CDC estimates 140 million Americans have had COVID, about double case reports

About 37 million infected in omicron wave, and 58% of kids were infected at some point.

Read the whole story

 

[OrangeCream]

The sad part is there is pretty much no reason for most of those cases to have ever occurred, except for the war on public health. I hate to think of what the long term costs of this are to society.

Seriously, adjust your apocalyptic tone. My household spent two years avoiding it with masks, dual shot vaccinations, plus the booster. Omicron hit us out of the blue with two out of three of us catching it. One mysteriously continued to test negative throughout despite close proximity in isolation. There was no war on public health that caused us to catch it. Last I checked, alpha, beta, delta, omicron originated outside of the US and far from your alleged war on public health here.

He isn’t wrong that there is a war on public health in many parts of the country though.

Do us all a favor and don't feed it. Let it fester under its bridge. The only reason I know it's posting is because you quoted it.

My apologies. I didn't realize I was dealing with... that.

 

[Oldmanalex]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Is there a way to get vaccinated against car crash deaths? It would be great if we could reduce our risk of auto-crash death by 53 times /s

It would not make a 53-fold difference, but if we all had to blow into a tube before our car would start, it would be statistically very noticeable.

 

[OrangeCream]

The sad part is there is pretty much no reason for most of those cases to have ever occurred, except for the war on public health. I hate to think of what the long term costs of this are to society.

The sad part really is that people actually believe that.

This was never controllable... long term. That is known fact by every expert. What do people think they meant when they said flatten the curve ? The public health measures where about slowing the spread through the general population... not ending it. Anyone that thought that was incorrect Public figures that said it measures where about ending covid where lying or they where stupid.

People seem to forget that humans have only ever eradicated two viruses. One of which wasn't a human virus... and we it doesn't really count cause we can't cull humans.

Never try, never fail, right?

 

[sapphir8]

Sometimes it feels like not ever having Covid is the new virginity.

 

[ChadD]

The sad part is there is pretty much no reason for most of those cases to have ever occurred, except for the war on public health. I hate to think of what the long term costs of this are to society.

The sad part really is that people actually believe that.

This was never controllable... long term. That is known fact by every expert. What do people think they meant when they said flatten the curve ? The public health measures where about slowing the spread through the general population... not ending it. Anyone that thought that was incorrect Public figures that said it measures where about ending covid where lying or they where stupid.

People seem to forget that humans have only ever eradicated two viruses. One of which wasn't a human virus... and we it doesn't really count cause we can't cull humans.

Never try, never fail, right?

Expectations is my point. They where pretty clear in the start of all this if anyone was paying attention. Flatten the curve. It was logical and of course it was something to strive for. I think in most places we did exactly that... Covid killed more people when health facilities got overrun. The overrun not only cost direct lives it allowed for outbreaks cause its not realistic to properly quarantine when you are short of medical staff and space.

Its just a bit much when people say covid didn't need to spread ? That is actually insane. It was always going to spread. Getting it to spread over 2 or 3 years and not 6 months was always the goal not eradication.

 

[ForbiddenBarn]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148
....

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

If the % infected is significantly undercounting, so is probably the number of people who died from it. You're definitely low balling.

I'd also like to see some good stats on people with severe long covid. My sister got covid parosmia (distorted sense of smell) in the earliest days of the pandemic, and 2 years later it has not gone away. I guess it's better than the people who have totally lost their sense of smell.

Long story short it's not a good disease to get and all these people who keep saying "you'll get it eventually" can eat shit. I'm keeping my mask on.

 

[Baymax]

I had it in 2020. 103F fever, temporarily lost smell and taste, and chattering teeth. Got vaccinated and boosted in 2021 and wear masks. Haven’t had it since.

 

[50me12]

I’m surprised you can get to 58% and not have it just go to nearly 100%.

 

[Danny Dorsey]

43% have had covid, 65% have been vaccinated, which means that some percentage has some measure of resistance to serious infection. And that is all I can say. You can't just add both figures and have it equal "herd immunity"

I'm pretty sure that means 108% of people can't get COVID, which should actually bring down the case counts to negative numbers, meaning that people are giving back COVID instead of getting it. It's basic math.

Spoiler

I hope it's obvious that I'm kidding, but I'm never sure of that anymore.

 

[jdale]

The sad part is there is pretty much no reason for most of those cases to have ever occurred, except for the war on public health. I hate to think of what the long term costs of this are to society.

The sad part really is that people actually believe that.

This was never controllable... long term. That is known fact by every expert. What do people think they meant when they said flatten the curve ? The public health measures where about slowing the spread through the general population... not ending it. Anyone that thought that was incorrect Public figures that said it measures where about ending covid where lying or they where stupid.

People seem to forget that humans have only ever eradicated two viruses. One of which wasn't a human virus... and we it doesn't really count cause we can't cull humans.

Washington state: 30.9% infected
Oregon: 28.2%
Vermont: 17.8%
Massachusetts: 36.5%
Connecticut: 38.9%

Texas: 52.8%
Georgia: 49.5%
Mississippi: 51.8%
South Dakota: 49.8%

Tell me again how public health policies made no difference to how many people got sick.

 

[jdale]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

The infection fatality rate (of 0.68%) is higher than expected. Earlier in the pandemic it seemed like that was around 0.6%. But omicron was supposed to be less lethal, and vaccination should have brought it down. Seems like we over-estimated the number of undetected infections, but that means we also underestimated the lethality.

 

[Veritas super omens]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Is there a way to get vaccinated against car crash deaths? It would be great if we could reduce our risk of auto-crash death by 53 times /s

It would not make a 53-fold difference, but if we all had to blow into a tube before our car would start, it would be statistically very noticeable.

If we had more rigorous driver training, as opposed to the "meh, they got the basix, only ran one stopsign, and it was just the front wheel on the curb in the parking demonstration, they'll get the hang of it in a few years". Also, if you are caught operating a vehicle while using a cell phone the license is REVOKED for a year, car is confiscated and sold at auction. That would greatly decrease the incidence of distracted driving that I see at least once or twice a week.

 

[jdale]

43% have had covid, 65% have been vaccinated, which means that some percentage has some measure of resistance to serious infection. And that is all I can say. You can't just add both figures and have it equal "herd immunity"

The CDC actually answers that question (with caveats), because they measured it directly.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracke ... prevalence has the graph of "combined seroprevalence" which shows that 94.7% of the population had some kind of antibodies (either from infections or vaccination or both) as of Dec 11, 2021 (unfortunately this graph stops there and does not extend into February). Even though the infection-induced seroprevalence at that time was only 28.8%.

That said, that particular study only looked at the blood of blood donors. It's possible they are not representative. Although the percentage vaccinated is about right.

Edit: on that last point, their paper says:

Fourth, vaccine-induced seroprevalence might be higher in blood donors than in the general population. For May 2021, among donations from donors with a known vaccine history, 73.3% were from donors who self-reported receiving a previous COVID-19 vaccine, compared with CDC estimates that 57.0% of US adults aged 18 years and older had received 1 dose or more of vaccine by May 2021.37 Blood donors are more likely than the general US population to be employed and have attended college,38 factors potentially associated with increased rates of vaccination and lower rates of infection.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/f ... le/2784013

So maybe I was too optimistic in saying "about right."

 

[ilidd]

The sad part is there is pretty much no reason for most of those cases to have ever occurred, except for the war on public health. I hate to think of what the long term costs of this are to society.

If the data on ED caused Covid holds, a lot of Viagra and Cialis prescriptions. Sadly, also a lot of chronic heart issues.

 

[Eurynom0s]

I'm actually kind of stunned more people haven't had it. This is definitely on the low end of what I would have guessed, though my guess wouldn't be worth the sticky note I wrote it on.

A friend of a friend apparently has had four confirmed cases of COVID, and probably had it an additional time back in March 2020 based on symptoms described at the time. AFIAK, he's vaccinated, but has not been taking any other precautions. My guess is that there's a heavy skew in case rate stats toward people who had it multiple times.

 

[VividVerism]

Lower than I expected. Omicron, especially, was the one that everyone was going to catch, but in fact only about 11-12% of Americans caught it, according to this data. (A little higher than that, because it tailed into February, but that would be the bulk of it.)

That’s exactly what I expected. We had data from last year showing roughly 10% of tests were positive, indicating 10% or so of the population had it prior to delta or omicron.

The people getting tested would primary have been people showing symptoms, or people who had good reason to believe they'd been exposed. You would expect a higher percentage of positive tests among that group than if you had sampled the entire population randomly. People get tested multiple times and have multiple negative (or multiple positive) results. We have far more tests, total, than number of infections. You can't possibly take the positivity rate of testing in this way and use it as a representative sample to assume the population infection rate equals the test positivity rate. If that were true, the absolute worst state in the USA for COVID infection rate would be Iowa, at 14%. Texas would have a measly 6.8% infected.

Obviously that's silly. Test positivity rate has no correlation whatsoever to total cumulative infections by % of population.

https://covidactnow.org/?s=29911850

 

[Eurynom0s]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Is there a way to get vaccinated against car crash deaths? It would be great if we could reduce our risk of auto-crash death by 53 times /s

It would not make a 53-fold difference, but if we all had to blow into a tube before our car would start, it would be statistically very noticeable.

If we had more rigorous driver training, as opposed to the "meh, they got the basix, only ran one stopsign, and it was just the front wheel on the curb in the parking demonstration, they'll get the hang of it in a few years". Also, if you are caught operating a vehicle while using a cell phone the license is REVOKED for a year, car is confiscated and sold at auction. That would greatly decrease the incidence of distracted driving that I see at least once or twice a week.

Distracted driving is a symptom of the fact that we've built most of our country in a way that forces people into driving as the only rational decision for how to get around, which doesn't go well with the fact that most people don't actually like driving and find it incredibly boring. Better public transit, walking and cycling infrastructure, that makes it so that only people who really want or legitimately need to be driving were driving would go a long way to getting rid of distracting driving.

Enforcement can't be everywhere and this "I'm bored out of my mind so it's not holding my attention" isn't something we can just train out of people. And there's never going to be any political appetite for tighter licensing standards and actual enforcement penalties as long as we've made car ownership a de facto requirement for basic participation in society.

 

[case_ratchet]

A million dead, and millions more disabled.

We've handled this well.

 

[VividVerism]

...Democrats...virtue signaling...

Good God, why are you so obsessed? Why does everything need to be political with you? That's pathetic!

 

[VividVerism]

Call me skeptical. From pretty accurate early models (Youyang Gou) to more recent estimates from well-respected experts (Trevor Bedford, Eric Topol, Natalie Dean), one of the few constants within an often fractured field has been that the real number of cases *in the US* is roughly 3x the reported number--or more like 4x-5x with omicron. That would argue for more like 55-70% of the population having been infected. Anecdotally, I would guess half or more of the people I know have gotten Covid. Undoubtedly others have had asymptomatic cases. And this is a highly vaccinated cohort.

Also, not to impugn the CDC, but I seem to recall the same people announcing that 95% of cases in mid-December were omicron--only to walk that number back to 37% (!) a week later...

Just speculating, but considering people can be infected multiple times, both you AND the CDC could be correct, if the same people get infected over and over.

Honestly since the CDC seems to be basing numbers or actual bloodwork, I'm guessing their numbers are pretty accurate.

 

[krhodes1]

Lower than I expected. Omicron, especially, was the one that everyone was going to catch, but in fact only about 11-12% of Americans caught it, according to this data. (A little higher than that, because it tailed into February, but that would be the bulk of it.)

The data is *highly* suspect, as the US is not doing anywhere near enough testing to have any idea what the real numbers are.

I have a couple of friends who happen to be in jobs where they ARE routinely tested, and tested positive with no to super mild (typical mild cold level) symptoms. How many people who had similar simply never got tested? I have had at least two occasions in the past months where I had "cold-like" symptoms worse than those my friends had, but I didn't bother to get tested because I wasn't going anywhere (and getting tested is a pain in the ass where I am). I just stayed home for a week each time. So was it just a cold, or was it Covid? With such mild symptoms, does it matter? I'm triple vaccinated.

 

[krhodes1]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Is there a way to get vaccinated against car crash deaths? It would be great if we could reduce our risk of auto-crash death by 53 times /s

It would not make a 53-fold difference, but if we all had to blow into a tube before our car would start, it would be statistically very noticeable.

Something like 50% of car-crash deaths are alcohol-related in the US, so yeah, that would make a difference.

 

[Eurynom0s]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Is there a way to get vaccinated against car crash deaths? It would be great if we could reduce our risk of auto-crash death by 53 times /s

It would not make a 53-fold difference, but if we all had to blow into a tube before our car would start, it would be statistically very noticeable.

Something like 50% of car-crash deaths are alcohol-related in the US, so yeah, that would make a difference.

Doesn't the US federal government have a really fucky definition of what constitutes an "alcohol-related car crash death"? E.g. if there's a drunk person passed out in the back seat of one of the cars, now it's an "alcohol-related car crash".

 

[mschira]

Does that number include an estimate of asymptomatic people like me? The only reason I know I had covid was a blood donation at Vitalant testing positive for antibodies (twice, both pre-vaccine).

yes.
that's the idea of saying 43% had COVID instead of 43% tested positive.

 

[VividVerism]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Is there a way to get vaccinated against car crash deaths? It would be great if we could reduce our risk of auto-crash death by 53 times /s

It would not make a 53-fold difference, but if we all had to blow into a tube before our car would start, it would be statistically very noticeable.

Something like 50% of car-crash deaths are alcohol-related in the US, so yeah, that would make a difference.

Doesn't the US federal government have a really fucky definition of what constitutes an "alcohol-related car crash death"? E.g. if there's a drunk person passed out in the back seat of one of the cars, now it's an "alcohol-related car crash".

See? Drunk driving laws are pointless. Most of the deaths are probably dying with a drunk, not driving while drunk. /s

 

[SyrinxSean]

Not accurate. My wife and 2 of my sons have had their shots (1 & 2) and they still got COVID.

Anyway, the fact is, getting the jab does not equate to not getting COVID - too many break through infections prove this. The shots only reduce symptoms and thus lethality.

That is not what the data is showing. While there are certainly breakthrough infections with the COVID-19 vaccines (and every other vaccine in history), the data is showing about an order of magnitude decrease in the chance of infection vs. unvaccinated. They *also* reduce symptoms and lethality, but a claim that the vaccines do not reduce cases is simply wrong.

 

[mschira]

And there are still plenty infections going on. At 43% recovered (or dead...), and a bunch of vaccinations, one would expect some serious herd immunity. Right?

How much of the population is just outright immune to start with? Those lucky ducks exist, but how many are there?

 

[Veritas super omens]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Is there a way to get vaccinated against car crash deaths? It would be great if we could reduce our risk of auto-crash death by 53 times /s

It would not make a 53-fold difference, but if we all had to blow into a tube before our car would start, it would be statistically very noticeable.

Something like 50% of car-crash deaths are alcohol-related in the US, so yeah, that would make a difference.

Doesn't the US federal government have a really fucky definition of what constitutes an "alcohol-related car crash death"? E.g. if there's a drunk person passed out in the back seat of one of the cars, now it's an "alcohol-related car crash".

Like the classic SNL skit where Belushi and Akroyd (as narcotics agents) break into the wrong apartment, throw the innocent person out the window to their death. Walk away saying "and another senseless drug related death"

 

[DoctorO]

In other words, COVID-19 is one of the deadliest plagues we've faced in a long, long time.

Smallpox had a mortality rate of 30% and was eradicated in 1980, not that long ago.

 

[J.King]

Why did the copy editor approve improper grammar ? Even the title has it.

I'm dying of curosity. Please, be more specific.

 

[jdale]

Lower than I expected. Omicron, especially, was the one that everyone was going to catch, but in fact only about 11-12% of Americans caught it, according to this data. (A little higher than that, because it tailed into February, but that would be the bulk of it.)

The data is *highly* suspect, as the US is not doing anywhere near enough testing to have any idea what the real numbers are.

I have a couple of friends who happen to be in jobs where they ARE routinely tested, and tested positive with no to super mild (typical mild cold level) symptoms. How many people who had similar simply never got tested? I have had at least two occasions in the past months where I had "cold-like" symptoms worse than those my friends had, but I didn't bother to get tested because I wasn't going anywhere (and getting tested is a pain in the ass where I am). I just stayed home for a week each time. So was it just a cold, or was it Covid? With such mild symptoms, does it matter? I'm triple vaccinated.

That's the point of these studies. They completely bypass those issues by getting samples that have nothing to do with covid-19 testing. These samples are from blood donors, not for people going for covid testing.

If there is a bias here, it's because blood donors are (apparently) somewhat more likely to get vaccinated and perhaps less likely to get infected, but it's not clear why the latter would be the case.

 

[Fatesrider]

Lower than I expected. Omicron, especially, was the one that everyone was going to catch, but in fact only about 11-12% of Americans caught it, according to this data. (A little higher than that, because it tailed into February, but that would be the bulk of it.)

Interestingly, for the variant that was the most infectious, it being so little compared to the other variants may well suggest that vaccinations were fairly effective, since almost 65% of Americans are fully vaccinated, leaving 35% less than fully vaccinated (about 30% are vaccinated since 70% have at least one dose).

With only 30% of the population to work with as unprotected dinner for the virus, the rest of the country's population would likely give it some level of indigestion.

Parsing the efficacy of vaccines when 11%-12% of the population got omicron can be difficult without including the time frame. The others ate folks for over a year. Almost two, in fact. Omicron has had about 2-3 months. So if 43% of Americans got COVID, and 11%-12% got omicron, then that 11%-12% meant it was infecting people at a rate of about 4% of Americans per month. While the others were infecting Americans on average of about 1%-2% per month (31%-32% over about 20-21 months).

It didn't happen, of course, but one wonders what would have happened had COVID been as infectious as omicron and as deadly as delta was from the beginning.

The scary part is that could still happen. Until we're above 90 some percent immunized, we won't have herd immunity to COVID. I don't see that happening, especially now that restrictions are being eased all across the world.

 

[billbo63]

Single datapoint: my family

I live in an area that provides easy, free PCR testing. I've had my self tested 10 times since September of 2020. I was vaccinated/boosted at the typical times for a middle-aged adult. I have never tested positive.
Nor have any of the other three who live with me (they get tested weekly at work/school). We aren't hermits, but we are careful. We've even done some traveling, seen some relatives, and two local vacations last summer. Given that none of us have ever tested positive and we make no attempt to social distance at home, I don't think any of us have ever had even asymptomatic Covid. So it seems that it is possible to have never caught it even at this point.

 

[Uxorious]

Back of the napkin calculations on US Covid deaths.

US Population
329,500,000

US Covid Deaths
949,000

US Population who had Covid
140,000,000

% of death for someone who has had covid
0.68%

chance of death for someone who has had covid
1 in 148

% of death for US popuplation
0.29%

chance of death for US population
1 in 347

Road deaths in US per year (average)
37,323

Years of Pandemic
2

Road deaths during pandemic
74,646

% chance of death from cars
0.05%

Chance of death from cars
1 in 1876

Calculations with citations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Is there a way to get vaccinated against car crash deaths? It would be great if we could reduce our risk of auto-crash death by 53 times /s

There is a way to get vaccinated against auto-crash deaths: buy a Tesla with Full Self Driving, or, take an autonomous taxi like an Uber…

 

[unequivocal]

The sad part is there is pretty much no reason for most of those cases to have ever occurred, except for the war on public health. I hate to think of what the long term costs of this are to society.

Damn right it's a war on public health. BTW. I'm one of the ones who didn't get it either. I didn't screw around and take stupid chances.

You seem to be implying that in order to catch it one needed to screw around and take chances, which is not fair to many who caught it. My step dad was bedridden and caught it because a workman wasn't careful - but the work was necessary for his health and well-being. I was exposed to my step dad before we knew he caught it because I went to help out with his care. Even though I was exposed for a couple of days with him, it appears the vaccine worked for me and I had no symptoms (but I did quarantine anyway)..

Just a reminder that this virus is complex and it's not just careful people on one side and irresponsible people on the other..

 

[Frank C.]

The sad part is there is pretty much no reason for most of those cases to have ever occurred, except for the war on public health. I hate to think of what the long term costs of this are to society.

Damn right it's a war on public health. BTW. I'm one of the ones who didn't get it either. I didn't screw around and take stupid chances.

You seem to be implying that in order to catch it one needed to screw around and take chances, which is not fair to many who caught it. My step dad was bedridden and caught it because a workman wasn't careful - but the work was necessary for his health and well-being. I was exposed to my step dad before we knew he caught it because I went to help out with his care. Even though I was exposed for a couple of days with him, it appears the vaccine worked for me and I had no symptoms (but I did quarantine anyway)..

Just a reminder that this virus is complex and it's not just careful people on one side and irresponsible people on the other..

Earlier, someone posted infection statistics from states that took it seriously and others that didn’t. So mask wearing , social distancing, minimizing any outside of the home trips vs exactly the opposite of that. Guess which ones had higher infection rates, and thus hospitalized or dead people? So yes, people in positions of not taking it so seriously statistically got it more often. We can chalk that up directly to other people not being careful, which is how your stepdad contracted it—someone didn’t do everything within their power to keep it at arms length. Would be interested in how many nurses and doctors were able to avoid it, using proper equipment and techniques.

 

[Matthew J.]

...Democrats...virtue signaling...

Good God, why are you so obsessed? Why does everything need to be political with you? That's pathetic!

[more drivel]

Well I mean... wow... it sure is a LOT of infections for a Democratic hoax virus that never existed in the first place.

/s