News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by jmull on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:35PM (#25074593)
I think this should put you concerns to rest:

Excess deaths in the United States were at 299K as of October 15. What’s your explanation for this, if it isn’t Covid?

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6942e2.htm?s_cid=mm...

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by legerdemain on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:41PM (#25074688)
Literally any other explanation would suffice! For example, the lockdowns put stress on Americans, exacerbate depression and anxiety, worsen health conditions associated with sedentary lifestyles, and keep people out of healthful bars and restaurants where they could consume a more diverse diet and nourish their psychological need for social interaction.
Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by hef19898 on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:48PM (#25074772)
It would. But than you have the official COVID deaths which match the excess deaths quite neatly. So why not just accept what numbers are clearly telling us?
Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by josephcsible on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:52PM (#25074830)
You're missing the point. The point is that some of the excess deaths were caused by Covid, and the rest were caused by the lockdown, and the numbers are intentionally being skewed to make all of the lockdown deaths look like Covid deaths. This obviously leaves the total of excess deaths the same.
Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by oblio on Thursday November 12, 2020 @04:12PM (#25075127)
How do you explain excess deaths not during periods of lockdown? Also not in the US where Covid-19 is for some reason a political talking point? :-)
Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by josephcsible on Thursday November 12, 2020 @04:38PM (#25075433)
What state/region and specific timeframe do you have in mind? Weren't lockdowns instituted in most places before recorded deaths got really high?
Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by oblio on Thursday November 12, 2020 @05:31PM (#25076093)
The Covid-19 paradox, "lockdowns were instituted in most places before recorded deaths got really high". I'd assume that those deaths couldn't have been lockdown deaths since, you know, no lockdown yet.

But after lockdowns were instituted, deaths levels became stable or decreased, despite your claim that the lockdown deaths were the actual cause of the catastrophe.

Schroedinger's Covid-19 :-)

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by josephcsible on Thursday November 12, 2020 @06:23PM (#25076702)
> I'd assume that those deaths couldn't have been lockdown deaths since, you know, no lockdown yet.

I'm confused. Lockdown happened first, and the plateau of deaths happened second.

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by oblio on Thursday November 12, 2020 @08:10PM (#25077612)
You're starting to get it. People were dying, in increasing numbers, before lockdowns. During lockdowns, the numbers of deaths went down.

So how could anyone, in good faith, argue that lockdown death numbers are somehow similar to Covid-19 death numbers?

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by josephcsible on Thursday November 12, 2020 @09:30PM (#25078146)
Deaths were low, then we locked down, then deaths were high. You're saying that's evidence that lockdowns can't possibly be contributing to deaths?
Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by oblio on Friday November 13, 2020 @02:27AM (#25079907)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25079899

You don't have the data. And these things are already quantified and tracked. And no, it doesn't work like you say.

Anyway, have a great day and believe what you want to believe :-)

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by legerdemain on Thursday November 12, 2020 @09:28PM (#25078141)
Please, no snide condescension.

I haven't seen anyone here, and certainly not josephcbible, make absurdly absolute claims that Covid hasn't killed _anyone_. I'm sure Covid has been a factor in the deaths of many people.

Deaths, as reported, peaked in the spring. Epidemiologists have a name for an entirely mainstream explanation of what happened. They call it a "harvesting effect." I agree that the name is unsavory. It refers to a disease quickly culling the weak in a population.

The majority of the excess mortality has accumulated since spring, _after_ the country went into forced lockdown. There is no reason to default to the belief, as you seem to be doing, that Covid has continued killing masses and masses of people. Certainly not compared to the much more salient explanatory force of the massive, nationwide lockdowns.

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by oblio on Friday November 13, 2020 @02:26AM (#25079899)
These comments deserve snide condescension. They're utterly detached from reality, or even better, they're purely cynical ("I'm not going to die, so the hell with people that will die").

Go see these things:

https://www.youtube.com/user/potholer54/videos

For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzh6HwN0gbw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzh6HwN0gbw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAB43K2gtOk

Your comment is not backed by anything, there are statistics for types of deaths and there is almost 0 (ZERO!) support for lockdowns causing this many deaths.

How do you think you're smarter than all the world's governments, combined? Are you a qualified scientist or just Random Joe on the internet? If you're the latter, you might want to re-think your viewpoint.

PS: I'm definitely waiting for one of these moments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079, but it's unlikely :-)

PPS: I'm not going to reply to these threads anymore, as people who are replying to them are either cynical or emotional or both. You just don't have the numbers to back up your claims.

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by jfim on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:53PM (#25074842)
> keep people out of healthful bars and restaurants where they could consume a more diverse diet

The portion sizes [0] and food served in bars and restaurants in the US are not healthy. Generally, home cooking is associated with consuming fewer calories and improve certain health outcomes [1].

[0] https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/03/29/portion-sizes [1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/home-cooking-good-for-yo...

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by Viliam1234 on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:59PM (#25074956)
> keep people out of healthful bars and restaurants

If it turns out that what people cook at home is even less healthy than food in restaurants, that is a horrible thing, and we should definitely start teaching cooking at schools, regardless of Covid.

I mean, restaurants have all the incentives to cook food that is tastier or cheaper at the expense of health. Simply using less sugar and salt at home, and adding some fresh vegetables to each meal, should already result in healthier diet even if you are a beginner at cooking. But yeah, I can imagine that many people are below the level of beginner.

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by irrational on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:49PM (#25074789)
> healthful bars

???

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by lolc on Thursday November 12, 2020 @06:03PM (#25076457)
Socializing is healthful to humans. Consuming alcohol is hurting.

Now if we'd go so far as to assume that people consume the same amount of alcohol at home, then staying home is a net negative for health. I don't actually know how alcohol consumption developed during lockdown, so I don't know whether there is any merit to that line of argument. But I see how it can be made.

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by legerdemain on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:56PM (#25074878)
Bars play a crucial role in Americans' public health.
Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by postalrat on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:43PM (#25074709)
People sitting at home depressed, drinking, drugs, afraid to go to hospital for pains that may be serious, who knows.

Not say it is all those things but some attempt to rule out other factors unique to 2020.

Re:Sweden Covid-19 Update by sorenjan on Thursday November 12, 2020 @03:54PM (#25074857)
It differs from country to country, so any concerns should take that into account. For instance, in Sweden the total number of people that have died from 1 januari to 1 november this year is around 3000 more than the average during the same period in 2015-2019, which is lower than the 6000 official covid deaths. So it seems unlikely that there are a large number of unreported covid deaths hiding as something else.

Source: official mortality statistics. https://www.scb.se/om-scb/nyheter-och-pressmeddelanden/overd...