News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Advocates want to name heatwaves like hurricanes to raise awareness of dangers. Parent comment

Re:Advocates want to name heatwaves like hurricanes to raise... by umvi on Monday September 14, 2020 @11:31AM (#24471349)
> 200K+ dead in 6 months is pretty damn dire

Disagree. At least 450k die per year of preventable health conditions (lung cancer + obesity) and nobody bats an eye (that's 4.5M deaths per decade). The flu alone kills orders of magnitude more than covid over longer timelines. A once-in-a-lifetime virus kills medically compromised people at elevated rates for 6 months and people lose their minds? It's not rational.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Advocates want to name heatwaves like hurricanes to raise... by gremlinsinc on Monday September 14, 2020 @11:45AM (#24471513)
The spanish Flu killed about 600k Americans. We're on target to hit 400k+ by January. So, it's a safe bet we'll beat the Spanish Flu by next spring.

These are people who didn't need to die, who wouldn't have died for another reason. Do you really place such a low price tag on people's lives? What if it were your life, would you gladly sacrifice it?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Advocates want to name heatwaves like hurricanes to raise... by umvi on Monday September 14, 2020 @11:54AM (#24471635)
> The spanish Flu killed about 600k Americans.

USA population was also only 100M in 1918. So 600k back then was .6% of the total population. So far covid has killed .06% of the total population, or one order of magnitude less.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Advocates want to name heatwaves like hurricanes to raise... by smegger001 on Monday September 14, 2020 @08:00PM (#24476521)
Spanish flu pandemic lasted a little over 2 years, we are just now coming up on 8 months.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Advocates want to name heatwaves like hurricanes to raise... by ciarannolan on Monday September 14, 2020 @11:48AM (#24471546)
Out of morbid curiosity, how would you describe 200K+ dead from a contagious disease in 6 months? I'm sticking with "pretty damn dire".
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Advocates want to name heatwaves like hurricanes to raise... by umvi on Monday September 14, 2020 @11:58AM (#24471691)
It's not like covid can continue at this rate... there are only so many people with comorbidity or otherwise compromised health. In the year 2030 we will look back and say:

"Over the past 10 years, covid killed (on average) X people per year, and the flu killed (on average) Y people per year"

Do you predict X or Y will be the higher number? Because I predict Y will be the higher number. And if not in the decade timeframe, certainly Y would be higher in the century timeframe.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Advocates want to name heatwaves like hurricanes to raise... by ciarannolan on Monday September 14, 2020 @12:10PM (#24471830)
So, "it's just fat and sick people that are dead, and they'll all be gone soon enough, who cares"?
[ Parent | on HN ]