Here's an interesting aside:


Fewer Car Accidents From Sheltering in Place Saved California $1B


Is that a good example for how to live better once we clear the present Corona virus restrictions?


All in our only one world,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

One to quickly move on and away from before The Trump makes a war out of it to distract from his failings...

Kind Donald doesn't want the USA united [first word in name] over a virus, but he is itching to have a war with a huge casualty figure to unite the USA.

Hasn't he already earned his special place in hell?
Whatever Trump touches dies

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https://www.salon.com/2020/04/20/us-experts-at-who-warned-trump-administration-about-new-coronavirus-in-real-time-last-year-report/

More than a dozen U.S. health experts based at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva provided real-time information about the new coronavirus in China last year, according to a new report.

President Donald Trump announced last week that the U.S. would stop providing funding to WHO, because it allegedly "missed the call" by not sounding the alarm "months earlier." Trump, who also accused WHO of being "China-centric," has ramped up his rhetoric against the organization after numerous media reports revealed that the president and his advisers did not head warnings about the emerging pandemic from intelligence agencies, health experts, economists and even top White House aides. The president continued to downplay the threat publicly in an apparent attempt to calm the stock market.

But more than a dozen American doctors, public health experts and researchers, many of whom work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and are detailed to WHO, warned the administration in real time about the outbreak in China as early as last year, according to The Washington Post. Trump-appointed health officials also regularly consulted "at the highest levels" with WHO.

"From the beginning of the outbreak, CDC officials were tracking the disease and consulting with WHO counterparts," The Post reported. "Any information of a sensitive nature about the growing outbreak was and continues to be shared by CDC officials with other U.S. officials in a secure facility located behind the CDC's Emergency Operations Center at its Atlanta headquarters. In the early days of the virus response, those officials included [Health and Human Services] Secretary Alex Azar."

Caitlin Oakley, an HHS spokeswoman, confirmed that the department had 17 members, including 16 from the CDC, who were "working on a variety of programs, including COVID-19" at the WHO.

This is like a bad science fiction movie.

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This is like a bad science fiction movie.

And you are one of the extras.

Yeah, in a good science fiction movie over half the world's population would have died by now, like in the mini series "The Last Ship"

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Quote of the day...
"There are more important things than living" Lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick
https://www.newsweek.com/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-fox-news-tucker-carlson-1499106
https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1252400233662693377
That's like the Old Norse tradition Ättestupan. "It's about honour".

"There are more important things than living" Lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick

Profit, er greed, is more important than life. Isn't that why it is called a deadly sin? I thought the GOP thumped bibles?

"There are more important things than living" Lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick

Profit, er greed, is more important than life. Isn't that why it is called a deadly sin? I thought the GOP thumped bibles?

Well. It's not a religious thought really. But I suggest Dan Patrick is first to go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwD7f5ZWhAk

Cases world wide has now passed 2,255,000 while the U.S. is still setting standards that no other major civilised country would want with over 817,000 cases now (it's creeping ever closer to accounting for a third of the world's cases) and at least 45,000 deaths (almost a quarter of the world's), meanwhile testing there is still well below what 1 would expected from a major power. :-O

The U.K. (6th spot by cases reported) has been closing the gap just lately with Germany while Russia (10th spot) is been russian to catch up with China (pun intended).

Meanwhile South Korea is now down to 26th spot, but Ecuador has its eyes currently set on that spot, while Australia has been swamped and is currently down to 40th spot now, but it is going to be swamped even further soon enough.

The Tour of Corona is continuing. Amazing race here in the world and all teams are making a great effort to make the general classification, "GC", that's for this year is reverted, meaning the winner is the first loser.
So far the US is in the big lead with the most virus cases before Spain and Italy.
Good news is that Germany has got the most recoveries before Spain.
Sorry to say that US leads the death jersey before Italy and Spain.

Even West Virginia, which some were touting as being the place to be, is heading up the list of U.S. states and territories with 929 cases and 26 deaths now.

Just noted that.
Maine, Vermont, North Dakota, Hawaii, Wyoming , Montana and Alaska are now a much better places to be in now according to the coronavirus reports.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
But still Dull's home country West Virginia is pretty safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrEljMfXYo
Every country no matter how big or small, there are regions that are more populated then others.
Some are more populated then other and they are more likely to be infected in a pandemic.
Like Stockholm and New York City.

Today from Valerie Sobel........

(Valerie Sobel is an internationally published blogger and full time Economist and Statistician living in Alberta Canada).

WE KILLED THE ECONOMY FOR THIS?

or SEASONAL FLU vs. COVID-19 in the USA: A lesson in history & statistics.

I’ve been reading with shock and awe many conversations and posts by conservatives about the virus pandemic. I’ve been dumbfounded how I have allowed myself to participate in a forum where people cannot process basic facts and most basic information available at data source everywhere on the net. My stomach turns as I am unable to understand how so many have such a lack of curiosity about actual data and how so many re-post articles of soundbite superficiality.

Allow me this last attempt to reason with many of you. I will not entertain any stupidity, ignorance, or politicization of this post or data presented…in the comments below. I will happily reply to any comments which speak to numbers and data characteristics. I resent myself for wasting time on tangents, nonsense and personal emotional or political agenda when it comes to the subject of health/lives.

The following stats are sourced from www.cdc.gov, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Let’s put our thinking caps on, strain ourselves a bit and come up with a logical analysis of what every Tom, Dick and Harry is emoting about these days.

Here are USA’s historical flu death rates for the last 8 annual periods.
Flu 2018-2019 killed: 34,200
Flu 2017-2018 killed: 61,099
Flu 2016-2017 killed: 38,230
Flu 2015-2016 killed: 22,705
Flu 2014-2015 killed: 51,376
Flu 2013-2014 killed: 42,570
Flu 2012-2013 killed: 12,447
Flu 2011-2012 killed: 36,656
Average Annual Death Rate: 37,410
Average Number of Flu-illness cases annually: 35.5M
Average Number of Flu hospitalizations: 500,000
Average Death Rate: 0.1%

Wow! Sure looks familiar to the Covid-19 numbers, don’t it?
An annual average 37,410 dead from the flu, almost the same as the 45,172 dead to date from Covid-19. So why in God’s name would President Trump want to shut down the economy for a bit of the covid-19 sniffles? And why would practically every civilized country on earth do the same? The leaders of the 200+ countries must be on some kind of moron spectrum to have done such a thing!

Except for a few minor details Facebook experts of garden variety constantly overlook when citing their theories and quoting news articles of soundbite quality without context.

Let’s have a look…

1. The Flu numbers are ANNUAL. Let’s repeat: ANNUAL! Although the flu season generally happens in between October in May, CDC includes all flu-related deaths for the year. Not a minor detail, a colossal factor in data collection/presentation which is ignored entirely by the “Apples vs. Oranges” cabal of ‘expert’ analysts on FB.

2. The Flu has 2 HUGE combatants against it: a boatload of vaccines and umpteenth amount of therapeutics! Does COVID ...?

The death total for Covid-19 began on February 29th with the first American death. Today is April 21st and we have roughly 45,000 dead. That’s a 51-day period. Now let’s compare this to the flu death stat of a 12-month period at 37,410 dead. If we are to calculate the same 51-day stretch for flu death numbers, we get a mere 5,358 dead! That’s 5358 dead of flu vs. 45,000 dead for the same stretch of time (51 days) of Covid-19.

Hmmm…. but we’re nowhere close to making a conclusion, yet.

Now for the annoyingly slow, let’s summarize:

The Flu kills 10 times LESS than Covid-19 (as per historical numbers chewed up before you above). But under what conditions? Are the conditions the same for both illnesses when we compare them? Sure they are, if you’ve been living on the moon for the last 2 months.

Covid-19 has, so far, killed 10 times more than the flu in the most aggressively mitigated conditions! Economies shut down, everyone in quarantine….and it is still killing 10 times more than the flu! And without any availability of a vaccine and therapeutics on the market.

The CDC models were only wrong in one aspect: they could not accurately size up the effect of mitigation and compliance to that mitigation. And instead of 30 times more dead (as originally estimated by WHO), you ended up with 10 times more dead over the flu. That’s hardly a happy place for anyone.

Anyone who puts flu and covid-19 numbers side by side needs to understand exactly what they’re comparing. Most of the time, these “intelligent” conservatives are comparing their inability to comprehend context and data facts with their inability to spot media soundbites without any context. Which is exactly why the numbers look an awful lot similar to them.

Data is available for anyone with grade 4 math education to calculate flu vs. covid death rates, while taking into account the key conditions that data evolved from (mitigated vs. unmitigated, vaccined vs. unvaccined, treatment-available vs. treatment-unavailable) and time periods (annual vs. a mere 6 week stretch) for which data is presented. Something your articles never cite and never even mention because the emotional outrage they want to craft is much more important. Nothing has been easier to check for yourself, by every reader, every "expert". Yet here we are…intellectual laziness by seemingly intelligent conservatives.

Bottom line: if you want to compare flu numbers with Covid, do it statistically correctly. And then try to understand why Trump has done what he has done and why Dr. Fauci knows his stuff. And why the two work together until today. And maybe then, the rocket scientists amongst us will understand why most countries in the world have done the same by shutting down.

Conclusion: Draconian mitigation has allowed this disease to progress at a rate 10 times worse than the flu. Period.

You want your livelihood back? We all do. Understood. But don’t fabricate your own math and incomparable stats to support economic arguments. Livelihood over lives - is a personal choice and comes from self-protectionism. And no amount of manufactured math or apples to oranges talking points pulls the wool over anyone’s eyes.

To date, Israel has been hailed as the top performer against Covid-19. It is also the one country which has shut down immediately and most aggressively. Same with some of the eastern European countries.

What do they have in common? Ability to live under strife and comply with restrictions, as they have done historically. Sweden and UK are watching crazy death numbers, because they did the opposite. UK closed cases death rates are now blocked out from WHO website. Every day I calculate the number manually, it stands at 97% death rate currently (cases that have had an outcome) compared to an average of 21% world-wide. Horrendous!

Americans can’t stand the loss of liberty even if it means massive loss of life. It’s an American trait. But 45,000 dead in 51 days is massive. Yet, the same people beat their fists on the table for unborn fetuses.

Trump and Fauci have been entirely correct in their leadership on the virus. Leaving your thinking caps off when you compare flu and covid death rates isn’t entertaining, it’s tragic. And it doesn’t make the rest of us feel warm fuzzy knowing we’re in this company of dull conservatives. Leave the thinking to Trump’s team and take cue form them on when and how we should get back to normal. And for God’s sake…leave the flu numbers alone if you can’t comprehend what they are.

You want the economy opened? Argue based on your emotional and financial needs. Be honest about it. Unmitigated stats are not on your side.

We shut down the economy for this? Yes, we have. And if you still haven’t figured it out...c’est la vie, there’s not much anyone can do for you now. Wait for a vaccine to help you recover from the cognitive fog.

p.s. For the keeners, Economists and data lovers like me:

- Italy isn’t the worst for covid lethality. San Moreno is (per capita). Belgium, not Italy, is second. Belgian government has admitted they have no clue what they’re doing and have actually destroyed millions of masks in 2015 without any replenishment. Belgium cities are known for pre-Covid congregations of people in squares and in parks. Spain is 4th after Andorra, which is 3rd worst. And Italy comes in 5th place.

- Likewise, San Moreno leads the world in most illness cases per capita. USA a distant 15th worst. Switzerland which has done hardly any mitigation to speak of, comes in in 11th place, 2 spots ahead of Italy. Let’s say that again: Switzerland with hardly any mitigation is worse than Italy! Who’s surprised?

- US has done 4.5 Million tests, twice as many as the first runner-up, Russia.

- On per capita basis, San Marino, the country with the worst death and illness record, has done much, much more testing than the US. Which blows the whole stuttering argument for Pelosi’s “testing, testing, testing”. Israel is 13th in testing, yet has the best record against Covid. Strictly because of aggressive mitigation and most responsible compliance by citizens of that country, bar none.

- All Eastern European countries are miles better off than central and western European ones. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia, Lithuania, Moldova, Czechia, Romania, Estonia, Slovenia…are all much less lethal on per capita illnesses and death rates than their central and western Europe counterparts. Reason? Ability to withstand the most restrictive mitigation, restrictions and strife, and right from the onset (cultural evolutionary DNA!). Think of this as the Russian Eastern front during WW2 and scorched earth left for Napoleon.

p.s.s. For all those "we reached the peak days ago" enthusiasts, you should probably take stock in this: the most horrific day on record to date is today, April 21st, with a staggering 2804 deaths in the good ol' US of A.

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

SEASONAL FLU vs. COVID-19 in the USA

Now what's the outcome of "Seasonal Flu + Covid-19"?

A lesson in history & statistics? Nonsense. The person who wrote the article doesn't know anything about statistics and data collection!
Yes. You can make statistics from history data but not from data during an ongoing pandemic.
Especially not comparing data from different countries that all have different methods to collect the data.
Many countries exclude death from COVID-19 not dying in a hospital!
It will take a couple of months from now to see what is happening and what measurements taken had a positive or negative effect.

Oh. She mention San Marino as the worst for covid lethality. I bet she doesn't even know what San Marino is:)
And she also think that anyone with grade 4 math education could do the math.
Sorry. You need correct data and much bigger samples to make any statistics at all before you could draw any conclusions from in this pandemic case.

Come to think about it. An easy way would be to make graphs comparing data of the total deaths from last year and this year no matter the cause. The difference is the extra people dying of COVID-19.

All this baloney about stats, reminds me of Number 6:
I Am Not A Number