General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums25,000 Americans have died from flu so far this season
Should we be quarantining tourists at our ports?
Asking for some friends
greymattermom
(5,751 posts)Every year. How many lives would that save, perhaps half of those if the vaccine is 50% effective? I'm not an epidemiologist. If anyone on DU knows the answer, I'd love to know too.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Sort of like auto deaths, we tend to get our knickers in a twist over particular types of deaths, without much consideration over the relative numbers.
Over the course of six months, roughly the same number of Americans commit suicide (47,000 per year). So maybe theres no real reason to get upset over causes that dont exceed the rate at which people deliberately kill themselves anyway
dalton99a
(81,062 posts)Current U.S. Flu Season:
26,000,000 36,000,000 flu illnesses
12,000,000 17,000,000 flu medical visits
250,000 440,000 flu hospitalizations
14,000 36,000 flu deaths
Now imagine that every year there's a flu that kills 25,000 Americans.
And then there's also a coronavirus that kills 25,000 Americans.
But at the same rate of transmission and morbidity, the death toll would be higher. A lot of Americans are vaccinated, but even more have been exposed to some variety of the flu that reduces the symptoms. I'm 60. It has to be a pretty exotic strain that knocks me down the same way it hits my 30-year-old coworkers. Vaccination or not, I have partial immunity to most flu and cold strains, and haven't felt more than a general annoyance from a flu or cold for nearly a decade.
I haven't had anything like this coronavirus, and never have 100% of the rest of the population. There's pretty much no partial immunity. The first round or two would kill far more, cet. par., than 25,000 just based on its novelty.
We don't want novel viruses to spread. People die. It's not worth hysteria over, but it is worth putting significant resources and allowing some pretty severe short-term restrictions.
Comparing flu to COVID-19 is nonsensical. They are two different things with similar symptoms but very different in just about everything else. SARS, MERS and COVID-19 are different strains of a similar virus. The flu is not one of them. That's how I understand it.
EX500rider
(10,517 posts)Unintentional poisoning deaths
Number of deaths: 64,795
Unintentional fall deaths
Number of deaths: 36,338
Motor vehicle traffic deaths
Number of deaths: 40,231
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)noted to be half* of the treatment for the new coronavirus so I'm in good shape.
*The other half of the treatment is use of HIV medications, or so I'm told via print reports.