Anyone else find it amazing that 10,000 Americans dying weekly from Covid is now an afterthought??

[NoMoreRepugs]

[Autumn]

1. It seems that most of the politicians act like the pandemic is at an end.

[riversedge]

2. Very little in the news about the deadly covid.

[left-of-center2012]

60. My local news (New Mexico) covers in it each broadcast.

[mizogan]

67. Another New Mexican

I am glad to be a resident in the Land of Enchantment where our governor is non apologetic about the need to protect each other. She is not afraid of science and focuses on protecting our diverse population us with clear guidelines.

[dumbcat]

3. 0.003% of the population

That may be why.

[wnylib]

18. And yet, every city, village, and rural area

is affected by not only the deaths, but the health damage to people who recovered, not to mention the people who could not get emergency treatment in overwhelmed hospitals and died. Seems like it deserves some ongoing attention.

[Pinback]

28. Third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020,

after heart disease and cancer. (Source: CDC.)

Total U.S. gun deaths in 2020 were 43,634 (all causes, with suicide being the highest). With 37,149 deaths from gun violence so far in 2021, we're on a similar trajectory. (Source: Gun Violence Archive).

So we're currently seeing about the same number of COVID deaths every month that we see from gun violence in an entire year. It's all in how you look at the numbers.

Your point is well taken, though. In a recent episode of Andy Slavitt's In the Bubble podcast, Dr. Ashish Jha pointed out that in a lot of areas across the country (and among more privileged demographic groups everywhere else), it's easy to ignore COVID danger, because most people within these fortunate populations personally know few or no COVID victims.

[fescuerescue]

66. It was only #3? !

I would have thought it was be #1 by a very very wide margin.

[Pinback]

75. Cancer and heart disease continue to be the heavy hitters

as they have been for a long time. Surprised me too.

[jaxexpat]

69. "people within these fortunate populations personally know few or no COVID victims".....

can't be said loudly or often enough. When the MSM focuses on fear these are the first communities to take measures to ameliorate the cause for panic. So long as their strategy is successful the urgency erodes and the "emergency" message dissipates. When their isolation no longer protects them, the poor suffer in low-Neilson-impact silence while the well-to-do just plain don't suffer, never did.

If the MSM were to focus on facts and the public good their "sponsors" would soon be broke. Broken and no longer welcome within the circle of their peers.

[Bucky]

29. I know you're just offering context and explaining the excuses, but jeeze

That's still 10,000 preventable deaths.

I think it's our culture seeing some people as expendable--the poor, the brown, the old, the vulnerable

Of this was hitting a different demographic, we'd see a shitload more coverage. I wonder if advertisers are tennis corporate need channels to play down the deaths and hospitalizations. It's bad for business and they probably want a Republican Congress in 2023.

A middle of the road Democratic president and a boisterous tax-cutty GOP Congress was great for business. Plus there was no reckless talk of balancing the budget or making the wealthy paying their fair share.

[spanone]

49. ...and for two weeks we've heard daily about one death on a movie set.

[Evolve Dammit]

53. and the white couple; country is brain-dead I swear.

[spanone]

58. Yep.

Never seen anything like it.

[pnwmom]

61. Per WEEK. That's a much bigger number than it looks. n/t

[WhiteTara]

70. except when those dadgum workers don't show up

and then they blame the living.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Remember when people said that we had to shut everything down because "no deaths are acceptable"? nt

[leftstreet]

19. +1

seems like yesterday

[Mariana]

73. Who said that?

I don't think anyone with two brain cells to rub together ever thought there could be zero deaths from this, no matter what was done.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Corporate McPravda doesn't want to effect GOP in VA

More voters are reminded, the more they blame Peeresident Trumputin.

[peacebuzzard]

6. Deep in a red state no one cares: More deaths, no masks.

It's all about your freedoms here.
No, I am not amazed at all; at first there was a slight bit of respect for the unknown but after 1 week of the shut down most of the repugs were complaining and non-compliant around here. More deaths than ever in TN but no one cares or cared, not before and certainly not now.

[DENVERPOPS]

51. Mother Nature screwed up......

Covid should be much more infectious in Deep Red States..........

Hopefully, she won't make that same mistake again.......

[peacebuzzard]

71. I think it is,

numbers are still high for hospitalizations, positive tests as well. What I hate about it is: folks here are using the monoclonal antibody treatment as a resource in case of infection, which for the unvaccinated is a higher probability. Meanwhile, the premise is floating, depending on the source and availability, that vaccinated individuals with the rare breakout would be denied this type of treatment.

So ok, if someone follows all the recommendations: the proper vaccination protocol, proper social procedures and has the ill fated breakout they are denied the premium treatment. Not right at all. Something is wrong with this scenario.

[genxlib]

7. By my calculations

We should be starting six new wars a week.

But apparently Americans killed by terrorists are more valuable than Americans killed by a virus.

[AZLD4Candidate]

16. You're partially right. If the American killed is an unarmed black person that cops kill,

The American means nothing, deserved it, and needs to learn to obey. After all, freedom!

[ProfessorGAC]

40. You're Exaggerating!

It's only 5 wars a week!
Great point!

[malletgirl02]

80. Good point

If Florida was a country, the calls for a humanitarian invasion would have been deafening.

[2naSalit]

8. Last night...

Fucking Bill Maher had a "I'm vaxxed and not going to wear a mask or stay home anymore..." fest leaving Sen. Coons, the one guest not amused by this attitude, to try and explain why they have their heads up their asses. There was no mention of the continued unacceptable high number of daily deaths.

Montana is quietly seeing the highest number of hospitalizations and deaths of the pandemic and still, we have a low vax rate, few wearing masks and the gov won't help the hospitals that are overwhelmed. You can tell it's getting bad because the NPR station news (I'd call it local but it covers at least half the state and some of Wyoming) is announcing how many people died each day now. I know authorities at the county level having worked at the county for a spell, ran into one of them a few days ago in a store. Very brief conversation revealed that all the crap you see covidiots doing at school board meets and such, are doing it right here in our very red county too. The person referred to the actions of these folks as flaming out in public, truly astonished at the level of violent hatred focused on the elected officials.

The gov/legislature created barriers for public health officials Texas style last spring removing authority from the public health officers. They only meet once every two years so they got all that rammed through in 90 days, the rest of the time is reserved for lawsuits. We already live in the northern version of texas.

[Sherman A1]

12. There is an easy fix to your Bill Maher problem

[2naSalit]

13. And that's what I did.

I had to see if there was rebuttal, only from the Senator. I didn't watch the rest of the show. I can usually watch the whole thing but I felt it was a dangerous and irresponsible act for him to broadcast that attitude and proclaim the pandemic over when it is far from that.

At that point I decided he was about as bad as an antivaxxer, moved on to something else though I feel he should be called out for it.

[Jon King]

24. I agree with Bill Maher 100%

Sorry, I think he is right. We did the right thing and are now living our lives. Just went to Universal Orlando, no masks, had a great time.

We exercise daily, eat clean, are fit, are vaccinated. Our kids and us are enjoying life again. Our risks from Covid are lower than our risk of a car accident.

Life is super short, any of us could get hit by a bus tomorrow. The pandemic is over for us. Anyone dying made a choice, they are likely already unhealthy yet still did not get vaccinated.

Not going to lose one second worrying about those who made their personal choice to be stupid.

[Bucky]

33. People dying from this aren't just those who "choose to be stupid"

Christ, what's wrong with you?
People who are ill from other conditions, who are old, who are immunocompromised, who are too young to get the vaccine, who've been hoodwinked by the anti-vax nuts... and not a few who were vaccinated and masked and just got slammed by a bad strain at the wrong time by some glib ass who wasn't being safe and responsible.

Catching covid isnt a fucking meritocracy where the sick "got what they had coming." Damn.

This is still a pandemic. I'm not shutting myself in. I'm going out, but I'm taking precautions. It's possible to do that without being a social Darwinist.

[2naSalit]

34. And for those of us...

Who are vaxxed yet have a chance of getting sick anyway because we live in death-wish region still have to abide by the precautions?

And thanks for coming to vacation land while the virus is still rampant. It doesn't take a degree in biology to get why the mindset of Mr. Maher is as good as the anti-vaxxers. You either do the right thing 100% to the end, rather than when you individually decide you're tired of it, or you are extending the misery, period.

We are only part way there, giving up now is a bad move.

[Thtwudbeme]

37. We are doing almost everything you are- with masks on. So tell me-

What the fuck difference wearing a masks makes in your "living your life?"

Can you please explain to me why wearing a mask somehow prohibits you from "enjoying life?"

[2naSalit]

47. That's not what I was saying...

We still have to do this for our personal safety while others not wearing masks are facilitating the extension of the pandemic. Some of us are still trying to fight it while too many are just worried about their comfort and not their impact on the rest of us who have to live with taking precautions while others are defeating these efforts by being flippant about the state of the pandemic.

[orleans]

57. my god--stay away from young children! you can still spread the shit

Vaccinated People Also Spread the Delta Variant, Yearlong Study Shows

People inoculated against Covid-19 are just as likely to spread the delta variant of the virus to contacts in their household as those who haven’t had shots, according to new research.

In a yearlong study of 621 people in the U.K. with mild Covid-19, scientists found that their peak viral load was similar regardless of vaccination status, according to a paper published Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal. The analysis also found that 25% of vaccinated household contacts still contracted the disease from an index case, while 38% of those who hadn’t had shots became infected.

The results go some way toward explaining why the delta variant is so infectious even in nations with successful vaccine rollouts, and why the unvaccinated can’t assume they are protected because others have had shots. Those who were inoculated cleared the virus more quickly and had milder cases, while unvaccinated household members were more likely to suffer from severe disease and hospitalization.

“Our findings show that vaccination alone is not enough to prevent people from being infected with the delta variant and spreading it in household settings,” said Ajit Lalvani, a professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College London who co-led the study. “The ongoing transmission we are seeing between vaccinated people makes it essential for unvaccinated people to get vaccinated to protect themselves.”

Vaccination was found to reduce household transmission of the alpha variant -- first discovered in the U.K. in late 2020 -- by between 40% and 50%, and infected vaccinated individuals had a lower viral load in the upper respiratory tract than those who hadn’t had shots. The delta variant has been the dominant strain globally for some time, however.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-28/getting-vaccinated-doesn-t-stop-people-from-spreading-delta

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59077036

[HUAJIAO]

59. WOW! Just .......wow !!

[elias7]

78. The pandemic is over for you? Wow.

As a physician and a citizen of the world, I would ask you to rethink your position, as though you may not realize it, you are guilty of perpetuating the pandemic along with placing others at risk who cannot get vaccinated, are immunosuppressed, or have issues (elderly and co-morbidities) that might contribute to a breakthrough infection. No one who gets Covid is a bad person and no one deserves it. Sadly, there are many misguided people out there but they are the true sheep, in need of guidance from educated folks like you and me.

It’s really not about “life is short” and YOLO and other such bullshit mantras; it’s about how do we, as members of the human race work together to protect all of us.

[Pinback]

44. It requires thinking of others for two seconds

-- something Maher and many other Americans find rather challenging.

Imagine, if you will (Rod Serling voice) a healthy, fully vaccinated guy who is an asymptomatic COVID carrier, standing unmasked in a grocery store line, breathing Delta COVID all over the masked person standing in front of him -- who is fully vaccinated but an organ transplant recipient and therefore taking immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their life. (Our subject has to do all the shopping as the sole caregiver for an Alzheimers patient).

The immunosuppressed person, whose mask was a tad ill-fitting that day and therefore not 100% effective against transmission, goes home, and a few days later develops COVID symptoms, eventually ends up going to the hospital, spends their final weeks or days breathing with the aid of a respirator, and finally dies.

No sweat for the healthy asymptomatic COVID transmitter -- who doesn't even know he passed the deadly virus on to a vulnerable person. He'll continue going blithely through life without social distancing or wearing a mask, because he's vaccinated, so fuck the rest of 'em!

[Irish_Dem]

9. They don't care about gun deaths, same with Covid deaths.

[Jerry2144]

17. But

Undifferentiated human blastocysts require the National guard to protect.

[Irish_Dem]

27. They don't really care about blastocysts, it is a patriarchy control issue.

[Jerry2144]

35. Exactly

On the surface they claim to want to protect a clump of cells. But it really is about furthering the Confederacy and controlling anyone not white, not male, and not “christian” ( their definition of Christianity, not the one that is actually in the Bible)

[Irish_Dem]

36. White supremacists have huge control issues.

[Jerry2144]

48. Compensating

For something that is the exact opposite of huge

[Irish_Dem]

50. Cannot disagree.

[Wingus Dingus]

20. Right. Almost half of this country is a death cult.

As long as I get to do what I feel like doing, I don't care about anyone else.

[Solomon]

10. Frogs in the water syndrome and all.

[Aristus]

11. It's an afterthought to the fact that people would rather die

than take simple precautions against contracting and/or spreading a deadly disease.

[2naSalit]

15. Too many...

Can't be bothered with acting in their own self interest if it means they may need to alter some of their daily routine.

[Eyeball_Kid]

14. Whistling past the graveyard. n/t

[Hortensis]

21. Media played a big role until vaccination cut the death rates.

Any story ages, but I am assuming the midterm elections coming up fast are the most significant reason.

Because right now everything political is about elections and the existential struggle for the future of our nation. And burying the lede, as the deaths surely are, is a major technique used by RW-serving MSM to help defeat Democrats.

[Jon King]

22. They made their choice, just like a person riding a motorcycle at 150 mph.

It is what it is, they made a choice. The only people dying are almost solely people who are not physically fit and still choose not to get a free vaccine that has been available everywhere for a year.

To me zero difference between the guy who decides to take his crotch rocket motorcycle and weave in and out of highway traffic without a helmet at 150 mph.

At some point people make their decisions and the rest of us have to have on with our lives.

[Lars39]

45. But when that guy barely survives and has to live the rest

of his miserable life in a hospital? Now multiply that by thousands, with the resulting overburdened hospitals and burned out nurses and doctors. Their selfish actions affect us all.

[Roc2020]

23. Reason more important than Ever to

Do everything vax/mask/distance/etc to protect Yourself and Your loved ones.

[lapfog_1]

25. I was starting to become so tired of Bill Maher

but last nights program where he basically stated "the pandemic is over" and "natural immunity is the best immunity" and "mask or vaccine, pick one" and obesity is the cause of Covid death (no you fucking moron, obesity is just a fact of life in the USA... so it follows that COVID is killing more obese people HERE)... that was the breaking point for me.

And his panel didn't apparently have the knowledge to point out just how wrong he was in each of his assertions.

The worst part is that he stated that some on the left apparently want to keep the SARS-COV-2 pandemic going. And his personal sacrifice was that he "hasn't met with his staff face to face in 2 years".

Fuck him.

[Bucky]

38. Natural immunity is the best immunity

is literally stupid. There's like actual science and math that demonstrates that's not true. Natural immunity wears off faster than the vaccine. The best is having been sick with the Rona and then getting a full vaccine treatment. But obviously no one wants to do that. 2nd best is being vaccinated. There's like numbers and shit clearly documenting that.

People telling lies about this in a pandemic should be treated legally like those telling lies that help the enemy in a war. They are literally conspiring the make Americans sick.

[twodogsbarking]

26. It was inevitable that Americans would just accept

the deaths. The timing was the question. It really sucks.

[peppertree]

30. A shocking figure - given that in 2019, 55,000 a week in the U.S. died from ALL causes put together

[Bucky]

42. These also stealth ways the pandemic increased deaths by other causes

Murders went up (tho suicides went down marginally). Traffic accidents increases, cancers that went undetected or undertreated because of hospital crowding increased over 2019, as did work & sports fatalities, heart diseases, and other mortality agents.

And we aren't even looking at underreporting of actual covid deaths.

[peppertree]

76. Sad but true

The number of official Covid deaths in 2020 was 366,000 - but excess deaths were around 510,000 (3.39 m total, to 2.88 m expected).

Many of these 150,000 or so deaths beyond what Covid accounts for, are no doubt accounted for by the factors you explained above.

Not least, the tens of thousands suspected to have gone uncounted in Flawrida.

The times we have to live in.

[elleng]

31. Horrifying.

[SledDriver]

32. It's been normalized.

[dlk]

39. The disrespect for human life is truly barbaric

Yet, there is so much hysteria over women’s reproductive rights. We have far to go as a nation.

[jlerollblues]

41. Good point, but the US number is 1100 a day

Currently it is about 1100 a day not including the extraneous numbers from overcrowding. The scariest thing is what could be coming called the SARS-CoV-2 variant A.30 which is heavily mutated and evades vaccine-induced antibodies with high efficiency. Likely originating in Tanzania and it had been detected in Sweden and Angola this spring. It seems to possibly have been isolated although I would not hold my breath.

Even at over a 1000 a day how can this be ignored. You notice how prevalent the masks are on Biden's Europe tour? The US is acting, like you said, it is over. My pandemic model was optimistic in its year end forecast about a month ago but is now predicting another surge. I wish there was a way to post daily forecasts for you folks (after I fix a bug in the Message Passing Interface for the parallel version). I am appalled I am generally the only one with a mask at the local businesses, except the Farmer's Market of all places. My last simulation before I discovered this bug that caused an underprediction was ~2000 a day by the end of the year. If A.30 makes it way we are back to pre-vaccine square one. A traditional vaccine (not an nRNA we currently use) is being developed by Dr. Peter Hotez at Baylor and should provide a longer lasting vaccine effective against almost all mutations. It appears our current vaccines may be waning faster than initially thought. As a cancer patient I got a booster after 4 months but still don't feel safe. A national lockdown could be necessary but the almighty dollar seems to have larger sway over lives in this fucked up country.

I can post some general numbers daily on a state by state basis. I'd like to show more, the model resolves infections down to an area about the size of a few city blocks (1km) but I am working out the kinks. An MD friend has said she would like to display this on her website (medium.com) where she is fighting the quack doctors pushing snake oil.

Take care folks and enjoy a safe Halloween,
Joe

[NoMoreRepugs]

74. Yesterday's declining 7 day ave death number was 1366.

9500+ for the current week (7 days). That’s with 20+ RePutinican states reporting inside the totals - 10,000+ seems fair.

[KPN]

43. No. It's who we are ... complacent sheep it seems.

[Ford_Prefect]

46. Someone was saying that was Fake News...Another Chinese Hoax according to some people.

What you don't know can't hurt you ???

10,000 per week is my town dead and erased by Tuesday evening. My entire county gone before Thanksgiving.

One problem ongoing is that the few who "get it" before COVID finally gets them aren't around to repeat the story, over and over, on the News. They just evaporate as if they've taken Scrooge's dictum to heart and are electively decreasing the surplus population.

[Initech]

52. What's even more insane is that anti-vaxxers are voluntarily killing themselves!

[uponit7771]

54. Only 64% of democrats believe Voter Suppression is a problem (link)

[NightWatcher]

55. If those of us who care enough to get vaxxed aren't dying, fuck the unvaxed adults.

My kid is getting vaxxed in the next week or so and we are caught up on the booster. We still mask up.

Fuck the cops who refuse the vaccine, fuck the republicans who still think its fake.


See ya in hell

[Calculating]

56. What's that saying?

The show must go on....
We can't just keep everything locked down until covid is gone, it's never going away. All we can do is vax people to give them a fighting chance against it, and then back to life.

[Richard D]

62. CDC says . . .

1,129
Current 7-Day Average*


https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

[jlerollblues]

65. and don't forget

Herd Immunity is bullshit. This updated study suggests despite a previous infection you are still 5x more likely to get the virus vs the vaccinated person. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7044e1.htm

[Larissa]

63. Was there an official announcement that the Covid-19 pandemic is over?

For me, it is the so called lulls in a pandemic that can be the most terrifying. History has demonstrated that it is when people let their guards down that viruses comes roaring back in a devastating manner. I'm not trying to be a Cassandra. People have stopped wearing face masks in my neck of the woods in New Jersey. Even in the stores, the masks seem to have almost vanished overnight.

Protests were held this past week in New York against the work mandates for vaccinations. Cops don't want to be wearing masks, but Covid-19 is the number one cop killer. Am I the one that's insane? No one in the anti-vaccine mandate marches wear masks. Did I miss the "all clear" announcement? Could it possibly be that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) punched out on the time clock and I just didn't notice?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom I respect, put it precisely regarding the issue of relaxing public health measures. "You don't make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline". "The virus is the clock." Americans don't want to hear this. And so they won't.

[Polybius]

64. NYC without a mask mandate repulses me

Why hasn't there been talk of re-instating it?

[Snackshack]

68. Where does the 10k/wk come from?

From the CDC site it shows 1,129 as the 7 day average. But the CDC site also shows a total American deaths at 740,348 while World of Meters (which has been pretty reliable as a source of info IMO) show total of 765,757 so who knows what the real #’s are. IMO I think COVID deaths are well over 1 million, that there has been a gross under counting of deaths caused by COVID that were attributed to some other reason.

[NickB79]

77. 1,129 is a daily average over the past 7 days

So around 7,800/week.

[traitorsgalore]

79. Traitor Dan Patrick from Texas said it "there are more important things than living"

MONEY matters in our predatory deregulated capitalism, only money. It's why businesses don't enforce masking, their money matters more than our lives. Want teeth...fuck you, billionaires need to fly to space. Need affordable medications...fuck you, we "have to work with conservatives".