Originally posted by Lyle Romer
Originally posted by Lyle Romer
There are many documented cases of people being refused testing for SARS-CoV-2, repeatedly so even, and sent home to later die of COVID-19. I read about one lady getting billed $3000 just for setting foot on the hospital property and leaving without having been tested.
Originally posted by Lyle Romer
Small towns have little in the way of treatment capacity, but tend to have much higher percentages of elderly residents. We have 80 confirmed cases in the Lawton area and only 1 death. Two towns in this region, Mangum and Binger are a mere fraction of Lawton's size. There's 65 cases and 6 deaths in the Mangum area, 62 cases and 7 deaths in Binger area.
Originally posted by Lyle Romer
Here in Oklahoma I'm getting the vibe from some people that "yay, it's over, we can go back to normal!" I worry a bunch of people are going to let down their guard. Or even let down their guard out of spite for ideological reasons. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is still out there. I'm sure it's just as contagious and potentially harmful as it was several weeks ago when we first went into lock-down.
We can still have two different outcomes. We've been trying to flatten the curve. With the wrong moves we will have been only delaying a much bigger curve.
Originally posted by Leo Enticknap
Many people killed by COVID-19 have had other existing comorbidities, like heart disease, diabetes, etc. Sure some of these people were likely to die soon. But that just made them more easy for SARS-CoV-2 to kill. In the end whatever ailment that ends up doing the killing is listed as the cause of death. Someone dying of terminal cancer who drives in front of a freight train is still going to be listed as having been killed by the train even if he was going to die of cancer soon.
The actual number of COVID-19 deaths is likely significantly higher, particularly in the US where testing has been pretty terrible in many places. Overall deaths in the US are up sharply over last year. Not everyone who dies is getting tested for SARS-CoV-2. The thought is why waste a valuable test kit on a dead person?
Originally posted by Leo Enticknap
Car accidents kill over 35000 Americans each year (36560 in 2018, 11.18 deaths per 100,000). That's down from the all time high of 54589 in 1972 or the per capita high of 29.36 per 100,000 in 1937. Again, a bunch of those deaths are self inflicted (drunk driving, reckless driving, inattentive driving and driving drowsy). Driving responsibly and defensively dramatically improves one's own odds behind the wheel.
Homicide gets a lot of press. The way the media reports things it's easy to feel like murder rates are worse than ever. I'm not sure if homicide has ever cracked the top 10 rankings of leading causes of death in the United States. The modern era national per capita record was set in 1980, with over 10 murders per 100,000 people. The current rate is around half that figure. Homicide is another, largely situational problem. 70% of murders occur between people who know each other. Domestic abuse is a leading factor in homicides. Murders between gang members, drug dealers or other criminal elements makes up another big chunk of the total. For Americans who are living a "clean life" the odds are very slim they'll get killed by some random person they don't know.
Suicide is a much bigger problem than homicide. Three times as many Americans deliberately end their own lives than are murdered by others. Suicide regularly moves into the top 10 ranks of leading causes of death. Most "gun deaths" are really suicides. The United States has a very serious problem regarding mental health.
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