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Comment by Shikadi | Hacker News Reader

I don't think the reaction was hysterical, the united States ranks 14 out of over 200 countries for most deaths to COVID per capita, and we don't even have high population density.

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NYC just released data that shows 50% of those hospitalized and Covid positive, were not admitted for Covid, but another condition.

Makes you wonder about deaths counts too?

Considering how drastic the excess deaths of 2020 and 2021 are relative to previous years, I have a decent amount of faith in the number of deaths reported to be caused by covid.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

Tons of people are skipping routine screening and exams. Lots of people are straight up avoiding any medical treatment out of fear of catching Covid. (including routine vaccination!). Raw numbers aren’t helpful here.

Did you dig into the excess death numbers? A big fraction aren’t covid related, interestingly.

No saying people aren’t dying of Covid, just wondering how accurate the numbers are? And is Covid as the cause correctly attributed?

We also have data here in the UK, that somewhere near 35% of cases were contracted in hospital.

Actually the US ranks 20th in per capita deaths.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

*in reported numbers. That's a massively important caveat, since many countries are not reporting properly (i.e. Russia's death toll is likely 3-5 times the reported one, and India had at least a million deaths, but the reported number is 480K)

Would be better to compare excess deaths per capita (instead of reported COVID deaths)

There are multiple reports that these are reported deaths with Covid, not because of Covid. And there is a big question of bias given how hospitals were financially rewarded by covid cases. Also strong lockdowns and high do not strongly correlate with hospitalizations or deaths.

Looking at excess deaths per capita (over trend) gives you a good-enough estimate of effects of COVID. Countries like New Zealand are actually below trend (negative deaths from COVID, even with similar lockdowns)

Correlation doesn't mean causation. Solitude, substance abuse, stress and economic hardships are all known linked causes that tend to drastically increase death rates. Drug overdoses killed nearly 100k people last year alone, not even counting the indirect or unreported deaths

Also you're comparing apple to oranges. Contrary to most Western countries, New-Zealand focused on sealing their country away, meaning they didn't have to have harsh lock downs for a long time.

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