# Having a hard time calling this a pandemic...



## macgeek (Aug 25, 2020)

I just don't see it with these stats. No matter what the media is calling it.   source: US Census, CDC


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## Becky1951 (Aug 25, 2020)

Does it matter? I don't care what its being called. Its killing people. Its not the flu.


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## Kadee (Aug 25, 2020)

From what i see on TV here in Australia the virus has killed 800.000 world wide .
Its hit aged care homes really bad in the state Of Victoria.

533 have died in Vic ( they are in stage 4 lockdown for the 2nd time ) 4 deaths in south Aust where I live. We are so lucky our Premier was so strict and locked out victorians unless they have a very good reason to come here , then most have to isolate in  a hotel for 14 days  at their own expense


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## Sunny (Aug 25, 2020)

Just saw a news article about a wedding in Maine about 2 weeks ago at a lodge in the woods. Over 60 people (so far) have gotten COVID-19, due to one wedding guest who had it.  One of those people (so far) has died.

More people probably caught it there, but the 60+ all had symptoms. Who knows how many more there were?

The article talked about how easily it spreads.  The person who died caught it from from daughter, who had not been at the wedding but had been in contact with her sister's mother-in-law, who was a guest.  They called that a tertiary source, which is one step beyond a secondary source.  This virus is truly opportunistic, and leaps at every opportunity.


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## Judycat (Aug 25, 2020)

It has shown up all over the world it's a pandemic.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Aug 25, 2020)

Pandemic means global, worldwide. It's a pandemic. There are those who suffer from the Ostrich Syndrome. It's still a pandemic.


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## jujube (Aug 25, 2020)

I say po-tay-to, you say po-tah-to,
I say pandemic, you say......well, whatever you want to call it, people are dying all over the world in alarming quantities.  I say pandemic.


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## jimbowho (Aug 25, 2020)

Becky1951 said:


> Does it matter? I don't care what its being called. Its killing people. Its not the flu.


Globally the "world health organization" estimates 650.000 flu deaths each year since 2010. Gee I wonder if any of those are counted as covid this year. And why no shut down before??


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## Don M. (Aug 25, 2020)

This CoronaVirus is now the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.....with Cancer and Heart Disease still far more deadly.  However, the longer this disease lingers, the greater the possibility of it taking over a higher position, statistically.  It has already taken the lives of many elderly who were   suffering other illnesses, and now the trend seems to be more among the young who resist adhering to the recommendations.  The Immediate big "question mark" is how will millions of kids going back to school affect the numbers.


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## DaveA (Aug 25, 2020)

Sadly, what it's called has more to do with political positions than anything else.  If the "leader' of one off our political parties changes his mind, his supporters will do an about face and do the same.

I haven't noticed any particular political connections to other illnesses but if it should happen, watch the "followers" fall into line behind their "leader", whoever it happens to be.

I would imagine some of the blindest of followers will not change their position even when someone in their own family passes away from the disease.  It'll just be collateral damage in the political war. That is how sick, IMHO, our society has become.


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## Aunt Bea (Aug 26, 2020)

The thing that I would be interested to see is the statistics around excess mortality during this pandemic.

Has the rate of death gone up as a result of COVID19 or has the cause of death simply changed?


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## Keesha (Aug 26, 2020)

I can’t believe there’s people still denying this virus even exists. Talk about blinders. How do they miss it? Do they think they are smarter than the worlds professionals in understanding all this? Crazy!


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## StarSong (Aug 26, 2020)

macgeek said:


> I just don't see it with these stats. No matter what the media is calling it.   source: US Census, CDC


Your title suggests you're having a hard time calling this a pandemic.  Pandemic classification isn't a subjective opinion like like beautiful or interesting.  Just as there are specific triggers for describing certain meteorological events (tropical storm, hurricane, tornado, etc.), contagious illnesses have specific classifications.    

This from the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section11.html)


*Section 11: Epidemic Disease Occurrence*
*Level of disease*

The amount of a particular disease that is usually present in a community is referred to as the baseline or *endemic* level of the disease. This level is not necessarily the desired level, which may in fact be zero, but rather is the observed level. In the absence of intervention and assuming that the level is not high enough to deplete the pool of susceptible persons, the disease may continue to occur at this level indefinitely. Thus, the baseline level is often regarded as the expected level of the disease.


While some diseases are so rare in a given population that a single case warrants an epidemiologic investigation (e.g., rabies, plague, polio), other diseases occur more commonly so that only deviations from the norm warrant investigation. *Sporadic* refers to a disease that occurs infrequently and irregularly. *Endemic* refers to the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area. *Hyperendemic* refers to persistent, high levels of disease occurrence.


Occasionally, the amount of disease in a community rises above the expected level. *Epidemic* refers to an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area. *Outbreak* carries the same definition of epidemic, but is often used for a more limited geographic area. *Cluster* refers to an aggregation of cases grouped in place and time that are suspected to be greater than the number expected, even though the expected number may not be known. *Pandemic* refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.


*Epidemics* occur when an agent and susceptible hosts are present in adequate numbers, and the agent can be effectively conveyed from a source to the susceptible hosts. More specifically, an epidemic may result from:

A recent increase in amount or virulence of the agent,
The recent introduction of the agent into a setting where it has not been before,
An enhanced mode of transmission so that more susceptible persons are exposed,
A change in the susceptibility of the host response to the agent, and/or
Factors that increase host exposure or involve introduction through new portals of entry.(_47_)


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## StarSong (Aug 26, 2020)

Keesha said:


> I can’t believe there’s people still denying this virus even exists. Talk about blinders. How do they miss it? *Do they think they are smarter than the worlds professionals in understanding all this?* Crazy!


They sure seem to, don't they?


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## Sunny (Aug 26, 2020)

StarSong said:


> They sure seem to, don't they?



That's because it's become a matter of politics, not science. We are living in an Orwellian nightmare. 

"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery."
"Ignorance is strength."
"All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than other animals."


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## asp3 (Aug 26, 2020)

Seems to fit the definitions I found.

pan·dem·ic

adjective
(of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.


prev·a·lent

adjective
widespread in a particular area or at a particular time.

wide·spread

adjective
found or distributed over a large area or number of people.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Aug 26, 2020)

macgeek said:


> I just don't see it with these stats. No matter what the media is calling it.   source: US Census, CDC


Oh, for crying out loud. Get your head out of the sand and un-drink the Kool-Aid. If you don't want to call it a pandemic, then call it an orange or a giraffe or a book. A rose by any other name...except this ain't no rose and it doesn't smell sweet. It stinks of death.

After three months, my brother still lies near death in an LTC center with little hope of recovery. I guess he's just collateral damage along with more than 180,000 other Americans and more than 820,000 people worldwide.


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## macgeek (Aug 26, 2020)

asp3 said:


> Seems to fit the definitions I found.
> 
> pan·dem·ic
> 
> ...



looks like I'm wrong. its a *pandemic* according to that definition.  I guess I don't like the word pandemic because it sounds like all hope is lost and the world is coming to an end. Hopefully that is not the case.   

60 million had swine flu in 2009, yet we barely talked about that. That certainly was a pandemic to me with numbers like that. I guess everyone can think what they like.


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## macgeek (Aug 26, 2020)

GeorgiaXplant said:


> After three months, my brother still lies near death in an LTC center with little hope of recovery.



sorry to hear this. someone from my church nearly died twice from it.


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## Becky1951 (Aug 26, 2020)

macgeek said:


> looks like I'm wrong. its a *pandemic* according to that definition.  I guess I don't like the word pandemic because it sounds like all hope is lost and the world is coming to an end. Hopefully that is not the case.
> 
> 60 million had swine flu in 2009, yet we barely talked about that. That certainly was a pandemic to me with numbers like that. I guess everyone can think what they like.



"60 million had swine flu in 2009".
That was the final count for it, we don't yet have a final count on Covid-19 and won't until its over.


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## Keesha (Aug 26, 2020)

macgeek said:


> looks like I'm wrong. its a *pandemic* according to that definition.  I guess I don't like the word pandemic because it sounds like all hope is lost and the world is coming to an end. Hopefully that is not the case.
> 
> 60 million had swine flu in 2009, yet we barely talked about that. That certainly was a pandemic to me with numbers like that. I guess everyone can think what they like.


Why would we talk and concern ourselves about the swine flu ( at this moment ) when we are trying to survive this pandemic?


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## squatting dog (Aug 26, 2020)

Don M. said:


> This CoronaVirus is now the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.....with Cancer and Heart Disease still far more deadly.  However, the longer this disease lingers, the greater the possibility of it taking over a higher position, statistically.  It has already taken the lives of many elderly who were   suffering other illnesses, and now the trend seems to be more among the young who resist adhering to the recommendations.  The Immediate big "question mark" is how will millions of kids going back to school affect the numbers.



I'm going to need a link to the CDC report that states this is the third leading cause of death.. So far, I can't find the link. 
Sorry, but I want it from the official CDC site.


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## squatting dog (Aug 26, 2020)

Last thing I found on the site....
"Because the CDC can't determine leading causes of deaths until after 2020, they said it's still up in the air as to where the coronavirus will end up on the list."


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## asp3 (Aug 26, 2020)

macgeek said:


> looks like I'm wrong. its a *pandemic* according to that definition.  I guess I don't like the word pandemic because it sounds like all hope is lost and the world is coming to an end. Hopefully that is not the case.
> 
> 60 million had swine flu in 2009, yet we barely talked about that. That certainly was a pandemic to me with numbers like that. I guess everyone can think what they like.



Swine flu was not nearly as likely to cause hospitalization and was not nearly as deadly.  Comparing the figures for swine flu here https://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/hosp_deaths_ahdra.htm with those for Covid-19 here https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html hospitalizations for Covid are over 6.5 times higher than those for the swine flu.  Unfortunately I didn't find statistics about length of stay and type of care needed which I think are higher and more intensive than those for swine flu.

According to the report "States reported 2,498* flu-related deaths to CDC during April 2009 through January 30, 2010."  We've had 70 times as many deaths from Covid in about half the time period.

So although the swine flu affected more people overall there were far fewer hospitalizations and deaths so that might be why people aren't talking much about the swine flu.


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## Don M. (Aug 26, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> I'm going to need a link to the CDC report that states this is the third leading cause of death.. So far, I can't find the link. Sorry, but I want it from the official CDC site.



It appears that the Latest numbers from the CDC website show the data from 2017....like most government data, it is behind the times. 
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/le...lzheimer’s disease: 116,103. Diabetes: 80,058.

However, if you review the CDC numbers regarding heart and cancer related deaths, then check the latest number of CV-19 deaths, the virus has easily become the 3rd largest cause.

Other reputable sites show much more current data....here's just one of many.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200818/covid-the-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-us


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## squatting dog (Aug 26, 2020)

Don M. said:


> It appears that the Latest numbers from the CDC website show the data from 2017....like most government data, it is behind the times.
> https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm#:~:text=Number of deaths for leading causes of death.,(cerebrovascular diseases): 142,142. Alzheimer’s disease: 116,103. Diabetes: 80,058.
> 
> However, if you review the CDC numbers regarding heart and cancer related deaths, then check the latest number of CV-19 deaths, the virus has easily become the 3rd largest cause.
> ...



 Using the figures, that makes covid the number three killer in 2017. which of course is redundant. There are no solid numbers for 2020, so nobody, not even Dr Frieden can accurately predict where covid will eventually end up.
Webnd doesn't have any 2020 figures either, so... again... redundant.


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## Don M. (Aug 26, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> Using the figures, that makes covid the number three killer in 2017. which of course is redundant. There are no solid numbers for 2020, so nobody, not even Dr Frieden can accurately predict where covid will eventually end up.
> Webnd doesn't have any 2020 figures either, so... again... redundant.



This virus didn't exist in 2017, so the data on the CDC web site does not apply.

If you Need the numbers, so far, for 2020, just tune into the TV news....it is usually updated daily.  Irregardless of which source you chose to believe, Covid-19 is Now the 3rd leading cause of death for 2020, in the U.S....but still well below the numbers for cancer and heart attacks.


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## asp3 (Aug 26, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> Using the figures, that makes covid the number three killer in 2017. which of course is redundant. There are no solid numbers for 2020, so nobody, not even Dr Frieden can accurately predict where covid will eventually end up.
> Webnd doesn't have any 2020 figures either, so... again... redundant.



I disagree.  I think it is possible for someone to accurately predict where where it will end up.  Other reasons for death tend to be fairly stable, and one can take the current death rate and infection rates for Covid, take best case and worst case numbers for future infection rates and death rates and get good estimates of what the best we can expect and the worst we can expect.

If one is really good at understanding trends and how they change over time one can get a very accurate estimate of where something will be in a given amount of time.  Actuaries at insurance companies do it all the time for all sorts of types of insurance one can purchase.


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## squatting dog (Aug 26, 2020)

Don M. said:


> This virus didn't exist in 2017, so the data on the CDC web site does not apply.
> 
> If you Need the numbers, so far, for 2020, just tune into the TV news....it is usually updated daily.  Irregardless of which source you chose to believe, Covid-19 is Now the 3rd leading cause of death for 2020, in the U.S....but still well below the numbers for cancer and heart attacks.



I really doubt that TV news is reporting all the heart disease, cancer, Chronic lower respiratory diseases,  Stroke,  Alzheimer’s disease,  Diabetes,  Influenza and pneumonia, Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis, and  Intentional self-harm daily. So again... no way to prove it's number three killer until all numbers are in. Is that really that hard to understand?


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## squatting dog (Aug 26, 2020)

asp3 said:


> I disagree.  I think it is possible for someone to accurately predict where where it will end up.  Other reasons for death tend to be fairly stable, and one can take the current death rate and infection rates for Covid, take best case and worst case numbers for future infection rates and death rates and get good estimates of what the best we can expect and the worst we can expect.
> 
> If one is really good at understanding trends and how they change over time one can get a very accurate estimate of where something will be in a given amount of time.  Actuaries at insurance companies do it all the time for all sorts of types of insurance one can purchase.



Well, we can agree to disagree. Can anyone predict what the annual suicide rate will be this year? Lot's of news stories tell about climbing rates, yet I doubt anyone could accurately predict the rate.


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## Lethe200 (Aug 26, 2020)

Coronaviruses and flu viruses are totally different. As one scientist said, the two bear the same similarities as koalas and mosquitos.

Flu, for example, is not anywhere near as infectious as SARS-COV2:

*COVID infectiousness graphic*
Answer by Steven Haddock, 10July2020
From Quora.com: *How easy is it to get infected by the coronavirus?*

Very.

Example #1: 61 people attended a choir practice in Skagit County, Washington in March 2020. None of them were symptomatic. They avoided contact and had lots of hand sanitizer. They were there for two and a half hours. 32 of them were confirmed infected and another 20 had symptoms. Two died.



Example #2: On February 18, a female parishioner tested positive after attending church services. Two days later, 15 people connected to the church also tested positive. Soon after, another hundred cases appeared in buildings surrounding the church. *A month later, 5,080 cases were traced back directly to the Church.

====*

The problem with COVID-19 is that we are beginning to see deleterious long-term health effects in survivors. There is growing evidence that COVID-19 impairs the immunoresponse in some people for months on end, possibly years. It is estimated between 12-21% of survivors may suffer disabling symptoms for periods ranging from several weeks to over a year.


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## PopsnTuff (Aug 26, 2020)

Don M. said:


> This CoronaVirus is now the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.....with Cancer and Heart Disease still far more deadly.  However, the longer this disease lingers, the greater the possibility of it taking over a higher position, statistically.  It has already taken the lives of many elderly who were   suffering other illnesses, and now the trend seems to be more among the young who resist adhering to the recommendations.  The Immediate big "question mark" is how will millions of kids going back to school affect the numbers.



This was in today's news: If they keep having their parties, these figures will steadily go up.....the students are being suspended now for this.
A New York Times survey of more than 1,500 American colleges and universities — including every four-year public institution, every private college that competes in N.C.A.A. sports and others that identified cases — has revealed at least 26,000 cases and 64 deaths since the pandemic began.


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## asp3 (Aug 26, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> Well, we can agree to disagree. Can anyone predict what the annual suicide rate will be this year? Lot's of news stories tell about climbing rates, yet I doubt anyone could accurately predict the rate.



We might be disagreeing on semantics.  My idea of a prediction is a range they expect the value to fall into.  It sounds like you're asking for exact numbers and I do agree that one cannot accurately do that.

However if one can get the expected ranges for heart disease, and the other number 2 cause of death one can see if the expected range is clearly over the expected ranges for the other two.  If the low end of the range for Covid is higher than the high expected value for the other two one could reasonably say that Covid will be the number one cause of death in the US for 2020.

I do agree we won't have a definitive answer until all of the numbers are in, but I think we can already have a good idea of what it will be.

There's always the possibility that some rock from space will hit somewhere in the US or better yet just off the coast and eclipse the death toll of the top three combined.  (BTW this is not a wish or a prediction for this to happen.)


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## Butterfly (Aug 26, 2020)

macgeek said:


> looks like I'm wrong. its a *pandemic* according to that definition.  I guess I don't like the word pandemic because it sounds like all hope is lost and the world is coming to an end. Hopefully that is not the case.
> 
> 60 million had swine flu in 2009, yet we barely talked about that. That certainly was a pandemic to me with numbers like that. I guess everyone can think what they like.



Doesn't matter whether you like the word or not.  It fits the definition of pandemic, so that's what it is.


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## gennie (Aug 26, 2020)

But if it makes you happy to call it something else, by all means do so.  It doesn't change what it is.


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## squatting dog (Aug 26, 2020)

Lethe200 said:


> Coronaviruses and flu viruses are totally different. As one scientist said, the two bear the same similarities as koalas and mosquitos.
> 
> Flu, for example, is not anywhere near as infectious as SARS-COV2:
> 
> ...



So, is Quora reliable? Some of the time. Just be careful, and take everything you read here with a grain of salt. Use other sources in conjunction with Quora. If you’re writing a serious paper, it’s not generally a good idea to put a Quora answer in your Works Cited section.


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## bingo (Aug 26, 2020)

i sure don't want to get it


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## Sunny (Aug 26, 2020)

Also, there's more to this than the death figures.  From what I've read, many people who have had the disease continue having lingering symptoms, sometimes awful ones. This disease is still too new for us to know what the ramifications will be.

Comparing death figures from one disease to another really fails to tell the whole story.


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## StarSong (Aug 26, 2020)

Sunny said:


> Also, there's more to this than the death figures.  From what I've read, many people who have had the disease continue having lingering symptoms, sometimes awful ones. This disease is still too new for us to know what the ramifications will be.
> 
> Comparing death figures from one disease to another really fails to tell the whole story.


Exactly true.


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## Don M. (Aug 26, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> I really doubt that TV news is reporting all the heart disease, cancer, Chronic lower respiratory diseases,  Stroke,  Alzheimer’s disease,  Diabetes,  Influenza and pneumonia, Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis, and  Intentional self-harm daily. So again... no way to prove it's number three killer until all numbers are in. Is that really that hard to understand?



The TV news is NOT reporting the number of deaths from heart disease and cancer....BUT most news outlets ARE reporting the current death rates from CV-19, almost daily.  If you do an internet search on "causes of death in the US", you can get the latest numbers for heart, cancer, accidents, etc., etc., then you can compare that to the latest CV-19 reports.    Is that really that hard to understand???


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## squatting dog (Aug 27, 2020)

Don M. said:


> The TV news is NOT reporting the number of deaths from heart disease and cancer....BUT most news outlets ARE reporting the current death rates from CV-19, almost daily.  If you do an internet search on "causes of death in the US", you can get the latest numbers for heart, cancer, accidents, etc., etc., then you can compare that to the latest CV-19 reports.    Is that really that hard to understand???



Not hard to understand at all. However, I would challenge you to provide a link that has daily updates on the ACTUAL NUMBER of deaths this year for the top ten leading causes of death. All that's on the CDC site is stats such as once every 40 seconds, someone in America has a stroke, and every 37 seconds one person dies from heart disease.    So, if you could be so kind, would you post a verified link that shows the actual up to the minute number of death's of the top 10, I'd be grateful.
I'll be waiting. (fingers tapping)
PS. since there's nothing to gain by this, I'm sure you won't find any TV source breathlessly waiting to rush to the air to report on it. That alone should make you ask yourself, "why the daily report of death from covid?" Could there be an ulterior motive?


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## StarSong (Aug 27, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> Not hard to understand at all. However, I would challenge you to provide a link that has daily updates on the ACTUAL NUMBER of deaths this year for the top ten leading causes of death. All that's on the CDC site is stats such as once every 40 seconds, someone in America has a stroke, and every 37 seconds one person dies from heart disease.    So, if you could be so kind, would you post a verified link that shows the actual up to the minute number of death's of the top 10, I'd be grateful.
> I'll be waiting. (fingers tapping)
> *PS. since there's nothing to gain by this, I'm sure you won't find any TV source breathlessly waiting to rush to the air to report on it. That alone should make you ask yourself, "why the daily report of death from covid?" Could there be an ulterior motive?*


Well since the entire planet seems to have put their chips in the center of the table and gone all-in on this game, it must be a helluva pot. Exactly what are you suggesting might be afoot? 

Surely the Dominican Republic and other small island nations whose livelihoods are highly dependent on tourism must be expecting very big payoffs for their daily reporting and supporting role in this conspiracy. Countries from Russia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela to Japan, Sweden, Rwanda and Vatican City are in on it, too! That's an impressively widespread, organized conspiracy for such an otherwise fractious world. 

How about all those doctors and nurses who've cried on TV, begging people to stay home? Must have been some stellar acting lessons those folks have taken. Johns Hopkins is undoubtedly going to be rewarded with billions for all this (apparently fake) tracking. And nice going on those fake bodies being placed in the graveyards around the world, plus satellite pictures thereof. Whoever planned that out should be congratulated. Talk about follow through and attention to detail! 

If heart disease, strokes or cancer suddenly became infectious, you could bet your last dollar that there'd be daily reporting on the numbers and hot spots of oubreaks.


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## squatting dog (Aug 27, 2020)

StarSong said:


> If heart disease, strokes or cancer suddenly became infectious, you could bet your last dollar that there'd be daily reporting on the numbers and hot spots of oubreaks.



Interesting that you'd mention heart disease... From the Mayo clinic...The most common causes of heart infection include:
Bacteria
Viruses
Parasites
That sure sounds like it could be infectious to me. So, where's the outrage and daily death count?


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## DaveA (Aug 27, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> I really doubt that TV news is reporting all the heart disease, cancer, Chronic lower respiratory diseases,  Stroke,  Alzheimer’s disease,  Diabetes,  Influenza and pneumonia, Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis, and  Intentional self-harm daily. So again... no way to prove it's number three killer until all numbers are in. Is that really that hard to understand?


I'm really not too interested or concerned with *most* of the above listed illnesses, fatal or otherwise.  The chance of catching "heart disease, a stroke, or Alzheimer's, from my friends and/or neighbors seems pretty slim.  Not so with the present "pandemic" or whatever one chooses to call it.


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## squatting dog (Aug 27, 2020)

Speaking of bacteria, most people are horrified when they learn just how many bacteria live on and in us. There are more than 1,800 types of airborne bacteria alone, which begs the question... how much bad bacteria is being trapped in your lungs by the wearing of mask for extended periods of time? While a mask may be a good thing for short periods,, I fail to see how wearing one for long periods is beneficial. Does this mean that long term masking will lead to more heart disease in the future? (see my above post for common cause of heart disease)


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## Sunny (Aug 27, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> Well, we can agree to disagree. Can anyone predict what the annual suicide rate will be this year? Lot's of news stories tell about climbing rates, yet I doubt anyone could accurately predict the rate.



Sure they can. Depends on what happens in November.


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## asp3 (Aug 27, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> Interesting that you'd mention heart disease... From the Mayo clinic...The most common causes of heart infection include:
> Bacteria
> Viruses
> Parasites
> That sure sounds like it could be infectious to me. So, where's the outrage and daily death count?



Assuming that you mean infectious to mean that it's passed from another human I would be willing to bet that most of these are non infectious and are more environmental or behavioral vectors.  This is definitely true for parasites.  So I think it's still reasonable to say that there is no reporting on infectious causes for heart disease because it's such a small percentage of the root cause.  However this is pure conjecture and I do not have any documentation to back up such a claim.


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## Nathan (Aug 27, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> So again... no way to prove it's number three killer until all numbers are in. Is that really that hard to understand?


Why is this even important?    It's not some sports statistic, like "Mike Scioscia had 68 HRs and 446 RBI in his 13 year MLB career."    Now that's important.


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## Sunny (Aug 27, 2020)

Exactly, Nathan. I don't understand why Squatting Dog is running this silly argument into the ground. So what if (today) it's not the No. 3 cause of death? What if it's really No. 4?  Is this even worth wasting all this time and arguing on?

To anybody who is still trying to maintain that this is really fake news, it's not really so bad, everyone is exaggerating, lots of people without masks don't even get it, etc., I would ask them to look at the pictures that have been all over the news for 5 months now, showing the worldwide devastation this disease has caused. Pictures of Italy with the streets totally empty. Pictures of mass graves with bodies being dumped into them. Thousands of pictures of grieving people all over the world.

If this is really not true, it certainly is one hell of a conspiracy!


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## Lethe200 (Aug 28, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> So, is Quora reliable? Some of the time. Just be careful, and take everything you read here with a grain of salt. Use other sources in conjunction with Quora. If you’re writing a serious paper, it’s not generally a good idea to put a Quora answer in your Works Cited section.



There are many poorly written/researched sources on Quora but there are also many top-quality writers. The graphic is a visual way to sum up a previous NY Times article I read on coronavirus hot spots. It said the same thing as the graphic, only in text. 

My sources tend to be NY Times, WS Journal, Scientific American, LA Times and Washington Post, all of which I subscribe to and read daily.


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