3 ms·

>> It has killed more than 865,000 Americans > It looks like that's more Americans than have been killed in combat in all of the wars of the 20th century combi

by rkk3 5y ago

>> It has killed more than 865,000 Americans > It looks like that's more Americans than have been killed in combat in all of the wars of the 20th century combined [1] Like all deaths tragic, but let's not pretend young men, effectively kids, dying in war is the same as elderly & chronically sick populations dying of disease.

gibspaulding 5y ago
I would personally agree (though you will find people who won't), but I found it to be an interesting comparison just to get an idea of the scale.
DanBC 5y ago
> Like all deaths tragic, but let's not pretend young men, effectively kids, dying in war is the same as elderly & chronically sick populations dying of disease. Where elderly means > 40 and chronically sick includes "has a bit of high blood pressure".
- rkk3 5y ago
  > chronically sick includes "has a bit of high blood pressure". The CDC says > 40% of US adults are obese (> 100 Million people!) and 13% of US adults have diabetes. If that's not a chronically sick population I don't know what is. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html [2] https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-d...
  - Melatonic 5y ago
    This is the elephant in the room I was trying to talk to people about at the very start of this pandemic. People are endlessly willing to talk about how divided we are about all kinds of issues and yet the fact that we cannot at minimum rally behind the fact we need to deal with the obesity epidemic is a bad sign. My big problem with the initial lockdowns was not really about the larger lockdown at all - we just (obviously in hindsight) went too far with locking down larger, wide open places where people exercise. Spring break in Miami with people crammed onto a beach? Probably a bad idea. A few surfers going in the water a hundred feet from one another and some other people doing a morning run? Likely a net benefit to Covid outcomes.
- nradov 5y ago
  Elderly doesn't mean > 40. More than 81% of COVID-19 deaths occur in people over age 65. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precaut... Fortunately the vaccines and other treatments are still very effective in preventing deaths among the elderly population.

by rkk3 5y ago

gibspaulding 5y ago

I would personally agree (though you will find people who won't), but I found it to be an interesting comparison just to get an idea of the scale.

DanBC 5y ago

> Like all deaths tragic, but let's not pretend young men, effectively kids, dying in war is the same as elderly & chronically sick populations dying of disease. Where elderly means > 40 and chronically sick includes "has a bit of high blood pressure".

rkk3 5y ago
> chronically sick includes "has a bit of high blood pressure". The CDC says > 40% of US adults are obese (> 100 Million people!) and 13% of US adults have diabetes. If that's not a chronically sick population I don't know what is. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html [2] https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-d...
- Melatonic 5y ago
  This is the elephant in the room I was trying to talk to people about at the very start of this pandemic. People are endlessly willing to talk about how divided we are about all kinds of issues and yet the fact that we cannot at minimum rally behind the fact we need to deal with the obesity epidemic is a bad sign. My big problem with the initial lockdowns was not really about the larger lockdown at all - we just (obviously in hindsight) went too far with locking down larger, wide open places where people exercise. Spring break in Miami with people crammed onto a beach? Probably a bad idea. A few surfers going in the water a hundred feet from one another and some other people doing a morning run? Likely a net benefit to Covid outcomes.
nradov 5y ago
Elderly doesn't mean > 40. More than 81% of COVID-19 deaths occur in people over age 65. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precaut... Fortunately the vaccines and other treatments are still very effective in preventing deaths among the elderly population.