Even if it kills (which it likely will), our track record shows that didn't care enough about that, and in a decreasing manner. So it'll only be worse.

[–] Chriskmee@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Pretty sure every virus has killed people, from the cold, to flu, and of course covid. It feels like now the death rate for the latest variants of covid are pretty comparable to the flu, the virus has lost a lot of its killing power over time.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Death rates aren't a feeling. I want some hard numbers.

I feel like we just don't care if we live or die anymore.

[–] Chriskmee@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I know I've read reports about the latest variants being much less deadly. I did see one study recently which for patients presenting to hospital covid was a few percentage points more likely to result in death compared to hospitalized flu patients. There were a lot more covid patients though.

Found it:

death rates among people hospitalized for COVID-19 were 17% to 21% in 2020 vs 6% in this study, while death rates for those hospitalized for influenza were 3.8% in 2020 vs 3.7% in this study

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803749

So there is some data backing up the feelings I've gotten from everything I've been hearing and seeing.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So that's almost twice as bad as the flu.

[–] Chriskmee@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I mean, that's one way to look at it. I looked at it as only a couple percent higher death rate than the flu. Either way, a little less than 2x is way better than like 5x worse.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Obviously it's better than before, but it's also worth keeping in mind these deaths are in addition to the flu.

Also, there are good and bad flu seasons. I see no reason for COVID to not be the same.

[–] SkepticElliptic 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That's the same shit that businesses were pushing last time because they didn't want to close for a few months, ended up making everything worse.

[–] Chriskmee@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

I know I am a bit biased here because I didn't get sick and didn't really try that hard to avoid it either. I only wore a mask when I had to, I went to bars with friends, really didn't take any extra precautions, and I washed my hands normally. If I got covid I didn't notice it.

Personally I would hate if we went into lockdown again, but again, I didn't get sick, the worst I felt was when I got the vaccine.

[–] Piers 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yup. More effective action faster would have had a higher same-day-you-make-the-decision cost but would have been tremendously less harmful economically to all the entities blocking it for fear of the economic impact to them. They were digging a mass grave and then leaping into it.

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[–] Piers 1 points 2 years ago

The issue is that it happens out of sight out of mind so it's just an abstract statistic that it's easy to ignore or pretend away. If Covid-19 killed you by making your head spontaneously fall off we'd have eliminated it or reduced it to a few tiny isolated pockets simply by the change in the public's attitude to it. But because it kills you "quietly" out of sight in a hospital bed or at home, people were able to just convince themselves everything is basically normal.

[–] reverendsteveii 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

get people to wear masks en masse again

The time when people wore masks en masse must be something that I'm too American and lung-scarred to remember

[–] Piers 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I’m too American and lung-scarred to remember

Due to a history of smoking and multiple bouts of pneumonia I was already fairly sure that my "dying of old age" (which noone truly does) would consist of drowning on fluids from my own damaged lungs one day. Then the drowning on fluids from your own damaged lungs plague came and people decided they'd rather other people die by drowning on fluids from their own damaged lungs than follow simple enhanced hygiene practices for a bit.

Mostly I try to just block that out but it's come back into sharp focus today...

[–] reverendsteveii 3 points 2 years ago

If you put about 15 minutes between an action and it's consequences there's a strong subset of our population that will just completely lose the connection between the two. That, to me, was the primary problem. Well, that and the fact that it's impossible to measure how many times you didn't get COVID due to masking or vaxxing