come after will be a storm in itself.
Nursing homes have been a death trap in all countries...
!discovery 30
No kidding.
I know many people don't want to deal with their elderly (sometimes they lack the means to care for them at home). This really makes you wonder if it's better to go back to the multi-generation homes of the past.
Many do not have the possibility, others are actually alone, it is not an easy situation...
A mixed group would have increased the infections, it would have been enough to close access to nursing homes beforehand
Something about locking old people away in nursing homes seems worse than having them isolated at home.
this is true, but it is also due to the fact that health care system has practically failed to protect them.. but going back, it was perhaps better to send them at home yep...
There’s going to be a lot of hindsights years down the road.
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We would have to learn to live with the virus. Life can't be on hold forever
And I agree. Lockdown was a temporary measure to buy time.
It makes no sense to hold out forever.
Definitely
What did you do last year not to catch a cold?
Now a cold can kill you.
All hail, crapitalism.
I work in healthcare. I'm always injected with stuff.
Scared of that.
No sv-40 for me, I just had a thimerisol.
No telling what the army gave me.
All I remember is sore lungs and green snot.
How else would you have 5% Lysol blood? Lol jk
Orange man BAD!!
as I know the younger you are the more likely to be asymptomatic. Also, people of workimg age (20~60) mostly cannot afford to stop going out or work making them most likely to catch it and of an age where symptoms are more likely than not.
That's definitely something to consider.
I've been working all this time, so I consider myself lucky, to an extent.
Of those aged 65 to over 85, how many of them in nursing homes already had/have serious health issues. Of that particular death stat how many of them have covid19 as the primary cause of the death, and not just had the virus at the time of death, and not a significant cause of death? I have seen lots and lots of stories of older people having covid19 listed as the cause of the death, when family members and attending doctors have said it was not the cause of the death. So I have a hard time believing any of the death toll numbers the media and the government health organizations put out.
The fear people should have is the tyrannical control they are allowing others to have over their lives.
An interesting number comparison would be how many people died with causes related to covid19, and those where alcohol was in an individual,involved, or was killed because of a drunk driver, or committed suicide while drinking during the same time frame as the collection of the above covid19 death statistics.
Do you think fewer or more people died as of today because of alcohol, or because of covid19 in Utah?
Who knows. The lab just report positive or negative. We don’t have access to context and interpretation.
That seems to be a real issue, I do not think we will ever know how many deaths are actually directly caused or related to covid19. Statisticians are good at confabulating the number issues.
That's the case with most statistics. We will never know the full story.
lol.
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I am going to be curious to see if we actually re-open at the end of this month like they are talking about. I am still on the fence about which is more dangerous. The virus itself, or the way people are reacting to it.
Personally, I think the aftermath is more dangerous than both combined.