I am not satisfied. I would like to see more specifics on who is dying and who is not dying. I would like to see specifics on risk groups that are driving up numbers in places like New York.
If we had a graph showing deaths per million population and the graph had 3 lines on it. The blue line simply showed deaths in each age group, The green line showed deaths per age group after removing those with serious underlying issues not typical of their age group. And the red line showed deaths per million by age for those with serious underlying conditions. I wonder what a graph like that might look like. Would it help the typical American citizen in making decisions on what courses of action they would like to see being taken?
Accountants use cost accounting to manage their businesses and make decisions. One of the basic principles is putting your resources where they have the most affect. Could resources spent on tracking virus carriers be better spent on protecting the vulnerable?
Could current death per million rates be used to estimate current infection rates?
But the typical American has underlying medical conditions. 45% of adults have hypertension. 71.6% of American adults are overweight, and 39.8% are obese.
I doubt it, given our limited understanding at present. The presentation of symptoms (or lack thereof) appear to be highly variable, although we’re learning more very day. We are also operating under the default assumption that prior exposure confers immunity of some sort, and this has not yet been demonstrated to any statistically-significant degree (although certainly it is a reasonable default assumption). When you have a largely unknown risk, typical human behavior is to adopt a highly risk-averse strategy.
If we could reliably determine relative risks for various population groups, sure.
I don’t see how, not without meaningful and reliable random/representative sampling of the population to use as a baseline model. Hopefully we will be able to execute on this soon; testing capacity is gradually ramping up. Here in Ohio, the powers that be are trying to figure out how to implement random sampling, at least on a limited scale.
God no lol. I am of course not satisfied with reporting of covid. For example, first we were advised not to wear masks, then we were advised to. I’m sure there are good reasons, but if you’re reporting a complete reversal of policy, it needs to be self aware and explain the change.
But I haven’t been happy with reporting standards in general for awhile. Not even counting talking heads and clickbait. Real news is slacking in journalistic standards. I can’t remember the last time I saw an article using the reverse pyramid for example.
I’m not satisfied. Local reporting only tells us a. Sex and b. Over 60 or under 60.
Also, I would like to know more about obesity in the context of patient deaths. Are we talking about mostly people who are barely in the obese range dying, or much more heavily weighed towards deaths amongst the morbidly obese? I am especially keen to know that in regards to people who are in their 50s and younger.
As discussed elsewhere, there are a lot of reasons to think that that study is fatally flawed.
The single most useful way of protecting the vulnerable is to get R down. Right now the entire planet has singularly failed to protect its vulnerable. Sweden has an explicit policy of protecting them, and is currently basically admitting that they got it wrong, as it heads on to having the highest per-capita death rate in the next couple of days. It isn’t just a matter of crying out “protect the vulnerable” there has to be some sort of idea how this might actually be effected. And done with the resources available.
You have to know who the vulnerable are - and even that is a work in progress. Miss a group, and you have failed - they die in unexpected numbers. Right now, after residents in aged care, the next most vulnerable are probably the medical professionals and first responders. Getting R down would really help them.
HIPAA restricts release of much data, due to patient privacy concerns. In my county, with 9 known infections and one death so far, the county health department is not releasing the names or locations of any of these people. One news service filed a FOI request to obtain some of this data, andit was denied:
Massachusetts state government releases figures every day of cumulative and new cases and deaths by town, county, age group, and gender. I doubt much more data could be assembled on a daily basis. The newspapers report on clusters of outbreaks – these seem to be invariably nursing homes.
I wish the focus would be on active, not total cases.
Saying a country has 10,000 cases is one thing. But if say 3000 have been resolved due to death and or recovery, that is a far more relevant metric.
I see many reports on the global COVID situation on various international news sites. I do not view talking heads or other video newscasts. Those depending on commercial TV news deserve their misunderstandings IMHO. Those seeking specific numbers or guesstimates can find them with a little online searching. Nothing to get hung about.
Please. I live in NYC. In Queens. The epicenter of the epicenter. We only watch the daily presser by Governor Cuomo. We might watch Lester Holt’s NBC Nightly News, but frequently do not. It’s the same carefully filtered pap.
With the NY State Governor’s briefings we get up to date ( well, within 24 hours ) numbers, info on the shifting responses and so on. The Straight Dope, as they say.
And don’t get me started on how everyone is comparing totals of everything by country or state, instead of per capita, or compared to the relevant curve.
People with mild symptoms are told to self quarantine and are not counted
People who die alone in their homes are not tested and not counted.
People with no symptoms are never tested.
And the USA has the best health care system on earth (it so I have been told my whole life.)
So how can anyone think that the reporting in the USA has any validity at all? And how can we expect other countries with much more limited resources to do much at all?
The Canadian media isn’t nearly critical enough of government.
Our government hasn’t really performed very well, but because Donald Trump just south of us is a walking dumpster fire, our governments are dodging criticism - but they have objectively not done well. They were way late responding, and seem to have no clear plan now. Testing is ridiculously insufficient and there is no contact-trace-and-isolate program. There is no plan for reopening based on any sort of logic (which contact tracing would help with.) The plan is just “we’ll pay everyone to shut up.”
I see no questioning of government in the media. You’d think this is a good time to hold them accountable.
My biggest issue is that TPTB doesn’t seem to realize that we, the hoi polloi, KNOW that we are being lied to, although in what regards still remains to be seen.
As for pre-existing conditions, how seriously people are affected by them, and how many they have, makes a big difference. My local newspaper had a story about a nursing home in the region that had 7 known COVID deaths; HOWEVER, two of the patients were being evaluated for hospice for unrelated issues at the time of their diagnosis.
The death of a young, healthy person is news, precisely because it’s so infrequent. That does not mean that we don’t have to be on guard.