Having a hard time calling this a pandemic...

[squatting dog]

It appears that the Latest numbers from the CDC website show the data from 2017....like most government data, it is behind the times.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm#:~:text=Number of deaths for leading causes of death.,(cerebrovascular diseases): 142,142. Alzheimer’s disease: 116,103. Diabetes: 80,058.

However, if you review the CDC numbers regarding heart and cancer related deaths, then check the latest number of CV-19 deaths, the virus has easily become the 3rd largest cause.

Other reputable sites show much more current data....here's just one of many.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200818/covid-the-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-us

Using the figures, that makes covid the number three killer in 2017. which of course is redundant. There are no solid numbers for 2020, so nobody, not even Dr Frieden can accurately predict where covid will eventually end up.
Webnd doesn't have any 2020 figures either, so... again... redundant.

 

[Don M.]

Using the figures, that makes covid the number three killer in 2017. which of course is redundant. There are no solid numbers for 2020, so nobody, not even Dr Frieden can accurately predict where covid will eventually end up.
Webnd doesn't have any 2020 figures either, so... again... redundant.

This virus didn't exist in 2017, so the data on the CDC web site does not apply.

If you Need the numbers, so far, for 2020, just tune into the TV news....it is usually updated daily. Irregardless of which source you chose to believe, Covid-19 is Now the 3rd leading cause of death for 2020, in the U.S....but still well below the numbers for cancer and heart attacks.

 

[asp3]

Using the figures, that makes covid the number three killer in 2017. which of course is redundant. There are no solid numbers for 2020, so nobody, not even Dr Frieden can accurately predict where covid will eventually end up.
Webnd doesn't have any 2020 figures either, so... again... redundant.

I disagree. I think it is possible for someone to accurately predict where where it will end up. Other reasons for death tend to be fairly stable, and one can take the current death rate and infection rates for Covid, take best case and worst case numbers for future infection rates and death rates and get good estimates of what the best we can expect and the worst we can expect.

If one is really good at understanding trends and how they change over time one can get a very accurate estimate of where something will be in a given amount of time. Actuaries at insurance companies do it all the time for all sorts of types of insurance one can purchase.

 

[squatting dog]

This virus didn't exist in 2017, so the data on the CDC web site does not apply.

If you Need the numbers, so far, for 2020, just tune into the TV news....it is usually updated daily. Irregardless of which source you chose to believe, Covid-19 is Now the 3rd leading cause of death for 2020, in the U.S....but still well below the numbers for cancer and heart attacks.

I really doubt that TV news is reporting all the heart disease, cancer, Chronic lower respiratory diseases, Stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Diabetes, Influenza and pneumonia, Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis, and Intentional self-harm daily. So again... no way to prove it's number three killer until all numbers are in. Is that really that hard to understand?

 

[squatting dog]

I disagree. I think it is possible for someone to accurately predict where where it will end up. Other reasons for death tend to be fairly stable, and one can take the current death rate and infection rates for Covid, take best case and worst case numbers for future infection rates and death rates and get good estimates of what the best we can expect and the worst we can expect.

If one is really good at understanding trends and how they change over time one can get a very accurate estimate of where something will be in a given amount of time. Actuaries at insurance companies do it all the time for all sorts of types of insurance one can purchase.

Well, we can agree to disagree. Can anyone predict what the annual suicide rate will be this year? Lot's of news stories tell about climbing rates, yet I doubt anyone could accurately predict the rate.

 

[Lethe200]

Coronaviruses and flu viruses are totally different. As one scientist said, the two bear the same similarities as koalas and mosquitos.

Flu, for example, is not anywhere near as infectious as SARS-COV2:

COVID infectiousness graphic
Answer by Steven Haddock, 10July2020
From Quora.com: How easy is it to get infected by the coronavirus?

Very.

Example #1: 61 people attended a choir practice in Skagit County, Washington in March 2020. None of them were symptomatic. They avoided contact and had lots of hand sanitizer. They were there for two and a half hours. 32 of them were confirmed infected and another 20 had symptoms. Two died.



Example #2: On February 18, a female parishioner tested positive after attending church services. Two days later, 15 people connected to the church also tested positive. Soon after, another hundred cases appeared in buildings surrounding the church. A month later, 5,080 cases were traced back directly to the Church.

====

The problem with COVID-19 is that we are beginning to see deleterious long-term health effects in survivors. There is growing evidence that COVID-19 impairs the immunoresponse in some people for months on end, possibly years. It is estimated between 12-21% of survivors may suffer disabling symptoms for periods ranging from several weeks to over a year.

 

[PopsnTuff]

This CoronaVirus is now the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.....with Cancer and Heart Disease still far more deadly. However, the longer this disease lingers, the greater the possibility of it taking over a higher position, statistically. It has already taken the lives of many elderly who were suffering other illnesses, and now the trend seems to be more among the young who resist adhering to the recommendations. The Immediate big "question mark" is how will millions of kids going back to school affect the numbers.

This was in today's news: If they keep having their parties, these figures will steadily go up.....the students are being suspended now for this.
A New York Times survey of more than 1,500 American colleges and universities — including every four-year public institution, every private college that competes in N.C.A.A. sports and others that identified cases — has revealed at least 26,000 cases and 64 deaths since the pandemic began.

 

[asp3]

Well, we can agree to disagree. Can anyone predict what the annual suicide rate will be this year? Lot's of news stories tell about climbing rates, yet I doubt anyone could accurately predict the rate.

We might be disagreeing on semantics. My idea of a prediction is a range they expect the value to fall into. It sounds like you're asking for exact numbers and I do agree that one cannot accurately do that.

However if one can get the expected ranges for heart disease, and the other number 2 cause of death one can see if the expected range is clearly over the expected ranges for the other two. If the low end of the range for Covid is higher than the high expected value for the other two one could reasonably say that Covid will be the number one cause of death in the US for 2020.

I do agree we won't have a definitive answer until all of the numbers are in, but I think we can already have a good idea of what it will be.

There's always the possibility that some rock from space will hit somewhere in the US or better yet just off the coast and eclipse the death toll of the top three combined. (BTW this is not a wish or a prediction for this to happen.)

 

[Butterfly]

looks like I'm wrong. its a pandemic according to that definition. I guess I don't like the word pandemic because it sounds like all hope is lost and the world is coming to an end. Hopefully that is not the case.

60 million had swine flu in 2009, yet we barely talked about that. That certainly was a pandemic to me with numbers like that. I guess everyone can think what they like.

Doesn't matter whether you like the word or not. It fits the definition of pandemic, so that's what it is.

 

[gennie]

But if it makes you happy to call it something else, by all means do so. It doesn't change what it is.

 

[squatting dog]

Coronaviruses and flu viruses are totally different. As one scientist said, the two bear the same similarities as koalas and mosquitos.

Flu, for example, is not anywhere near as infectious as SARS-COV2:

COVID infectiousness graphic
Answer by Steven Haddock, 10July2020
From Quora.com: How easy is it to get infected by the coronavirus?

Very.

Example #1: 61 people attended a choir practice in Skagit County, Washington in March 2020. None of them were symptomatic. They avoided contact and had lots of hand sanitizer. They were there for two and a half hours. 32 of them were confirmed infected and another 20 had symptoms. Two died.

View attachment 119859

Example #2: On February 18, a female parishioner tested positive after attending church services. Two days later, 15 people connected to the church also tested positive. Soon after, another hundred cases appeared in buildings surrounding the church. A month later, 5,080 cases were traced back directly to the Church.

====

The problem with COVID-19 is that we are beginning to see deleterious long-term health effects in survivors. There is growing evidence that COVID-19 impairs the immunoresponse in some people for months on end, possibly years. It is estimated between 12-21% of survivors may suffer disabling symptoms for periods ranging from several weeks to over a year.

So, is Quora reliable? Some of the time. Just be careful, and take everything you read here with a grain of salt. Use other sources in conjunction with Quora. If you’re writing a serious paper, it’s not generally a good idea to put a Quora answer in your Works Cited section.

 

[bingo]

i sure don't want to get it

 

[Sunny]

Also, there's more to this than the death figures. From what I've read, many people who have had the disease continue having lingering symptoms, sometimes awful ones. This disease is still too new for us to know what the ramifications will be.

Comparing death figures from one disease to another really fails to tell the whole story.

 

[StarSong]

Also, there's more to this than the death figures. From what I've read, many people who have had the disease continue having lingering symptoms, sometimes awful ones. This disease is still too new for us to know what the ramifications will be.

Comparing death figures from one disease to another really fails to tell the whole story.

Exactly true.

 

[Don M.]

I really doubt that TV news is reporting all the heart disease, cancer, Chronic lower respiratory diseases, Stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Diabetes, Influenza and pneumonia, Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis, and Intentional self-harm daily. So again... no way to prove it's number three killer until all numbers are in. Is that really that hard to understand?

The TV news is NOT reporting the number of deaths from heart disease and cancer....BUT most news outlets ARE reporting the current death rates from CV-19, almost daily. If you do an internet search on "causes of death in the US", you can get the latest numbers for heart, cancer, accidents, etc., etc., then you can compare that to the latest CV-19 reports. Is that really that hard to understand???

 

[squatting dog]

The TV news is NOT reporting the number of deaths from heart disease and cancer....BUT most news outlets ARE reporting the current death rates from CV-19, almost daily. If you do an internet search on "causes of death in the US", you can get the latest numbers for heart, cancer, accidents, etc., etc., then you can compare that to the latest CV-19 reports. Is that really that hard to understand???

Not hard to understand at all. However, I would challenge you to provide a link that has daily updates on the ACTUAL NUMBER of deaths this year for the top ten leading causes of death. All that's on the CDC site is stats such as once every 40 seconds, someone in America has a stroke, and every 37 seconds one person dies from heart disease. So, if you could be so kind, would you post a verified link that shows the actual up to the minute number of death's of the top 10, I'd be grateful.
I'll be waiting. (fingers tapping)
PS. since there's nothing to gain by this, I'm sure you won't find any TV source breathlessly waiting to rush to the air to report on it. That alone should make you ask yourself, "why the daily report of death from covid?" Could there be an ulterior motive?

 

[StarSong]

Not hard to understand at all. However, I would challenge you to provide a link that has daily updates on the ACTUAL NUMBER of deaths this year for the top ten leading causes of death. All that's on the CDC site is stats such as once every 40 seconds, someone in America has a stroke, and every 37 seconds one person dies from heart disease. So, if you could be so kind, would you post a verified link that shows the actual up to the minute number of death's of the top 10, I'd be grateful.
I'll be waiting. (fingers tapping)
PS. since there's nothing to gain by this, I'm sure you won't find any TV source breathlessly waiting to rush to the air to report on it. That alone should make you ask yourself, "why the daily report of death from covid?" Could there be an ulterior motive?

Well since the entire planet seems to have put their chips in the center of the table and gone all-in on this game, it must be a helluva pot. Exactly what are you suggesting might be afoot?

Surely the Dominican Republic and other small island nations whose livelihoods are highly dependent on tourism must be expecting very big payoffs for their daily reporting and supporting role in this conspiracy. Countries from Russia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela to Japan, Sweden, Rwanda and Vatican City are in on it, too! That's an impressively widespread, organized conspiracy for such an otherwise fractious world.

How about all those doctors and nurses who've cried on TV, begging people to stay home? Must have been some stellar acting lessons those folks have taken. Johns Hopkins is undoubtedly going to be rewarded with billions for all this (apparently fake) tracking. And nice going on those fake bodies being placed in the graveyards around the world, plus satellite pictures thereof. Whoever planned that out should be congratulated. Talk about follow through and attention to detail!

If heart disease, strokes or cancer suddenly became infectious, you could bet your last dollar that there'd be daily reporting on the numbers and hot spots of oubreaks.

 

[squatting dog]

If heart disease, strokes or cancer suddenly became infectious, you could bet your last dollar that there'd be daily reporting on the numbers and hot spots of oubreaks.

Interesting that you'd mention heart disease... From the Mayo clinic...The most common causes of heart infection include:
Bacteria
Viruses
Parasites
That sure sounds like it could be infectious to me. So, where's the outrage and daily death count?

 

[DaveA]

I really doubt that TV news is reporting all the heart disease, cancer, Chronic lower respiratory diseases, Stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Diabetes, Influenza and pneumonia, Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis, and Intentional self-harm daily. So again... no way to prove it's number three killer until all numbers are in. Is that really that hard to understand?

I'm really not too interested or concerned with most of the above listed illnesses, fatal or otherwise. The chance of catching "heart disease, a stroke, or Alzheimer's, from my friends and/or neighbors seems pretty slim. Not so with the present "pandemic" or whatever one chooses to call it.

 

[squatting dog]

Speaking of bacteria, most people are horrified when they learn just how many bacteria live on and in us. There are more than 1,800 types of airborne bacteria alone, which begs the question... how much bad bacteria is being trapped in your lungs by the wearing of mask for extended periods of time? While a mask may be a good thing for short periods,, I fail to see how wearing one for long periods is beneficial. Does this mean that long term masking will lead to more heart disease in the future? (see my above post for common cause of heart disease)

 

[Sunny]

Well, we can agree to disagree. Can anyone predict what the annual suicide rate will be this year? Lot's of news stories tell about climbing rates, yet I doubt anyone could accurately predict the rate.

Sure they can. Depends on what happens in November.

 

[asp3]

Interesting that you'd mention heart disease... From the Mayo clinic...The most common causes of heart infection include:
Bacteria
Viruses
Parasites
That sure sounds like it could be infectious to me. So, where's the outrage and daily death count?

Assuming that you mean infectious to mean that it's passed from another human I would be willing to bet that most of these are non infectious and are more environmental or behavioral vectors. This is definitely true for parasites. So I think it's still reasonable to say that there is no reporting on infectious causes for heart disease because it's such a small percentage of the root cause. However this is pure conjecture and I do not have any documentation to back up such a claim.

 

[Nathan]

So again... no way to prove it's number three killer until all numbers are in. Is that really that hard to understand?

Why is this even important? It's not some sports statistic, like "Mike Scioscia had 68 HRs and 446 RBI in his 13 year MLB career." Now that's important.

 

[Sunny]

Exactly, Nathan. I don't understand why Squatting Dog is running this silly argument into the ground. So what if (today) it's not the No. 3 cause of death? What if it's really No. 4? Is this even worth wasting all this time and arguing on?

To anybody who is still trying to maintain that this is really fake news, it's not really so bad, everyone is exaggerating, lots of people without masks don't even get it, etc., I would ask them to look at the pictures that have been all over the news for 5 months now, showing the worldwide devastation this disease has caused. Pictures of Italy with the streets totally empty. Pictures of mass graves with bodies being dumped into them. Thousands of pictures of grieving people all over the world.

If this is really not true, it certainly is one hell of a conspiracy!

 

[Lethe200]

So, is Quora reliable? Some of the time. Just be careful, and take everything you read here with a grain of salt. Use other sources in conjunction with Quora. If you’re writing a serious paper, it’s not generally a good idea to put a Quora answer in your Works Cited section.

There are many poorly written/researched sources on Quora but there are also many top-quality writers. The graphic is a visual way to sum up a previous NY Times article I read on coronavirus hot spots. It said the same thing as the graphic, only in text.

My sources tend to be NY Times, WS Journal, Scientific American, LA Times and Washington Post, all of which I subscribe to and read daily.