5 ms·

The pandemic’s true health cost: how much of our lives has Covid stolen?

21 points by lnyan 4y ago

tinus_hn 4y ago
For a moment I thought they were going to look at the cost of 2 years of lockdowns! How much is that? Just about 3% of our lives, right?
- riedel 4y ago
  Actually it took me long time until I think I somehow grasped the reason for those years of life lost or similar metrics in epidemiology: As far I understand it it is rather a measure of ranking to inform regulatory action. It is not really meant to compare against your real life but to compare different things like the impact of pollution, smoking etc on a society on a common scale rather than being used in any absolute fashion. IMHO they often become meaningless if applied to your own life or if they are quoted in press.
- edmcnulty101 4y ago
  That's times the entire 5 billion person population of the world who was on multi year restrictions of their freedom and lockdowns. 2 years times 5 billion in healthy human hours lost. With the exceptions of Texas and Florida maybe. And most of the entire world recently just said "Fuck it we can't control this" and did what Texas and Florida were doing anyway even though new cases and deaths were at some of the highest levels. So restrictions were mostly ill informed and pointless.
  - pasabagi 4y ago
    > new cases and deaths were at some of the highest levels. Cases are high, deaths are not. Please go look at some graphs. If you print them off, then mark with pencil the dates when lockdowns occurred in your region, you will probably notice you're mistaken more generally.
    - edmcnulty101 4y ago
      look at a graph of covid deaths. then look at when California lifted its mask mandate and when New York lifted its mask mandate locate that on the graph. February, during one of the highest peaks of the entire pandemic in covid deaths. Coincided nicely with midterm election year though.
  - moistly 4y ago
    So you’ve completely forgotten the disaster in NYC, where hospitals were so overwhelmed they couldn’t take more patients, and corpses were stacked like cordwood in refrigerated trucks. If the “fuck it we can’t control this“ attitude had prevailed, every city would have seen the same. And for that matter, the US did have much more of a “fuck it” attitude than many other countries and consequently killed a much higher proportion of its population than those countries. Plus it’s now seeing its economy go to shit, while countries like Australia which took prevention efforts seriously are doing much, much better.
    - FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
      I don't honestly think the economic differences have much to do with differences in COVID policy. The US has "the" Tech sector, which at first did great, but which now is getting walloped by the rate hikes. Australia, by contrast, has a resource economy. And what with the Russian war in Ukraine (plus the earlier money printing), commodity prices are way up. So Australia's strong economy is not due to good public health policy, really, but rather to the fact that it gets its wealth by digging giant gouges in the earth.
    - musicale 4y ago
      > killed a much higher proportion of its population than those countries The covid death rate has varied somewhat across the US: https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/05/15/chart-how-many-americans-would-have-died-from-covid-if-the-country-had-your-states-death-rate/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/05/15/chart-how-many-americ...
    - edmcnulty101 4y ago
      With an uncontrollable virus the same amount of people are going to die, it's whether you peel the band aid off quickly or delay it. Its a sad fact. One view of why the economy's going to shit because it was shut down due to Covid and tons of stimulus money was given out contributing to inflation. NYC did not have as disastrous impact. Most of their overflow hospitals were never used. The corpses in refrigerator trucks was media sensationalism.That wasn't common or widespread.
  - FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
    Things are a little different now than when Texas and Florida first started ignoring COVID. Now, people who want to get vaccinated, have been.
    - edmcnulty101 4y ago
      They both started ignoring covid right as the vaccine came out.
  - musicale 4y ago
    >And most of the entire world recently just said "Fuck it we can't control this" and did what Texas and Florida were doing anyway even though new cases and deaths were at some of the highest levels. Although there are more infectious variants, we now also have paxlovid, several vaccines that still seem to reduce mortality, and survivors with some degree of infection-generated immunity, as well as widely available n95 or comparable masks. Increased cases don't seem to be overwhelming hospitals in California at the moment, though there is always the possibility of an even more infectious and deadly new variant that dodges existing immunity.
    - edmcnulty101 4y ago
      We had all that about a year into the pandemic and there were still tons of restrictions.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
tamaharbor 4y ago
Many of the Covid measures (lockdowns, handouts, etc) have caused inflation. How much of your money has inflation stolen?
- michaericalribo 4y ago
  I’d pay all my money for my mom not to be dead.
  - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
    The time for that was the beginning of the pandemic.

21 points by lnyan 4y ago

For a moment I thought they were going to look at the cost of 2 years of lockdowns! How much is that? Just about 3% of our lives, right?

riedel 4y ago
Actually it took me long time until I think I somehow grasped the reason for those years of life lost or similar metrics in epidemiology: As far I understand it it is rather a measure of ranking to inform regulatory action. It is not really meant to compare against your real life but to compare different things like the impact of pollution, smoking etc on a society on a common scale rather than being used in any absolute fashion. IMHO they often become meaningless if applied to your own life or if they are quoted in press.
edmcnulty101 4y ago
That's times the entire 5 billion person population of the world who was on multi year restrictions of their freedom and lockdowns. 2 years times 5 billion in healthy human hours lost. With the exceptions of Texas and Florida maybe. And most of the entire world recently just said "Fuck it we can't control this" and did what Texas and Florida were doing anyway even though new cases and deaths were at some of the highest levels. So restrictions were mostly ill informed and pointless.
- pasabagi 4y ago
  > new cases and deaths were at some of the highest levels. Cases are high, deaths are not. Please go look at some graphs. If you print them off, then mark with pencil the dates when lockdowns occurred in your region, you will probably notice you're mistaken more generally.
  - edmcnulty101 4y ago
    look at a graph of covid deaths. then look at when California lifted its mask mandate and when New York lifted its mask mandate locate that on the graph. February, during one of the highest peaks of the entire pandemic in covid deaths. Coincided nicely with midterm election year though.
- moistly 4y ago
  So you’ve completely forgotten the disaster in NYC, where hospitals were so overwhelmed they couldn’t take more patients, and corpses were stacked like cordwood in refrigerated trucks. If the “fuck it we can’t control this“ attitude had prevailed, every city would have seen the same. And for that matter, the US did have much more of a “fuck it” attitude than many other countries and consequently killed a much higher proportion of its population than those countries. Plus it’s now seeing its economy go to shit, while countries like Australia which took prevention efforts seriously are doing much, much better.
  - FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
    I don't honestly think the economic differences have much to do with differences in COVID policy. The US has "the" Tech sector, which at first did great, but which now is getting walloped by the rate hikes. Australia, by contrast, has a resource economy. And what with the Russian war in Ukraine (plus the earlier money printing), commodity prices are way up. So Australia's strong economy is not due to good public health policy, really, but rather to the fact that it gets its wealth by digging giant gouges in the earth.
  - musicale 4y ago
    > killed a much higher proportion of its population than those countries The covid death rate has varied somewhat across the US: https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/05/15/chart-how-many-americans-would-have-died-from-covid-if-the-country-had-your-states-death-rate/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/05/15/chart-how-many-americ...
  - edmcnulty101 4y ago
    With an uncontrollable virus the same amount of people are going to die, it's whether you peel the band aid off quickly or delay it. Its a sad fact. One view of why the economy's going to shit because it was shut down due to Covid and tons of stimulus money was given out contributing to inflation. NYC did not have as disastrous impact. Most of their overflow hospitals were never used. The corpses in refrigerator trucks was media sensationalism.That wasn't common or widespread.
- FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
  Things are a little different now than when Texas and Florida first started ignoring COVID. Now, people who want to get vaccinated, have been.
  - edmcnulty101 4y ago
    They both started ignoring covid right as the vaccine came out.
- musicale 4y ago
  >And most of the entire world recently just said "Fuck it we can't control this" and did what Texas and Florida were doing anyway even though new cases and deaths were at some of the highest levels. Although there are more infectious variants, we now also have paxlovid, several vaccines that still seem to reduce mortality, and survivors with some degree of infection-generated immunity, as well as widely available n95 or comparable masks. Increased cases don't seem to be overwhelming hospitals in California at the moment, though there is always the possibility of an even more infectious and deadly new variant that dodges existing immunity.
  - edmcnulty101 4y ago
    We had all that about a year into the pandemic and there were still tons of restrictions.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

tamaharbor 4y ago

Many of the Covid measures (lockdowns, handouts, etc) have caused inflation. How much of your money has inflation stolen?

michaericalribo 4y ago
I’d pay all my money for my mom not to be dead.
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
  The time for that was the beginning of the pandemic.