454 karma · joined September 28, 2016
Also given it was 91% on July 3rd, I'd be interested in knowing what the situation was on August 3rd and September 3rd.
The article is dated May 11.
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&...
2822 excess mortality for Denmark in its flu season of 2017/2018. Extrapolating Denmarks population to Swedens population we would expect 5000 excess mortality for a comparable bad flu season. Current Sweden COVID related deaths are 5800. Less than 16 deaths a day in Sweden since July 2. Less than 8 deaths a day since July 19.
Swedens COVID related deaths will not go above 6000. Seems to be a 0.06% mortality rate, heavily weighted towards the aged. 6000 deaths is still a lot, yes.
4 relatively large, well known companies filing IPO's today.
"In late February, CDC director Robert Redfield testified before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee and was asked if healthy people should wear masks. “No,” Redfield responded. The day after that, US surgeon general Jerome Adams tweeted “Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS.” Fauci himself, in early March, told a Senate committee that the general public didn’t need to wear them because Covid-19 wasn’t widespread enough."[1]
Regardless of opinions on how to respond to Covid, mismanagement by various institutions and media has been agonizing to see. I'm strongly against government paternalism and believe the vast amount of misinformation peddled by institutions many hold faith in led to conspiracy on the rise.
[1] - https://www.wired.com/story/how-masks-went-from-dont-wear-to...
Sweden, a country of 10.1 million people, in which annual all-cause mortality is around 93,000, is currently reporting a total of 5,743 "COVID-19 deaths" (using a very broad counting standard whereby anyone who dies within 30 days of a COVID-19 diagnosis is counted as a "COVID-19 death," irrespective of the actual cause of death). Of those 5,743 "COVID-19 deaths":
Almost 90% (89.1%) were over the age of 70 Over two-thirds (67.6%) were over the age of 80 Only 71 deaths (1.2%) were under the age of 50 Only 1 death was under the age of 20 [1]
In the US, around 80.3% of deaths have been individuals aged 65 or older whereas in Sweden, around 89.1% of deaths have been individuals aged 70 or older. [1]
In the US, only around 2.64% of deaths have been individuals under age 45 whereas in Sweden only around 1.26% of deaths have been individuals under age 50. [3]
Sweden is currently reporting an overall death rate of 556 deaths / 1 M population which is higher than the current US figure of 433 deaths / 1 M population. But Sweden's population is older. Around 20% of Swedes are 65+ versus only around 15% for the US. The size of a country's 65+ population is a reasonable proxy for the size of its vulnerable population in view of the fact that the vast majority of deaths have come from individuals 65 or older. If we calculate total deaths (any age) / 1M 65+ population for both countries, we get 2886 for the US vs. 2780 for Sweden. Sweden's death rate / elderly population is actually lower than than that of the US, and the US should only be expected to fall further behind in this metric as time passes in view of the fact that Sweden is further along its curve than the US.
[1] - https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107913/number-of-corona...
[3] - https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-...
Daily deaths have been very low in Sweden since July 11. No more 2 more weeks.
which also provides examples.
"According to a study by Cambridge University’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy, the number of Britons self-reporting as “happy” halved in just three weeks at the start of lockdown.
Using data taken from YouGov Weekly Mood Tracker surveys and Google searches, the researchers found that the number of people declaring themselves as “happy” went from 51 per cent just before the UK’s first Covid-19 fatality to 25 per cent by the time lockdown began on 23 March.
However, once lockdown restrictions started to be lifted, these figures reversed, with happiness levels increasing back to close to what they were pre-pandemic, reaching 47 per cent by the end of May."
- No link to the study
- Happiness levels 51 percent -> 25 percent -> 47 percent. The baseline/absolute level of happiness did not increase. Also I'm not sure how you can claim the lockdowns increased the happiness when levels increased when lockdown restrictions started to be lifted.
I don't know the general perceived status of Independent as a news/media source compared to the BBC or CNN or Fox or NYT, but the title could use some serious improvement.
It also irks me when all across the internet today I see validity given to a topic if a certain paper or study is cited as reason for the fact they claim. I believe there are too many studies out there that both sides claim as proving their point. Examples of this can prominently been seen related to COVID topics and on Reddit where comments counter one another with papers being cited. Rarely do people question the validity of the paper, the integrity of the data, the motives of the researchers, etc. Precedence is given to institutional status in the name of science. (ie. A Stanford or Oxford paper)
[1] - https://worldcrunch.com/rue-amelot/david-foster-wallace-find...
>Tinted windows, have to verify not occupied, 200$ insurance claim vs. potential gun in the back of your neck, stop being ignorant
NYC resident saying police is letting people loot without firing tear gas/rubber bullets in SOHO. That the only way the police could have intervened to stop the riots/protests (a crowd of thousands) would have led to it being more violent.
Truly disturbing. Increasing cruelty and suffering in order to minimize monetary loss of profits.
>An epidemiologist, Dr. Carina Blackmore, was the one who contacted the IT director to make the change. Then the IT director contacted Rebekah Jones to actually implement the change and she threw a fit. There is nothing to suggest Dr. Blackmore is political or wanted to support reopening.
>https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/05/19/florida-heal...
>What Dr. Blackmore asked to be removed was a count of unconfirmed cases based on self-reported symptoms. They only wanted confirmed cases represented.
There have been countless discussions already about at risk groups and potential spread to them, QALY's, etc. What I want to get at is "social distancing" is arbitrary (6 feet?) and should not be forced. (I am unsure of your statement "Refusing to social distance is illegal...")
Not too much in this piece other than what's been said in countless HN discussions already.
- The way deaths are counted in each state
- Daily Temperature
- Comorbidity percentage difference for residents - https://covid19tracker.health.ny.gov/views/NYS-COVID19-Track...
89% of total fatalities in New York have at least 1 comorbidity. I wonder to what extent anyone with unknown cause of death or death due to cancer, but also had COVID-19 gets lumped into the death due to COVID-19 category.
Not sure I follow
Looking at the data from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
It seems logical to state, at least within the US, the accuracy of deaths due to COVID-19 are more accurate than total cases of COVID-19. There are a lot of asymptomatic people out there. Even if someone has it with mild symptoms they are told to stay home and only reach the hospital if symptoms are severe. Deaths are more accurate as I assume a test can be performed posthumously for COVID-19.
So, even with this exaggerated ratio, the US has 5 deaths/1M pop. One can reasonably argue this might've been worse if no quarantine measures were in place. However if the true rate is less than 1%, I think the economic effects will be more impactful.
The above link also shows ~27k deaths worldwide due to COVID-19 at the moment. Italy had ~25k deaths due to the flu alone in 2016/2017.
Lot of misinformation out there.