That makes Covid 5.6 times more deadly than the flu.

But, the Covid numbers here are from a complete lockdown, where people are social distancing, wearing masks, schools are closed, everyone is working from home if possible, etc. And even with those level of precautions, it is at best 5.6 times deadlier.

That's why the estimate from the CDC is that Covid is 10 times deadlier than the flu.

The other thing is, this only measures immediate death. But there are unknown long term risk. Other type of SARS virus are known to cause long term issues to people that recovered from it. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be the case for Covid but it could, and we don't know yet.

The last problem is mutations are possible. There's already one known mutation that makes it even more contagious. And the more the virus spreads, the more likely it mutates as well. So containment is important for that as well.

Now, that's the risk of it from the data today. You can decide that it is a risk worth taking or not. That's kind of a personal thing. But it is absolutely much higher than the flu.

So our current understanding is that COVID-19 is both more deadly and more infectious.

This does take into account infection rates, it's absolutely relevant and it's the big reason for Covid being deadlier, because it is more contagious.

So from the data, we see that with social distancing, lock down, and all that, it still infects and kills 5.6 times more people than the flu does every year given the measures taken for the flu, which is to have some amount of the population vaccinated. Thus assumed that without any protections, it would be even worse, possibly killing around 620k people per year. That would put it above cancer and up there with hearth disease as the number one cause of death per year.

And that's precisely why we're hoping for a vaccine. So that we can hopefully get the infections down and stop it's crazy contagion rate to manageable numbers that result on much less deaths per year, and doesn't force us to continue with the more challenging measures for limiting the spread of the virus.

What does Qatar do to a person who is confirmed infected? Does the same action occur to someone with the flu?

What is Qatar asking it's population to do differently today, compared to this time a year ago? Does that have any meaningful impact on transmission rates?

I illustrated it as a place in which there is so much mass testing that the mortality figures are more fact than fiction.

> It's pretty locked down. You have an app that unless it's says healthy you are not allowed into any public place.

The explicit comparison to the flu doesn't really seem to hold, since the conditions applied to the infected aren't equal. If those carrying the flu were subject to the same conditions as those carrying this covid-19, the comparison would hold up a lot better.

> I illustrated it as a place in which there is so much mass testing that the mortality figures are more fact than fiction.

Mortality numbers as a % of tested peoples are hugely variable due to the differences in testing between nations.

Mortality numbers as a % of the population (deaths per 100k/1m) make for good comparisons, and unless the nation is engaging in outright deception, those numbers are reasonable to use as a comparison.

According to https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality the USA has 52.52 deaths per 100k. In line with your previous, Qatar has 6.94 deaths per 100k.

10x more people have died in the USA vs in Qatar. What's going on?

Look - my country no one bothers to observe measures and our system is far from overloaded.

I think that a lot of influential l people threw too much social capital on stay at home and stuff like this and now they just can't handle the situation if covid is less dangerous than thought.

I think we are in the sink cost fallacy.

There are 10x more deaths as a percentage of the population in the USA than in Qatar. The number of tests / positive cases is not relevant to that number.

Why bother treating any sick person if this is your position? The healthcare system would be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier if we just "frontloaded some death" for everyone who gets seriously ill.

When the actions to prevent these people from dying, uh "just earlier than they would have," are as simple as wearing a mask and social distancing, it is unethical to not do so.

I'm not gaining muscle mass but I'm having absolutely no trouble whatsoever maintaining it at home with exercise bands and calisthenics. It's a tiny, tiny price to pay for helping keep my community safe.

I would sacrifice the gym for the rest of my life if it meant adding even a year of life to a single person. Sentient existence is immeasurably more valuable.

It shows:

39,000,000 – 56,000,000 flu illnesses

18,000,000 – 26,000,000 flu medical visits

410,000 – 740,000 flu hospitalizations

24,000 – 62,000 flu deaths

Which is actually kind of on the higher side for the flu season. They attribute that most likely on the increased testing happening this year due to people getting tested for Covid.

Until you provide overwhelming evidence (because that's what you're up against), you're spreading misinformation.

Seems to me like you're speaking from a feelings position, rather than a facts one.

Total predicted number of excess deaths since 2/1/2020 across the United States:

All causes: 174,930 - 235,728

All causes except COVID-19 : 29,416 - 78,932

> the Wuhan virus

Propaganda pro-tip: If you want people to trust you, suppress the obvious tells.