SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
U.S. Hits 11 Million Coronavirus Cases, Adding 1 Million In A Week:
U.S. Hits 11 Million Coronavirus Cases, Adding 1 Million In A Week
More than 11 million confirmed coronavirus cases have been recorded in the United States, according to a COVID-19 tracker by Johns Hopkins University. The country reported 166,555 new cases on Sunday, with 1,266 new deaths.
The staggering milestone was reached only six days after the U.S. hit 10 million cases. Positive test rates and hospitalization rates are on the rise across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[...] Hospitalizations continue to climb. More than 69,000 people were hospitalized as of Sunday, more than ever before.
The pandemic also continues to disproportionately affect Black and brown communities in the U.S. According to data from the CDC as of Nov. 7, hospitalization rates for Hispanic or Latino people are 4.2 times higher than that of white people. American Indian or Alaska Native people have been hospitalized at 4.1 times the rate of white people, with Black people being hospitalized at 3.9 times the rate of white people.
[...] The Trump administration has blocked the current coronavirus task force from communicating with President-elect Biden's team.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Monday November 16 2020, @09:13PM (27 children)
Data:
https://covidtracking.com/data/charts/us-all-key-metrics [covidtracking.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Monday November 16 2020, @09:31PM (12 children)
Tests have skyrocketed.
Cases have skyrocketed.
Hospitalizations have gone up, then dipped, up again, then dipped, and are up again.
Deaths went way up in April, nosedived in July, a lower peak about August, down again, and now rising.
I see cause for concern. I don't see cause for panic. We knew all along that people were getting it, and recovering, without so much as the symptoms of a mild cold. The huge increase in testing is finding those people, and turning them into "cases". It's going to take a week or two, to see how those hospitalizations translate into deaths. When it does, need to examine the demographics - and we'll probably find mostly old people, and people with serious comorbitities.
That all sucks, but it's not the end of the world.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday November 16 2020, @09:56PM (10 children)
https://covidactnow.org/ [covidactnow.org] go there and sort the table by the "ICU Headroom used". Currently, Montana and Oklahoma just ran out of ICUes (about 2 days ago).
Go check the "daily new deaths" on the corresponding entries for the states in https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ [worldometers.info]
When you see them climbing, you reached the "cascading failures" mode and can panic at your leisure.
Note: "cascading failures" can happen of a number of paths different from "no more ICU beds" - e.g. by nurses exhaustion [google.com]. This means you may potentially panic earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday November 17 2020, @01:38AM (6 children)
True, but it's also true that the treatments *have* improved. (Also there's a time lag between when you catch it and you become contagious, and another between then and when you show symptoms that cause you to seek care.
Also the "quarantine" is a joke. It isn't happening. Some people are isolating themselves, but that only happens after the "seek medical care" stage, and the "be contagious and spread it around" stage happens first. And even people who should know better aren't really quarantining themselves. Check how we used to handle quarantines for smallpox and yellow-fever, and them remember that symptoms showed up before you were contagious.
If you want to see how a quarantine to contain COVID *should* be done, look at Vietnam, or China after they really admitted that they had a problem. Then realize that there's no way you could get people in the US to go along with something like that, except perhaps those in the military. People at most *think* they are afraid of COVID, they aren't really afraid, so even those who know better violate the rules. It it makes repeated swings through the country for a decade or so, then people may start to realize that it's dangerous.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 17 2020, @01:50AM (2 children)
All you said is likely true, but the reality still offers enough reasons to... ummm... rationally panic.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday November 17 2020, @04:44PM (1 child)
"rationally panic" is an oxymoron. People who panic are acting irrationally. Their thought processes have stopped and they're in the fight or flight mode. Which is absolutely unhelpful.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @10:35PM
So, you noted, eh? +1 pedantically observant
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 17 2020, @04:36AM
Keep in mind that caveat. At least with the US, when I saw more than 4 weeks of 20+% increases per day, I knew something was up.
(Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday November 17 2020, @11:09AM
In France, I was told, it is rather tough. One has to fill in paperwork - on real paper or phone app - before leaving one's dwelling and the list of excuses is short while timing is limited.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @03:34PM
This is an urban legend and Chinese research (which is another term for the same).
In observed reality, it is less than 20% chance to catch COVID even when living under the same roof with an infected person, and all "superspreader events" involved someone already symptomatic that did not stay at home.
An efficient measure would be to order everyone with symptoms of respiratory illness to stay at home, and for government to pay for their sick leave. For many it is poverty, not stupidity, that makes them go forth and spread viruses. (And the statistics in TFA supports this theory.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @02:00AM (1 child)
Yeah I'm gonna trust some sort of "heartbeat" from the stupid industry that routinely loses fetal heartbeat leading to emergency c-section because their equipment is total shit. Every little dudad in the fucking hospital room amkes 30 different noises in course of 1 hour.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @10:32AM
That's why I turn them off when I walk past. They sleep better.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday November 17 2020, @08:27PM
Your post reads like an excerpt from the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy :)
You may begin to panic, now.....
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @08:28PM
as if you can believe anything the media or the government scum say. get real.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday November 16 2020, @09:31PM (5 children)
Treatment methods have improved, but we're again brushing up against that "limit of our facilities to hold sick people" problem, and in more places than just new york city this time.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Monday November 16 2020, @09:35PM (4 children)
I wonder if it would be feasible to temporarily convert some school buildings that aren't being used by children doing remote learning.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday November 16 2020, @09:58PM
Convert them in nurses? (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday November 16 2020, @10:20PM (1 child)
I think that's a great idea.
Near me, back in April or so, the Army Corps of Engineers came in and did just that to a recently closed school. Buildings were in good condition. No clue how much $ and effort were spent, but it never got used.
While I'm on the topic, in my area hospital / healthcare systems were laying people off in droves over the past 6 months.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @05:33AM
The layoffs are because hospitals have staff specialization and make more money on elective procedures. Many of the medical professionals and paraprofessionals have specialized training. If you aren't doing certain medical treatments, then you don't need to spend the money keeping on the people who do that sort of job. Also if you aren't doing your moneymaking procedures, you are losing money as a system. Combined together, you have redundant staff that not only can't make you money but are costing you money. The smart business decision is to try and move them to things that can make money, which isn't always an option, or lay them off. Now that medical systems are starting to have increased demand, that trend might reverse. But that doesn't do anything about the issue of them not making less money or the retraining that would require. Nor does it fix the issue of long-term sustainability damaging the system as a whole.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday November 17 2020, @01:41AM
Well, you might be able to put up something equivalent to a field hospital in a school building. It sure wouldn't pass any normal standards. I suppose, though, it could keep people out of sight until they died or "recovered".
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2, Troll) by VLM on Monday November 16 2020, @10:33PM (7 children)
Amazing looking graph, the "Daily cases" graph looks like the inverse of the percentage of people wearing masks graph.
That's the reason why masks are bad. False sense of security, everybody go out and shop and spend money and open the schools and mingle and visit wearing a mask, then because the mask stuff is all a lie, the number of cases goes exponential.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @12:08AM
It is a lie that the mask stuff is all a lie, you lying liar, VLM! Although you may be right about the false sense of security, you have ruined it with your rightwing Nutjob talking points from the stupidest Americans. Liar!!
(Score: 4, Informative) by MostCynical on Tuesday November 17 2020, @01:27AM
Masks explained [reddit.com]
alternate link [truthorfiction.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @03:19AM (1 child)
I think it is horrible that for over 100 years we've been infringing upon the rights of hospital doctors and nurses by making them wear masks in operating rooms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @03:41PM
I think it is indeed horrible that in 2020 you believe no one may know a difference between bacteria and viruses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @05:56AM
Yet again, I'd like to remind you that this is a straw man argument.
Nobody is saying that masks alone are sufficient to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They are, however, a useful tool to limit its spread. But they should be used in conjunction with physical distancing, avoiding crowds, and frequently washing your hands and/or using hand sanitizer. Masks are useful because COVID-19 can be spread by respiratory droplets, which tend to be expelled farther by coughing or sneezing, but are slowed or captured by wearing a mask. Coughing and sneezing can rapidly spread droplets well beyond the six foot distance that has been recommended. Masks help to prevent this.
Nobody is claiming that wearing a mask allows you resume all activities normally. But wearing a mask is useful when combined with other measures.
If you go to a grocery store or are in a classroom, all else equal, you are safer if everyone wears masks.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @02:15PM (1 child)
What is telling, is that the same people religiously believe in masks despite no evidence, and religiously disbelieve efficiency of vitamins (D and C) despite any evidence.
Those people do not form an opinion themselves, they parrot whatever they are told from the up high. Arguing with them is as pointless as arguing with a dog.
In the meantime:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900720302318 [sciencedirect.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2020, @05:20AM
Oh look, another whiny git. Every time I've seen the vitamin D, C stuff people have been quite open. They didn't just accept it as fact and happened to voice their questions and concerns.
What horrible behavior! Something is wtong with you wackos, you have a strange need for acceptance of whatever comes out of you.