COVID-19 & US healthcare system - thread relapse

[robkelk]

I'm looking at the current numbers between California and Canada - two places with roughly equal populations in roughly-equal demographic distributions.

There might be something to that "they're finding more because they're testing more" claim. It doesn't explain the discrepancy in the death rate, though.

[robkelk]

Op-ed: Rich white coaches want football in a pandemic, but unpaid Black players are most at risk

NCAA, not pro.

[hazard]

Any testing system will be aware of the false positive and false negative rates of the tests they use. If you test more and thus you find more there are roughly 2 options; either you are not accounting for the false positives, or your testing system is only sampling a relatively small section of the population and there's a large outside factor that has not been caught and compensated for.

[Dartz]

There are, of course, now calls for Americans who visit the country and don't abide by the 14-day limit to be arrested and interned.

It's brought up an almightly bubble of hatred in Irish websbaces. A redolent and fucking viral hatred.

You will poison us all.

[robkelk]

What, just now? That's been the case in Canada for months, except that we call it involuntary quarantine.

[Norgarth]

What, just now? That's been the case in Canada for months, except that we call it involuntary quarantine.

and several Americans who have crossed the border to 'go to Alaska' but instead went picnicing in BC have also received $500 fines (or roughly $350 US)

[SilverFang01]

The governor of Georgia has decided to ban local governments from requiring the wearing of masks:
https://www.macon.com/news/article244257417.html

About the only positive thing this emergency has shown is who you choose for government and what he stands for is important and that voting does matter.

[SilverFang01]

Georgia’s governor (Kemp-R) is going to court to try and make sure more people in his state die from Covid-19
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/16/politics/...index.html

[classicdrogn]

Every citzen's freedom to suffer, choke, and die must be protected!

[Matrix Dragon]

The efforts people go to to be petty little shits is amazing.

[LynnInDenver]

On the opposite side, Colorado now has a mask mandate statewide. https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/07/16/m...-required/

I was already wearing a mask pretty much all the time when I'm out. I'm hoping my coworkers start wearing the damned things, although technically my workplace isn't a public indoor space, and at least they haven't given me any shit over wearing a mask.

[robkelk]

I'm looking at the current numbers between California and Canada - two places with roughly equal populations in roughly-equal demographic distributions.

There might be something to that "they're finding more because they're testing more" claim. It doesn't explain the discrepancy in the death rate, though.

Or maybe there isn't something to the "they're finding more because they're testing more" claim.

Let's look at the percentage of positive tests per state, over the last seven days. Since we're looking at a percentage, it doesn't matter how many tests are being carried out.




In comparison, Montreal (the current epicentre of the outbreak in Canada) has spiked all the way up to 3% positive tests - a rate higher than New Hampshire's is a health crisis here.

[robkelk]

Here's a chart to ponder: Cases per 1,000,000 people, tracked by the number of days it's been since bars re-opened. Texas has the most data because their bars have been open the longest.



Source

[Labster]

I notice that the US state doing the best with the pandemic is the one that's nearly entirely surrounded by Canada.

But it's really hard to draw inferences from positivity rates.  The rates are based on people who are either given a test by a hospital, or by random people who decide to show up to a testing site.  Since so many of the respondents are self-selected, there's no way to draw a clear inference to the infection rate in the population as a whole.  Also the CDC's guidance on how to administer the test is different from the WHO, and much more likely to produce a false negative.  Also the government directed hospitals to no longer provide numbers to the CDC, and send it directly to the White House instead.  They had to declare backsies on that, but I wouldn't consider US government figures on the virus reliable any longer.

The only truly reliable data is the total death rate.  If you include the excess deaths, it's likely that coronavirus deaths have already passed 175000 in the US, which doesn't take into account the current surge in new hospitalizations.  I think, by the end of the year, that number is likely to exceed the deaths inflicted by the Civil War.  So in a small sense, the Boogaloo people are right, except that the war already started and it's being fought with masks instead of guns.

[hazard]

When I heard that the USA's death toll had started slowing its growth as the containment measures came into effect, I had every trust in the USA's ability to fuck it up and make things worse.

I trust Trump and his fellows you see.

I trust that if you think things are going to get better, they're going to make sure things get worse.

[SilverFang01]

Other potential receptors for coronavirus

[robkelk]

Social distancing - USA-style (top) and Canada-style (bottom).


Carlos Osorio/Reuters

And people wonder why there are more cases per capita in the USA than in Canada.

[Labster]

Meanwhile, in Starr County, Texas:

Hospital established Death Panels to send home COVID patients likely to die

OMG, they were right about Obamacare all along!

[Matrix Dragon]

Meanwhile, in Starr County, Texas:

Hospital established Death Panels to send home COVID patients likely to die

OMG, they were right about Obamacare all along!

Remember, half the time the right wing fuckers declare their rivals would do something, it's because they know they'd be more than happy to do it themselves and assume everyone else is as disgusting as them.

[Labster]

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has announced that he has the "Wuhan virus".  His staffers are complaining to reporters that they were not allowed to wear masks at work, and were publicly berated for wearing them.  So that might be a cluster.

[hazard]

Worse, they may have spread it to other staffers or their family members.

[Star Ranger4]

You forgot to add the f word to the end of that statement Labster.

[Labster]

New thread time