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> peoples initial state of extreme fear(that they were told to have) Estimated US flu deaths[0] between 2010 and 2020 (i.e. 10 years): 359K. Estimated US Covi

> peoples initial state of extreme fear(that they were told to have) Estimated US flu deaths[0] between 2010 and 2020 (i.e. 10 years): 359K. Estimated US Covid-19 deaths[1] between January 2020 and today (i.e. 2.5 years): 1,044,557 Can we stop with this disingenuous narrative? People rightfully perceived a level of heightened risk, ahead of a working vaccine, and took reasonable precautions. If it was as dangerous as the flu, we would have seen 90K deaths not 1M+. [0] https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html [1] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

dustinmoris 4y ago
- saithier 4y ago
  That's a fairly psychopathic take on the situation.
  - decebalus1 4y ago
    'Psychopathic' is a generous take, as it would assume some level of truth. The take is just wrong and mindlessly repeats the contrarian bullshit we've been hearing for the past two years. I'm very disappointed to be reading it on hackernews actually.
- rxhernandez 4y ago
  If it wasn't for the last two sentences I would have thought this wasn't satire. Good god, from calling an order of magnitude in difference as only "a few" to the false equivalences, you really nailed the poor logic I saw at the beginning of the pandemic.
slaw 4y ago
For younger than 60 years olds it was just like flu. Second link on duckduckgo shows average age of mortality from Covid is 81.5 https://www.brightworkresearch.com/how-the-average-age-of-mortality-from-covid-is-81-5/ https://www.brightworkresearch.com/how-the-average-age-of-mo...
stolenmerch 4y ago
~75% of those deaths were among people of retirement age or older. I think it's fair to question whether it was "reasonable precaution" to shut down schools, people's workplace, and entire sectors of the economy. Simply showing the total body count doesn't even begin to describe the complexity of balanced risk assessment for younger people and what was allowed to be considered a "disingenuous narrative" or not. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-from-covid-by-age-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-...
- corrral 4y ago
  Operation of our economy relies a lot on free or paid labor from old people, though. We can't isolate them and keep the economy running normally. How do you think poor people get child care so they can go to work, for one thing? I do think there's room to criticize what was done, but I don't think "just isolate old people" was ever a practical option, and I don't think the alternative of "we're keeping things open and not isolating old people, so make sure you say anything you've been meaning to to your elderly parents really soon, because... well, you know" was ever gonna go over well. > I think it's fair to question whether it was "reasonable precaution" to shut down schools, I know enough teachers and was privy to their thoughts and observations during the pandemic that I'm quite confident schools were going to shut down no matter what official policy was. Lots of teachers are married to higher earners, and they're basically all working because they want to. They'd have stopped wanting to, and the schools wouldn't have been able to remain open with normal hours and procedures, with their much-reduced staff. A couple districts I know for a fact faced near-revolt over measures that were regarded as insufficient and coupled with tone-deaf messaging, and had to adjust or the scenario above was definitely going to happen and they'd have lost 10+% of their staff all at once, which is enough to completely mess them up. Whether their opinions were based on reality hardly matters: fact is, schools were going to shutdown, one way or another.
listenallyall 4y ago
There used to be a time when young people challenged the government narrative. Now they are the most vociferous in repeating and amplifying it without an ounce of doubt or questioning.
redeeman 4y ago
dont think you can compare numbers like that, in which years between 2010 and 2020 did they flu test traffic deaths and stabbing victims?

dustinmoris 4y ago

saithier 4y ago
That's a fairly psychopathic take on the situation.
- decebalus1 4y ago
  'Psychopathic' is a generous take, as it would assume some level of truth. The take is just wrong and mindlessly repeats the contrarian bullshit we've been hearing for the past two years. I'm very disappointed to be reading it on hackernews actually.
rxhernandez 4y ago
If it wasn't for the last two sentences I would have thought this wasn't satire. Good god, from calling an order of magnitude in difference as only "a few" to the false equivalences, you really nailed the poor logic I saw at the beginning of the pandemic.

slaw 4y ago

For younger than 60 years olds it was just like flu. Second link on duckduckgo shows average age of mortality from Covid is 81.5 https://www.brightworkresearch.com/how-the-average-age-of-mortality-from-covid-is-81-5/ https://www.brightworkresearch.com/how-the-average-age-of-mo...

stolenmerch 4y ago

~75% of those deaths were among people of retirement age or older. I think it's fair to question whether it was "reasonable precaution" to shut down schools, people's workplace, and entire sectors of the economy. Simply showing the total body count doesn't even begin to describe the complexity of balanced risk assessment for younger people and what was allowed to be considered a "disingenuous narrative" or not. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-from-covid-by-age-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-...

corrral 4y ago
Operation of our economy relies a lot on free or paid labor from old people, though. We can't isolate them and keep the economy running normally. How do you think poor people get child care so they can go to work, for one thing? I do think there's room to criticize what was done, but I don't think "just isolate old people" was ever a practical option, and I don't think the alternative of "we're keeping things open and not isolating old people, so make sure you say anything you've been meaning to to your elderly parents really soon, because... well, you know" was ever gonna go over well. > I think it's fair to question whether it was "reasonable precaution" to shut down schools, I know enough teachers and was privy to their thoughts and observations during the pandemic that I'm quite confident schools were going to shut down no matter what official policy was. Lots of teachers are married to higher earners, and they're basically all working because they want to. They'd have stopped wanting to, and the schools wouldn't have been able to remain open with normal hours and procedures, with their much-reduced staff. A couple districts I know for a fact faced near-revolt over measures that were regarded as insufficient and coupled with tone-deaf messaging, and had to adjust or the scenario above was definitely going to happen and they'd have lost 10+% of their staff all at once, which is enough to completely mess them up. Whether their opinions were based on reality hardly matters: fact is, schools were going to shutdown, one way or another.

listenallyall 4y ago

There used to be a time when young people challenged the government narrative. Now they are the most vociferous in repeating and amplifying it without an ounce of doubt or questioning.

redeeman 4y ago

dont think you can compare numbers like that, in which years between 2010 and 2020 did they flu test traffic deaths and stabbing victims?