Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

[Undertoad]

The US is #1 in case fatality rate



Three possible conclusions:

1) lower death rate shows the US health care system is comparatively good
2) higher case rate shows the US testing regime is comparatively good
3) combination

Your move, haters

[glatt]

Let's see "hate." What can I hate here...

I hate your title, because it made me think we had the highest rates if we were number one. It would be better if the title said that the US was "best."

"Hate" is way too strong though.

This is good news, not that it's a competition.

[glatt]

It would be nice if other non-European countries besides the US and Canada were included.

How is Asia doing? How about famous New Zealand?

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Your move, haters

Why inappropriate use of the word 'hate'? Because Trump promotes it daily.

[Happy Monkey]

2) Higher case rate only shows good testing, comparatively, if the infection rate is equal. When there is a political party actively campaigning against preventing infection, that isn't an assumption that can be relied upon.

[Clodfobble]

"The U.S. is #1 among these specific countries we chose to include in the chart."

As a non-hater myself, though, I actually think that 2 years from now, the cross-country death rate comparisons will be a washout: severely controlled countries like New Zealand are only delaying the inevitable, IMHO, and the only real factor affecting an area's death rate will be whether they kept the speed of the caseload under their medical system's limit, to avoid otherwise preventable deaths. But that's because I also don't think we'll ever get an effective vaccine, hopeful press releases notwithstanding. This thing won't be done until we get herd immunity the old-fashioned way, just like every human population for millenia has done when a pandemic rips through.

[sexobon]

OK, now we're getting somewhere. Mexico says the damage done by COVID-19 isn't due to government's lack of preparedness or action... it's Coca-Cola's fault!

Coca-Cola or 'bottled poison'? Mexico finds a COVID-19 villain in big soda

MEXICO CITY — While touring southern Chiapas state last month, Mexico’s coronavirus czar took aim at a local vice he considers culpable for the country’s ongoing pandemic problems: rampant Coca-Cola consumption.

Health undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell connected soda consumption with COVID-19 deaths, blaming sugar for causing comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension – maladies common in Mexico, where almost three-quarters of the population is overweight, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. ...

... As COVID-19 cases mount in Mexico and the death toll soars – Mexico only trails Brazil and the United States in total pandemic fatalities – López-Gatell and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have increasingly pinned Mexico’s pandemic problems on its poor nutrition habits — soda consumption chief among them.

Mexicans drink more soda per-capita than any other country – an estimated 163 liters per year. And bottlers, such as Coca-Cola, deliver its products to the remote corners of the country – where potable water is scant and soda is often sold for less than water.

Both López-Gatell and López Obrador equivocate on the effectiveness of wearing face masks. But they’ve expressed fewer doubts on the negative impact of junk food and soda consumption and its connection to COVID-19 fatalities. ...

... The attacks on big soda and admonishments to eat better come as López-Gatell comes under criticism for his handling of the pandemic – especially a policy of not testing widely and not conducting contact tracing – as the death toll closes in 60,000 fatalities.

[Clodfobble]

And bottlers, such as Coca-Cola, deliver its products to the remote corners of the country – where potable water is scant and soda is often sold for less than water.

Good thing the drought situation is only going to get better in the coming years..

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sounds like Coke is serving people better than the government.

Oh, and this won't happen if they come up with a vaccine... for this or anything.

[Clodfobble]

This is part of why we're never getting an effective vaccine for this thing.

Confirmed case of true reinfection, beyond any doubt because it was two different strains. Antibodies for the first infection clearly didn't work to combat the second infection, because his two bouts of illness were within a month of each other, when post-infection antibodies should be highest. (Which is to say, a hypothetical vaccine that worked for the first strain wouldn't have worked for the second, and if you can get as many new strains as they're seeing in just 9 months of spread in the U.S., you'll never stay ahead of it.)

The first infection was mild, the second put him in the hospital. He was 25 years old, in good health, no autoimmune or pre-existing conditions.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Three of the vaccines in the pipeline require storage at 4 degrees below zero F, to 96 degrees below zero F.
The article didn't say how long they would be viable warmed up to inject.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Seems to be a number of articles arguing the powers that be aren't puting enough emphasis on aerosols.

[glatt]

I was on a family zoom call last night, and my sister, who is a teacher at MIT had a little interesting information. I wish I remembered the exact numbers she told me. Take every number I relay here with a grain of salt.

She said that MIT is currently repeatedly testing all staff and students on a two week cycle, and that the entire MIT community is on a fairly strict quarantine regiment, so case number are very low. Nothing surprising in any of that.

Was is noteworthy, is that MIT's testing accounts for something like a quarter of all testing in Massachusetts, because they are doing something like 60,000 tests a week. This has the effect of artificially making Massachusetts look like it is a much healthier state than it actually is.

[Undertoad]

60k per week actually shows up on the testing volume section of the MA page here (in grey at the bottom of the positive tests section, the numbers rise in mid August)

https://rt.live/us/MA

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

60k per week actually shows up on the testing volume section of the MA page here (in grey at the bottom of the positive tests section, the numbers rise in mid August)

https://rt.live/us/MA

My numbers as relayed by her are fairly unreliable, but the chart you link shows an almost doubling of daily testing in Mass starting in mid August. I wonder if that's all the colleges, not just MIT?