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Your health Minister seems to be spreading misinformation.

shakna 5y ago
The mortality rate for my state is 4% of all cases. [0] The mortality rate for the entire country is about 5.6% [1]. There has not been a single certified influenza death in Australia since 2020. [1] It certainly appears that my health minister was downplaying the difference, not playing it up. [0] https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-case-numbers-and-statistics https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavir... [1] https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provisional-mortality-statistics/latest-release https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provis...
- hcurtiss 5y ago
  Excess mortality rates aren’t relevant at all to the lethality of the delta variant in children relative to prior strains. Overall mortality isn’t even asking the right question, and it’s a very poor proxy even for the lethality rate of SARS-COV-2 (contingent on pervasive testing). And that we’ve eliminated influenza deaths is no argument that influenza is no longer lethal.
- wk_end 5y ago
  Unless Australians are an order of magnitude more vulnerable to COVID than elsewhere in the world, those numbers are more the result of low test rates missing infections than anything else. In the US, the CDC estimates an actual mortality rate of 0.6%, compared to the ratio of cases/deaths of ~1.6%. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burd...
  - shakna 5y ago
    Australia has had an order of magnitude fewer infections than elsewhere in the world. We have come close to eliminating its spread altogether several times, so it should come as no surprise that the proportion of deaths is higher than somewhere else that has failed to contain the illness.
    - wk_end 5y ago
      How does that follow? How deadly a virus is for any given individual should be independent of how many other people got it (outside of situations where the health care system is overwhelmed and can't provide adequate care - but that'd make the numbers worse for the US, not better).
      - shakna 5y ago
        If the virus is under better containment, those more likely to be infected, are more likely to be comorbid with other conditions. Thus death rates when looking at the entire length of the pandemic are likely to be higher. Delta is the first time Australia has seen widespread infection in healthy people.
        wk_end 5y ago
        > those more likely to be infected, are more likely to be comorbid with other conditions I'm not totally sure that's the case - it's at least something you can't just aver as self-evident. I'd guess that those most likely to be infected early on are going to be people who travel or those who come most into contact with them (service & tourism workers). But I also think it's a moot point. In the context of this thread - which is about how to move forward once we've accepted that containment is off the table, and especially about the risk that poses to the healthiest members of society (kids) - it doesn't make sense to cite numbers that you yourself acknowledge overstate the risk of COVID by being biased towards the most unhealthy members of society.
    - spookthesunset 5y ago
      Australians now have to post a sign on their door saying they are in quarantine. People are not allowed to travel within the country. They locked down a state of 1.3 million people with 5 hours notice because of one case they said was from a pizza box. They are also building giant quarantine facilities, indicating they are gonna do this for the long haul. Australia is hardly a model country for how to handle an infectious respiratory virus. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-21/sa-tougher-border-restrictions-for-victorian-arrivals-covid/100396920 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-21/sa-tougher-border-res... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8980913/South-Australia-Covid-Pizza-bar-worker-lie-sparked-lockdown-APOLOGISES.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8980913/South-Austr...

The mortality rate for my state is 4% of all cases. [0] The mortality rate for the entire country is about 5.6% [1]. There has not been a single certified influenza death in Australia since 2020. [1] It certainly appears that my health minister was downplaying the difference, not playing it up. [0] https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-case-numbers-and-statistics https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavir... [1] https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provisional-mortality-statistics/latest-release https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provis...

hcurtiss 5y ago
Excess mortality rates aren’t relevant at all to the lethality of the delta variant in children relative to prior strains. Overall mortality isn’t even asking the right question, and it’s a very poor proxy even for the lethality rate of SARS-COV-2 (contingent on pervasive testing). And that we’ve eliminated influenza deaths is no argument that influenza is no longer lethal.
wk_end 5y ago
Unless Australians are an order of magnitude more vulnerable to COVID than elsewhere in the world, those numbers are more the result of low test rates missing infections than anything else. In the US, the CDC estimates an actual mortality rate of 0.6%, compared to the ratio of cases/deaths of ~1.6%. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burd...
- shakna 5y ago
  Australia has had an order of magnitude fewer infections than elsewhere in the world. We have come close to eliminating its spread altogether several times, so it should come as no surprise that the proportion of deaths is higher than somewhere else that has failed to contain the illness.
  - wk_end 5y ago
    How does that follow? How deadly a virus is for any given individual should be independent of how many other people got it (outside of situations where the health care system is overwhelmed and can't provide adequate care - but that'd make the numbers worse for the US, not better).
    - shakna 5y ago
      If the virus is under better containment, those more likely to be infected, are more likely to be comorbid with other conditions. Thus death rates when looking at the entire length of the pandemic are likely to be higher. Delta is the first time Australia has seen widespread infection in healthy people.
      - wk_end 5y ago
        > those more likely to be infected, are more likely to be comorbid with other conditions I'm not totally sure that's the case - it's at least something you can't just aver as self-evident. I'd guess that those most likely to be infected early on are going to be people who travel or those who come most into contact with them (service & tourism workers). But I also think it's a moot point. In the context of this thread - which is about how to move forward once we've accepted that containment is off the table, and especially about the risk that poses to the healthiest members of society (kids) - it doesn't make sense to cite numbers that you yourself acknowledge overstate the risk of COVID by being biased towards the most unhealthy members of society.
  - spookthesunset 5y ago
    Australians now have to post a sign on their door saying they are in quarantine. People are not allowed to travel within the country. They locked down a state of 1.3 million people with 5 hours notice because of one case they said was from a pizza box. They are also building giant quarantine facilities, indicating they are gonna do this for the long haul. Australia is hardly a model country for how to handle an infectious respiratory virus. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-21/sa-tougher-border-restrictions-for-victorian-arrivals-covid/100396920 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-21/sa-tougher-border-res... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8980913/South-Australia-Covid-Pizza-bar-worker-lie-sparked-lockdown-APOLOGISES.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8980913/South-Austr...