2 ms·
The death toll in the US for COVID over the last year is up to 60% of the total for AIDS deaths over the last 50+ years. That leads to an urgency for COVID dat
by slg 6y ago
The death toll in the US for COVID over the last year is up to 60% of the total for AIDS deaths over the last 50+ years. That leads to an urgency for COVID data that doesn't quite exist for HIV/AIDS which presumably hasn't been changing as rapidly.
- jliptzin 6y ago1. I would be curious how these stats compare when measured in lost person-years. COVID primarily kills the elderly, AIDS (when untreated) kills everyone. 2. We have a 40 year head start on HIV vs. COVID. Surely it can't be that hard, in the digital age, to set up a central database with the following columns, updated in real time: [Datetime of Test, Zip code, Result (pos/neg)]
- slg 6y agoIt isn't that it is hard to set this up. The question is what value is there to setting this up? Especially the way that HIV/AIDS was originally and to a certain extent still is stigmatized. Many people have had friends or family die of AIDS and still refuse to acknowledge that was the reason for their death. The end result is that not only is this type of project more valuable for a new and rapidly spreading disease like COVID, the bar that the value needs to clear to justify this system is also higher because an HIV/AIDS status is considered more private from a societal standpoint (not necessarily a legal one).
- jliptzin 6y agoIt would be anonymized data, obviously, and it would be helpful to know whether or not we are getting a handle on this pandemic. Apparently we have no idea whether infections are increasing or decreasing over the last couple of years. If I were a public health official, I would really want to know that information.