Cobalt

That SpaceX launch yesterday was particularly exciting. Felt like just for a moment we were united under the same goal, seeing 4 million+ people watch the launch was pretty inspiring

Wow.. the COVID-19 talk is getting so bad that mother nature wants to shut us all up for a moment by giving us a snow threat

I feel especially bad for the people who are living in those nursing homes, I'd imagine there's a sense of paranoia in those environments :/

Remember that these estimates bump up the death toll and amount of cases by a considerable amount. You are picturing it like these death tolls should've been estimated at higher numbers, when in reality the estimations are likely accurate. However, when comparing those confirmed deaths at the time to those of COVID-19 currently, there's almost no comparison. Especially when considering that there have likely been a lot of explained deaths before when COVID-19 took off in the U.S This also happened with H1N1, where confirmed deaths were a mere fraction of the "estimated" death toll of 12,000 ^ Outdated graph but it gets the point across quite clearly (as of April 3rd in the graph)

Estimated numbers after the fact tend to bring up both the deaths and infections, and I'd imagine that'll give us a better picture. From what I remember, there were 3,000 confirmed H1N1 US deaths, but that number ended up being bumped up to something around 12,000 after the fact.

Makes you wonder. Must've died to the flu or something

Well first off, I guess that depends on your definition of "young people". According to New York City Health (as of April 14th), 4.5% of all deaths there were in the age range of 18-44. The fatality rate of a similar age group in the US (20-49), is 0.3%, compared to the annual flu's 0.02%. And of course while a big contribution to these deaths is that many who die have pre-existing conditions, how healthy do you think the general American population is? 1 out of every 3 Americans likely has pre-diabetic or diabetic symptoms (where 80% of those with prediabetes are unaware that they have it). 39.8% of all adults over 20 are obese. 18.2 million adults above the age of 20 have Coronary Artery Disease. 25 million Americans have asthma. Of course while many of these conditions overlap, that makes it especially worse for those people. This isn't just one particular old age group that is affected. If you've checked a population pyramid lately, an incredibly large portion of Americans are between the ages of 40-70. You can't exactly cut off one group of people who are at risk and expect the situation to be resolved, as so many of those people who are at risk but fall out of the (as you put it obese 80 year old) group, they still need to make a living. I guess from that perspective there isn't exactly a winning solution on either end.

I wonder how much of a concern there is for a 2nd wave in the fall? Spanish Flu had it, H1N1 had it, both ended up being worse & more fatal than the 1st wave. Could be especially bad considering that many would be reluctant to go into a 2nd series of shutdowns in the fall

Incredibly sorry to hear this, sending my thoughts to your family and extended family, and hopefully the other two members of that family will turn for the best

You.. trust China's numbers?

Usually the estimates at the end will bump up not only the amount of cases, but also the deaths. At this point in it's US lifespan, the 2009 H1N1 had around 300 CONFIRMED deaths. We're at 4,500 confirmed, with 4,800 people in critical condition. Not good. The "just the flu" crowd has been awful quiet as of late

What are you trying to prove exactly?

Dude, a typical flu season would never kill 800 people in a single day in Italy. That just wouldn't happen. Have you ever seen hospitals get as overwhelmed as they have from COVID-19? Ridiculous.

The USA sadly still has a very large at-risk population. 39.6% of US adults are obese, and about 1/3 have either prediabetes or diabetes. Both major risk factors for a respiratory illness, as obesity can pose similar risks as if someone was a lifelong smoker. Seeing as the deaths are so low here, we can't compare to Italy yet. We're still 1-2 weeks behind Italy. One Saturday ago Italy had 1,000 deaths, now they're almost getting a thousand a day. I'm just hoping people take precaution to stay home. Even people like me who would otherwise be perfectly healthy with little to no risk, spreading it to those who are at risk is the biggest issue

Most likely yeah. I've heard of people of younger age groups dying simply because hospitals in Italy couldn't attempt to treat any more people due to lack of resources (and likely shows that China lied about their numbers but I'm not gonna get into that)