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Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

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Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#91

Post by TallGuyShort »

Zelphyr wrote: post #33
js2 wrote: post #16

The 2017-2018 flu season also overwhelmed US hospitals: https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-patie... https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2017-2018.ht... My point isn't that we should take Coronavirus any less seriously this year. Healthcare workers have no vaccine for it. It's on top of the flu. Etc. My point is that we should take the flu more seriously every year. Everyone gets their…

Yes, I do. Helps that I live with a Nurse Practitioner. However, the number of people I know who are convinced that getting the flu shot makes them sick or gives them the flu and thus refuse to get the shot is shocking. Some things I've actually heard: "I get sick every time!" No, you don't. "It's a LIVE VIRUS! Everybody knows this!" No, it's not. You're just an idiot hanging around with idiots.

People are probably referring to the immune response. The flu shot does trigger an immune response and other side effects, so having a fever, muscle aches, etc. is not made up. I too have a far more severe reaction every time I get a flu shot than I've ever had from actual flu.

Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#93

Post by ceejayoz »

joshlemer wrote: post #58
beepboopbeep wrote: post #15

The American people are at the mercy of a rudderless death cult, and have increasingly been so over the past decade. It's coming to a head now. Oh, it seems I've been flagged.

Is "death cult" just a fancy way of insulting people nowadays? Or is the US administration literally associated with a religious movement that worships death or the dead?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/us/politics/pompeo-christ...

> Studies show that white evangelicals are much more likely than other Americans to believe that Israel fulfills a biblical prophecy. Known as Christian Zionists, they believe God promised the land to the Jews, and that the gathering of Jews in Israel is foretold in the prophecy of the rapture — the ascent of Christians into the kingdom of God.

The Rapture, as interpreted by American evangelicals, includes a whole lot of death in an apocalyptic end to Earth.

Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#94

Post by tombrossman »

sg47 wrote: post #30
js2 wrote: post #16

The 2017-2018 flu season also overwhelmed US hospitals: https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-patie... https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2017-2018.ht... My point isn't that we should take Coronavirus any less seriously this year. Healthcare workers have no vaccine for it. It's on top of the flu. Etc. My point is that we should take the flu more seriously every year. Everyone gets their…

Got my flu shot last year, still ended up with severe flu in February. The flu shot is not completely effective.

> Got my flu shot last year, still ended up with severe flu in February. The flu shot is not completely effective.

My understanding is that the 'flu shot' changes every year, in anticipation of the strains predicted to be the most prevalent that year.

In other words, flu shot producers say "we think flu strains A, B, and C will spread this year" and strains B, C, and D may be what actually spread.

It's still worth getting because even if you catch strain D, your immune system still easily defeated B and C when exposed and you didn't even notice.

Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#95

Post by wool_gather »

lordnacho wrote: post #53
thaumasiotes wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about this event makes the flu shot more important than otherwise?

Flu is so common that people don't realise simple things like washing your hands and getting the shot would reduce the cost massively. With Covid19 we can all see the cost, upfront and at the same time. I'm wondering if we could actually kill the flu by sitting still for a bit. Say we stopped the world, which apparently is a possibility now. Would that get rid of it? And if it would, would it be worth it?

Interesting thought. My understanding is rather that the converse is true: we're headed for a world where both flu and SARS-CoV-2 are endemic.

Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#96

Post by uxp »

Zelphyr wrote: post #33
js2 wrote: post #16

The 2017-2018 flu season also overwhelmed US hospitals: https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-patie... https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2017-2018.ht... My point isn't that we should take Coronavirus any less seriously this year. Healthcare workers have no vaccine for it. It's on top of the flu. Etc. My point is that we should take the flu more seriously every year. Everyone gets their…

Yes, I do. Helps that I live with a Nurse Practitioner. However, the number of people I know who are convinced that getting the flu shot makes them sick or gives them the flu and thus refuse to get the shot is shocking. Some things I've actually heard: "I get sick every time!" No, you don't. "It's a LIVE VIRUS! Everybody knows this!" No, it's not. You're just an idiot hanging around with idiots.

I've received the flu shot three times in my life. I've been hospitalized for influenza three times in my life.

Please tell me more about how I've deceived myself.

Just as the MMR vaccine is less about you contracting measles and more about your spreading measles to more vulnerable populations that are unable to get the vaccine, the flu shot is identical in that regard. Sure, it helps you not get sick and/or to lessen the effects, but there is the fact that some portion of the population is unable to get the shot for various health reasons.

Edit: Instead of downvoting please tell me how my experiences are wrong. I'm very much aware of evidence and studies stating that its "impossible" to get the actual flu from the flu shot, yet I am walking proof of contrary evidence. I'm also aware of how batshit emotional people can get with regards to vaccines, and I want to be clear I am absolutely NOT advocating that anyone forgo getting a flu shot every year. When everyone else gets the shot, I'm safer. When I get the shot, my body reacts violently and I will contract the virus.

Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#97

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

enchiridion wrote: post #75
vnchr wrote: post #34

Well, that’s some fear mongering. The article is all anecdotes. Most of the nurses and doctors they talked to are anonymous sources. According to the AHA[1], there are 6,146 hospitals in the US. There are 68,000 confirmed covid-19 cases in the US, and 33,000 of those cases are all in New York—almost 10x more than the next states (4.4k NJ, 3.2k CA)[2]. I don’t know the rate of hospitalization for the infected, but sym…

Remember the US is short on tests, so I would assume a greater than 20% hospitalization rate because only the most severe cases are being reported.

Mild cases aren't being reported either because none of them qualify for testing and couldn't get one anyway due to low availability.

Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#98

Post by d0mine »

happytoexplain wrote: post #28
js2 wrote: post #16

The 2017-2018 flu season also overwhelmed US hospitals: https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-patie... https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2017-2018.ht... My point isn't that we should take Coronavirus any less seriously this year. Healthcare workers have no vaccine for it. It's on top of the flu. Etc. My point is that we should take the flu more seriously every year. Everyone gets their…

Thank you. Too often this comparison is made to establish the ridiculous inverse argument: We don't take the flu very seriously, so we shouldn't take Corona very seriously.

Why Covid-19 is worse than the flu, in one chart https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/18/21184992/co...

Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#99

Post by loriverkutya »

brenden2 wrote: post #26
beepboopbeep wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

81 people died of the virus in NYC yesterday. I think the large number approach of pandemics can almost sanitize the numbers of their humanity. Imagine 81 people died in a bus accident, or a fire, or a mass shooting. This is very serious and we're still at the beginning of it.

I wrote a comment elsewhere about death rates in the US. 81 people per day is not an astronomical number for the most densely populated part of the country, in fact it's well within the normal number of deaths according to CDC data. In fact, just compared to heart disease alone, it might be slightly on the lower end.

With the current rate it’s going to be 2500 death per day in 10 days.

Re: Coronavirus patients start to overwhelm US hospitals

#100

Post by Rexxar »

brenden2 wrote: post #3

While I'm not questioning the truth of these accounts, what annoys me about all these reports is that they seem to be anecdotes rather than hard data. It's really difficult to understand what's actually going on because the data sucks. It's hard to assess just how full hospitals are, which hospitals are at capacity, how many patients are actually testing positive vs. showing up at the hospital because they feel a bit…

Individually the danger is not so big but the fact that a lot of people are ill simultaneously is unmanageable for hospitals. The number off people who have the virus simultaneously is enough to see there is a big problem.
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