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This article seems to be hoping people will ignore differences between the two pandemics even though we just lived through one of them: * Covid killed far more

This article seems to be hoping people will ignore differences between the two pandemics even though we just lived through one of them: * Covid killed far more people. One estimate for global deaths for the 1957 flu is 1.1 million—around the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. alone * COVID-19 hospitalized more people. Apparently, the 1957 flu did not overburden hospitals. Even with efforts to “flatten the curve,” COVID-19 did. * COVID-19 is a longer illness. While some people recover in 3-5 days (the article’s estimate for the 1957 flu), 5 days is the minimum isolation period and longer recoveries (not even factoring in Long COVID) are common. * The vaccine was available earlier in the pandemic’s course, at least in the U.S. According to a Smithsonian article [0], a vaccine researcher was able to convince companies to start manufacturing a vaccine before it became widespread in the U.S. It also ignores the fact that despite not locking down in 1957, the U.S. went into a recession anyway. [0]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/united-states-vaccine-1957-flu-pandemic-180974906/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/unite...

PaulKeeble 3y ago
The WHO has global deaths at up to 30 million, most of which are in the staggering incrase of excess deaths the past 1.5 years. Then we have over 100 million with Long Covid officially and it's growing at a staggering rate too. In a lot of countries 1 in 5 have new Covid related health conditions. It's a bit early to be calling it over given its hospitalising millions world wide every week, killings 100s of thousands and disabling millions still. It's a lot worsen than Flu by the numbers so far and it's still successfully raging.
- actuallyalys 3y ago
  1 in 5 is probably an overestimate, but even the lowest estimates of Long COVID prevalence are alarmingly high. Honestly, even if there wasn't a single new Long COVID case starting today, the fact that many still haven't recovered would make it a significant ongoing health issue. I agree it's not over, but saying it's raging is not correct either. In the U.S. excess deaths are close to zero [0] and hospitalizations are also low [1]. Other countries largely seem to be seeing similar patterns, although I have not looked at their numbers as closely. We could see another wave, of course, but currently we are in a lull. For what it's worth, I think there are still precautions that make sense because they are are effective and relatively low-cost, like masking in crowded indoor spaces and testing before and after attending large events. [0]: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm [1]: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/current-covid-hospitalizations-per-million?country=~USA https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/current-covid-hospitaliza...

PaulKeeble 3y ago

The WHO has global deaths at up to 30 million, most of which are in the staggering incrase of excess deaths the past 1.5 years. Then we have over 100 million with Long Covid officially and it's growing at a staggering rate too. In a lot of countries 1 in 5 have new Covid related health conditions. It's a bit early to be calling it over given its hospitalising millions world wide every week, killings 100s of thousands and disabling millions still. It's a lot worsen than Flu by the numbers so far and it's still successfully raging.

actuallyalys 3y ago
1 in 5 is probably an overestimate, but even the lowest estimates of Long COVID prevalence are alarmingly high. Honestly, even if there wasn't a single new Long COVID case starting today, the fact that many still haven't recovered would make it a significant ongoing health issue. I agree it's not over, but saying it's raging is not correct either. In the U.S. excess deaths are close to zero [0] and hospitalizations are also low [1]. Other countries largely seem to be seeing similar patterns, although I have not looked at their numbers as closely. We could see another wave, of course, but currently we are in a lull. For what it's worth, I think there are still precautions that make sense because they are are effective and relatively low-cost, like masking in crowded indoor spaces and testing before and after attending large events. [0]: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm [1]: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/current-covid-hospitalizations-per-million?country=~USA https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/current-covid-hospitaliza...