Current Events > Anyone else starting to think the virus is exaggerated?

(+) Yeah! (+)

For example there was an article spread the last week about the "potential lasting effects" of the COVID19 on parts of the body such as the heart, liver and kidneys.

The studies they cited claimed that 20% of people sampled suffered lasting damage. I clicked the link and actually read the study myself, and the article fails to mention that the average age of that 20% was 74, and almost every single person in that 20% had at least one pre-existing condition, most of them more. Another issue is the sample size is extremely small. I believe one study was just over 100 people and another was 58 people. That's not evidence for anything, really. But the article is worded in such a way to make it seem like it could happen to anyone, when data clearly shows that healthy people are making it out just fine in 99% of cases.

So this got me on the train of reading articles then looking at the studies they cite.... and the urgency posted on news websites never seems to match the study. People that are 74 with heart disease are VERY vulnerable to respiratory illness, not just COVID19. The numbers for pneumonia are very similar in terms of the damage it can do to the heart/lungs of patients. In fact, bacterial infections have way, way higher fatality rates in people that old and those are extremely common. The article is extremely misleading and can a lead a reader to think that lasting heart damage can happen to anyone, which is just not the case. It's not happening.

I'm skeptical. I work with money everyday, and I haven't been sick. Our county has had 1 case the past four weeks, and we are a college town with an airport (population 30k roughly) Nurses are being laid off because there aren't enough patients coming in. As I posted before this is "nursing" town, a lot of my friends went to the local university and left to become nurses downstate where the populations are more dense. They said after that initial wave of testing, (where people with allergies were panicking and taking up all the beds, apparently extremely common)....it's apparently calmed down a lot.

Not to mention the fishy reporting of the "death" statistic where it seems like some hospitals are counting deaths with "covid-like" symptoms, combined that with the fact that states/countries that practiced little to no distancing are putting up similar numbers to everyone else...idk it seems like the powers really exaggerated this.

I fear that the country will slowly open back up over the summer only to have an outbreak in the winter, which gives those most vulnerable a lower chance of surviving. I think opening it up sooner will be much safer, and the economy will have time to restart for the winter months. We know COVID19 is actually really weak when it's in the air and in the open, it will have a tough time spreading in hot humid weather.

This is just my opinion though, but I really implore people to look at the studies and not just read the click-bait, fear mongering headlines. Here's the article, but it was posted, almost word for word, on news sites everywhere.

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-04-10/coronavirus-infection-can-do-lasting-damage-to-the-heart-liver

(It seems now you have to have a subscription...I didn't when I first read it a few days ago. Within the article are links for the two studies they cite.)

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Here we go

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Still not something I would want to get.

I do not, no.

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No, because I'm not a dumbass.

F1areaGaman posted...

The studies they cited claimed that 20% of people sampled suffered lasting damage. I clicked the link and actually read the study myself, and the article fails to mention that the average age of that 20% was 74, and almost every single person in that 20% had at least one pre-existing condition, most of them more

What percent of people over 74 do you think have a pre-existing condition? My bet is pretty much all of them.
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Not to mention the fishy reporting of the "death" statistic where it seems like some hospitals are counting deaths with "covid-like" symptoms,

Cant test them for Corona if they dont have tests for it. Checkmate liberals.

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I'd rather there be an overreaction to this than an underreaction.

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DoomsSD posted...

I think the death rate alone is pretty fucking alarming tbh.

That's another thing, it's really not accurate.

Actual cases could be two to ten times higher....factoring that, the death rate is much less scary. Combine that with the fact that it's hard to tell if the number is even 100% real based on what hospitals are saying they are reporting deaths. Why have pneumonia deaths tanked the passed two months?

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Ah damn the rest of the country should learn from this rando 30k college town

Wake up NYC. Guess it'll take a friend or family member dying from the virus to make more people to think this is serious shit. Not real until it personally affects me and whatnot

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DarthAragorn posted...

No, because I'm not a dumbass.

Southernfatman posted...

I'd rather there be an overreaction to this than an underreaction.

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I don't know about exaggerated but it seems like the plan has to change at some point and I'm not sure what the best course forward is.

At first you want to stop the spread. That didn't work because China sucks (Trump didn't help -- he sucks too)..
Then we shifted to limiting the infections so that the healthcare system doesn't get overloaded. That seems to be working.

What is the next plan though? We can't stay in our homes for the next two years. At some point we are going to go back outside and interact with one another and more people will get it. I understand not wanting to rush it and think these people protesting are insane but I haven't heard any leader suggest what the final plan/goal is.

The virus is here. What now?

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Antifar posted...

What percent of people over 74 do you think have a pre-existing condition? My bet is pretty much all of them.

If you click the study, it shows the percentage of what people had what condition, the most popular being high blood pressure in like 60% of them.

But again, that's why when you are 74 catching a cold is ****ing scary.

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Hey look at that, an appropriately tagged user making a garbage topic. How shocking.

Southernfatman posted...

I'd rather there be an overreaction to this than an underreaction.

I'm not sure that's the proper mentality when we are talking about 40 million people suddenly becoming dependent on the government.

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_Rinku_ posted...

Hey look at that, an appropriately tagged user making a garbage topic. How shocking.

Hey look, people actually tag users so they can remind themselves to not change their mind or add anything of value to a discussion and be stuck in an ideological rut

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No, I do not.

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MacadamianNut3 posted...

Ah damn the rest of the country should learn from this rando 30k college town

Wake up NYC. Guess it'll take a friend or family member dying from the virus to make more people to think this is serious shit. Not real until it personally affects me and whatnot

Of course I'm taking it seriously. Click and read the article, then read the study. Tell me the article is not worded to generate fear? It's misleading, that's not what the news should be doing right now. They left out important details of the study.

Another thing that's making me anxious is how suddenly politicized the issue of opening the country is.

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lol everyone is really upset at TC for even questioning anything

try to find ONE major news source that talks about how the daily new cases have trended downward the entire month. Instead they ALL only talk about how the TOTAL cases continue to increase because, you know, it's the end of the world.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-21/pandemic-sends-england-wales-death-toll-to-record-high
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Colorahdo posted...

try to find ONE major news source that talks about how the daily new cases have trended downward the entire month

I'm pretty sure I've heard that at least five times today alone from having my TV on in the background while doing work

Even people shitting on Georgia's governor being a double digit IQ poll rigging fuckwad point out that he's not even following the suggestion to wait for a 14 day long downtrend before opening up things

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No I don't. I live in a state that hasn't been hit too bad and its made me feel like all the precautions taken over the last 5 or 6 weeks have been worth it.

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F1areaGaman posted...

Hey look, people actually tag users so they can remind themselves to not change their mind or add anything of value to a discussion and be stuck in an ideological rut

"Oh no, someone called me out for my past actions informing the intent behind my current ones!"

:'(

Colorahdo posted...

lol everyone is really upset at TC for even questioning anything

try to find ONE major news source that talks about how the daily new cases have trended downward the entire month. Instead they ALL only talk about how the TOTAL cases continue to increase because, you know, it's the end of the world.

Oooh looky, another one.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html?smid=tw-share

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DarthAragorn posted...

No, because I'm not a dumbass.

Im with the TC.

The media doesnt mind us stuck in our homes, absorbing every damn map and data point they spew out, and Im sure Google, Apple, and Microsoft dont mind us gobbling up all their stupid streams and shows.

Also, anyone who posts a headline about us having to hunker down into the summer and perhaps rethink our society until 2022 is frankly bonkers, and out of touch with reality. You expect the human race to just be fine with not making any money, not providing for their families, and avoiding others for 2 years? The hell?

Next winter well see the same headlines. The media and the powers that be would rather us be scared and powerless than have hope.

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puppy posted...

The media doesnt mind us stuck in our homes, absorbing every damn map and data point they spew out

A shit ton of media members have been laid off because of this
https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2020/04/06/tracker-media-layoffs-furloughs-and-pay-cuts/#2d86c9b952f0

The largest media conglomerate in the country is Disney, which owns theme parks and ESPN. They absolutely mind this.
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puppy posted...

Im with the TC.

The media doesnt mind us stuck in our homes, absorbing every damn map and data point they spew out, and Im sure Google, Apple, and Microsoft dont mind us gobbling up all their stupid streams and shows.

Also, anyone who posts a headline about us having to hunker down into the summer and perhaps rethink our society until 2022 is frankly bonkers, and out of touch with reality. You expect the human race to just be fine with not making any money, not providing for their families, and avoiding others for 2 years? The hell?

Next winter well see the same headlines. The media and the powers that be would rather us be scared and powerless than have hope.

Holy shit how did you post something even dumber than TC

shockthemonkey posted...

The death rate isnt scary! is a weird thing to say while thousands of people are dying every day due to this. Like its real blatant youre using the death rate rather than the number of deaths because that allows you to pretend its less significant.

Of course they are significant, but i'm trying to look at data pragmatically. That's how you get to the bottom of things. I'm not trying to pretend it doesn't exist.

I'm noting the very real possibility that the news is sensationalizing and exaggerating for their benefit, and the benefit of those profiting off this. State governments got more power, Mcdonalds and Subway got to stay open (good thing they just started delivery!) while mom and pop restaurants closed and won't ever open back up. We don't even know if this social distancing thing is actually helping anymore, as I said, opening back up slowly could just cause an outbreak in the deadlier winter months.


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F1areaGaman posted...

We don't even know if this social distancing thing is actually helping anymore,

We do know this, actually
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If anyone would like to check out 12 other experts in the field,their names are listed with a little snippet of what each of them say.

For me,I don't pay attention to legacy media simply because I know enough they are pushing fear mongering towards viewers(my opinion)as part of their narrative.

On the link below,for any that would like to hear the other side of their viewpoints regarding this pandemic situation.

https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/24/12-experts-questioning-the-coronavirus-panic


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No. I do think the issue of families unable to pay rent and buy food needs equal coverage. The people who are protesting do not care about the families unable to pay rent and buy food. It is about their rights.

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Disbelief and everyone thinking they are "woke" is the reason this virus is thriving. Everyone thinks everything is a hoax. Grow up.

these accounts need to be banned

this is so stupid
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puppy posted...

Im with the TC.

The media doesnt mind us stuck in our homes, absorbing every damn map and data point they spew out, and Im sure Google, Apple, and Microsoft dont mind us gobbling up all their stupid streams and shows.

Also, anyone who posts a headline about us having to hunker down into the summer and perhaps rethink our society until 2022 is frankly bonkers, and out of touch with reality. You expect the human race to just be fine with not making any money, not providing for their families, and avoiding others for 2 years? The hell?

Next winter well see the same headlines. The media and the powers that be would rather us be scared and powerless than have hope.

Axiom posted...

Holy shit how did you post something even dumber than TC

No and I dont waste my time reading propaganda that says its not serious.

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Intro2Logic posted...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html?smid=tw-share

If you actually look at the numbers, Sweden ( a country that practiced little to no social distancing) has one of the lowest excess death rates and very low infection numbers.

All of the pictures in the article are showing worst-case areas. If you click the link and look at the whole study, there are lots of places where the average death toll has not risen by very much, if at all. It's also trending downwards now it almost every case. I'm not denying the virus exists, or that it's dangerous to some people.

I am merely pointing out that media (like the NY times) seems to be exaggerated, only reporting on the worse-case, leaving out valuable information.

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F1areaGaman and puppy are competing to see who can make the stupidest post ITT

puppy posted...

The media doesnt mind us stuck in our homes, absorbing every damn map and data point they spew out, and Im sure Google, Apple, and Microsoft dont mind us gobbling up all their stupid streams and shows.

even if you want to be super cynical about the media, you have to recognize that mass media companies are spiderwebbed through by endless amounts of interest groups and sponsors who are very unhappy about this.

Google, Apple and Microsoft are not happy about people having less disposable income to spend on their products, and streams and shows are not making up for that loss of profit. Microsoft has been weathering it surprisingly well so far but Google and Apple have taken huge stock plunges throughout the course of this stuff

the capitalist death machine is maybe the least feasible group of people to point the finger to here if you want to blame someone other than common sense, i have no idea how you stumbled to that conclusion and thought it sounded good in your head. if you want to try and scapegoat someone, the only sensible people to try and foist blame onto is doctors and the medical community at large because everyone is currently going off of their advice. i understand why you would not want to do that though, it would be pretty embarrassing

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https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/us/detroit-girl-dies-coronavirus/index.html

shut the fuck up TC
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No. I have it. It ain't fun.

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ultimate reaver posted...

even if you want to be super cynical about the media, you have to recognize that mass media companies are spiderwebbed through by endless amounts of interest groups and sponsors who are very unhappy about this.

Google, Apple and Microsoft are not happy about people having less disposable income to spend on their products, and streams and shows are not making up for that loss of profit. Microsoft has been weathering it surprisingly well so far but Google and Apple have taken huge stock plunges throughout the course of this stuff

the capitalist death machine is maybe the least feasible group of people to point the finger to here if you want to blame someone other than common sense, i have no idea how you stumbled to that conclusion and thought it sounded good in your head. if you want to try and scapegoat someone, the only sensible people to try and foist blame onto is doctors and the medical community at large because everyone is currently going off of their advice. i understand why you would not want to do that though, it would be pretty embarrassing

I think you have to look even higher up than that. Like big banking.

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Idk why people keep trying to avoid this possibility or even consider it when the possibly of this virus never going away and us having to live with it are very real.

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