Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

Looking at the WaPo Covid map, Arkansas shows 123 cases per 100k on May 7, 146 per 100k on May 14, and 182 per 100k on May 21.

Looking at seven day averages filters the signal to noise ratio (although those figures are just straight count per day numbers).

 

Serious question: How many first-person accounts have we've seen from the most vulnerable population about their experiences with the disease vs., perhaps, celebratory stories about some 97-year-old who survived?

Second question: How many "vulnerable population" first-person accounts have we've seen vs. the 39-year-old cool New Yorker who needs you to know they didn't die, but this sucks so, unlike them, stay home?

Under our own noses, I think the discussion has been, for far too long, about 20, 30, 40 and 50somethings - you know, the people not dying at anywhere near the frequency of the elderly - at the expense of the nursing home discussion. If the overarching concern is for the mounting death toll - like it's a scoreboard of governmental amorality - why is the focus on a bunch of morons who aren't likely to die, or even necessarily come in contact with the population that is dying?

 

Why aren't they likely to come into contact with the elderly? Visiting grandparents or parents would do this. Being on a college campus would do this. Contrary to the wisdom of Clay Trumpist et al, the low-risk student population isn't the only group of people on a college campus. There are faculty and staff.

 

I got shouted down here a week ago, because in my neck of the woods, the deaths are in the nursing homes.

I still haven't figured it out.

 

It's largely because one directly affects the other. Yes the elderly and otherwise compromised groups are the ones dying at a higher clip than younger folks—though there is evidence that the younger demographic are suffering things like strokes that seem to have a link—but the younger folks out pretending nothing is wrong is allowing the virus to spread faster and eventually coming in to contact with those who are in a home. If the healthy do their part at preventing the spread, those in a nursing home might not catch it from a care worker who was exposed as a result.

 

It was the implication that those lives didn't matter that got me to turn into petulant asshole about it. I might have been reading too much into it (probably) and exacerbated by reading way too many Trumpists on Facebook spew nonsense. But it is a fair cop so long as we don't start down the road of "we'll they'll die anyway..." Not putting words in your mouth (you by no means literally said this), by the way, someone on Facebook literally said "well why is 2 percent dying so bad, they are going to die anyway."

TO ADD: My bad, Poin. I owe you a six pack of internet beer.

 

Because you suggested that the focus on shutting down the economy wasn’t focused on saving the majority of lives.

Which, it wasn’t.

The media has been simulataneously fixated on the death toll and personal accounts of millennial/Gen X writers who survived it and want to warn the world about it. And whatever dumb thing Trump is doing.

Nursing homes and packing plants. That’s the disaster.

 

Here’s the graph for positive cases. Even as tests fluctuate, it seems the number increases.

Experience

Ah hell, here ...

 

Announcer voice: "Are you over 80? Dying of coronavirus? The Podunk Daily Fishwrap would love to tell your story before you buy the farm. Please call Lois Lane or Clark Kent at 888-123-4567. Operators are standing by."

 

Why does Canada always get the good stuff?

 

Both represent great news.

So, I ask the board, what gets credit?

1. Mass injections of Lysol?
2. Herd immunity taking hold?
3. Stay at home orders + mandatory mask use + increased testing capabilities?