5 ms·

Nothing will be enough to make people comfortable again. A year of shut down economy and non-stop 24/7 fear porn in MSM have traumatized people for at least a d

by rytcio 5y ago

Nothing will be enough to make people comfortable again. A year of shut down economy and non-stop 24/7 fear porn in MSM have traumatized people for at least a decade

pupppet 5y ago
How is it fear porn when literally hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from it.
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  Because no matter how many die, we should not fear, only reason. Fear is the mind killer. Fear leads to the dark side of the force.
- dukeofdoom 5y ago
  Most people that don't watch TV don't believe those numbers. The reason is that the overall yearly death rate is within regular variability.
- angelzen 5y ago
  Perhaps it's something related to aging. After a certain point in life you make peace with the idea that sooner or later everybody dies. To put covid in perspective, we can calculate the relative risk of covid death compared to risk of death from all other causes, by age group. The relative risk is under 15% for adults and under 3% for children. While this is nothing to sneeze at, it is not as apocalyptic as the click-hungry (social) media makes it to be. Yet another looming health risk, among high blood pressure, cholesterol, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer, etc. raw data: https://data.cdc.gov/resource/3apk-4u4f.csv https://data.cdc.gov/resource/3apk-4u4f.csv
  - pupppet 5y ago
    You could make peace with the possibility of dying of Covid, or you know, just get the vaccine.
    - pupppet 5y ago
      Aaand voted down to oblivion. Pretty embarrassing the anti-vax crowd is so prominent on HN.
    - angelzen 5y ago
      I've got the vaccine, thanks for your interest in my personal health choices. I haven't seen evidence that it will hold up on a 5 year horizon, perhaps you have a time machine?
      - pupppet 5y ago
        It's not your personal health choice when those refusing the vaccine are filling hospitals and pushing others out. And sorry no time machine, but I choose to trust doctors anyway.
        angelzen 5y ago
        Doctors don't have a time machine either. We are all engaging in the age old process that goes under the name of "faith". And there is nothing wrong with it!
  - dukeofdoom 5y ago
    What is the definition or relative risk? 15% of people that contract covid will die from it? Where are you getting this from.
    - angelzen 5y ago
      https://data.cdc.gov/resource/3apk-4u4f.csv https://data.cdc.gov/resource/3apk-4u4f.csv https://usafacts.org/articles/americans-causes-of-death-by-age-cdc-data/ https://usafacts.org/articles/americans-causes-of-death-by-a... I am not comparing covid deaths with the entire population, only with the number of people that die from some cause. In a given year, most people do not die, other than for really old age groups. For example, 13463 50yo females died from some cause since Jan 2020. Out of those deaths, 1605 were deaths with covid, for a 11.9% fraction. For comparison, cancer is 22% of deaths in 45-55 age group and heart disease 19.5%, making covid third cause of death for this age group, with accidents the fourth at 8.3% data_as_of start_date end_date sex age_years total_deaths covid19_deaths 2021-10-06 2020-01-01 2021-10-02 Female 50 Years 13463 1605
      - dukeofdoom 5y ago
        That's a misleading way of looking at it. Do you realize by curing heart disease, you'll increase the number of people that die from cancer? Depending on the age of the patient, its very likely that covid may have been the final nail on the coffin, but by no means the only nail in the grim reapers hand. The average life expectancy is 78 in the US. What is the average age of someone that dies of covid? Last time I checked this, it was 84. United States - Historical Death Rate Data Year Death Rate Growth Rate 2021 8.977 1.090% 2020 8.880 1.120% 2019 8.782 1.120% 2018 8.685 1.220% 2017 8.580 1.240% Source https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/death-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/deat...
        angelzen 5y ago
        The intent is to place an upper bound on covid relative risk: <15% of all deaths in every age group. Young adults have lower relative risk, children much lower. For me even 15%, while undesirable, is low enough relative risk to characterize media behavior as 'fear porn'. How to explain this better? Entering 2020, there were 100 reasons for me to die. Then covid comes along and now there are 115. Not the best news ever, but I'd rather keep living life, especially after vaccines have become widely available. As you correctly observe, the actual risk may be even lower, because the back-of-the-napkin upper bound estimation does not take in account the risk factors within an age group.

by rytcio 5y ago

Nothing will be enough to make people comfortable again. A year of shut down economy and non-stop 24/7 fear porn in MSM have traumatized people for at least a decade

pupppet 5y ago

How is it fear porn when literally hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from it.

qwerty456127 5y ago
Because no matter how many die, we should not fear, only reason. Fear is the mind killer. Fear leads to the dark side of the force.
dukeofdoom 5y ago
Most people that don't watch TV don't believe those numbers. The reason is that the overall yearly death rate is within regular variability.
angelzen 5y ago
Perhaps it's something related to aging. After a certain point in life you make peace with the idea that sooner or later everybody dies. To put covid in perspective, we can calculate the relative risk of covid death compared to risk of death from all other causes, by age group. The relative risk is under 15% for adults and under 3% for children. While this is nothing to sneeze at, it is not as apocalyptic as the click-hungry (social) media makes it to be. Yet another looming health risk, among high blood pressure, cholesterol, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer, etc. raw data: https://data.cdc.gov/resource/3apk-4u4f.csv https://data.cdc.gov/resource/3apk-4u4f.csv
- pupppet 5y ago
  You could make peace with the possibility of dying of Covid, or you know, just get the vaccine.
  - pupppet 5y ago
    Aaand voted down to oblivion. Pretty embarrassing the anti-vax crowd is so prominent on HN.
  - angelzen 5y ago
    I've got the vaccine, thanks for your interest in my personal health choices. I haven't seen evidence that it will hold up on a 5 year horizon, perhaps you have a time machine?
    - pupppet 5y ago
      It's not your personal health choice when those refusing the vaccine are filling hospitals and pushing others out. And sorry no time machine, but I choose to trust doctors anyway.
      - angelzen 5y ago
        Doctors don't have a time machine either. We are all engaging in the age old process that goes under the name of "faith". And there is nothing wrong with it!
- dukeofdoom 5y ago
  What is the definition or relative risk? 15% of people that contract covid will die from it? Where are you getting this from.
  - angelzen 5y ago
    https://data.cdc.gov/resource/3apk-4u4f.csv https://data.cdc.gov/resource/3apk-4u4f.csv https://usafacts.org/articles/americans-causes-of-death-by-age-cdc-data/ https://usafacts.org/articles/americans-causes-of-death-by-a... I am not comparing covid deaths with the entire population, only with the number of people that die from some cause. In a given year, most people do not die, other than for really old age groups. For example, 13463 50yo females died from some cause since Jan 2020. Out of those deaths, 1605 were deaths with covid, for a 11.9% fraction. For comparison, cancer is 22% of deaths in 45-55 age group and heart disease 19.5%, making covid third cause of death for this age group, with accidents the fourth at 8.3% data_as_of start_date end_date sex age_years total_deaths covid19_deaths 2021-10-06 2020-01-01 2021-10-02 Female 50 Years 13463 1605
    - dukeofdoom 5y ago
      That's a misleading way of looking at it. Do you realize by curing heart disease, you'll increase the number of people that die from cancer? Depending on the age of the patient, its very likely that covid may have been the final nail on the coffin, but by no means the only nail in the grim reapers hand. The average life expectancy is 78 in the US. What is the average age of someone that dies of covid? Last time I checked this, it was 84. United States - Historical Death Rate Data Year Death Rate Growth Rate 2021 8.977 1.090% 2020 8.880 1.120% 2019 8.782 1.120% 2018 8.685 1.220% 2017 8.580 1.240% Source https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/death-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/deat...
      - angelzen 5y ago
        The intent is to place an upper bound on covid relative risk: <15% of all deaths in every age group. Young adults have lower relative risk, children much lower. For me even 15%, while undesirable, is low enough relative risk to characterize media behavior as 'fear porn'. How to explain this better? Entering 2020, there were 100 reasons for me to die. Then covid comes along and now there are 115. Not the best news ever, but I'd rather keep living life, especially after vaccines have become widely available. As you correctly observe, the actual risk may be even lower, because the back-of-the-napkin upper bound estimation does not take in account the risk factors within an age group.