# Senior deaths from Covid-19



## Ronni (May 3, 2020)

Some sobering statistics for all of us, and/or those who have Senior loved ones.

USA COVID-19 STATISTICS 2/1/2020 - 4/28/2020

TOTAL COVID-19 DEATHS ALL AGES: 37,308
COVID-19 DEATHS *65 AND OLDER:*    22,455

More younger folks are catching the virus than older people, BUT OF the seniors who contract Covid-19, WAY MORE FOLKS AGES 65 AND UP ARE DYING FROM IT!

As "Vulnerable Individuals" we older folk are at far greater risk because we're far more likely to die from Covid-19 than our younger counterparts. As a senior myself, I'm doing my part to not only protect myself, but also my family, friends and clients, particularly those who are also vulnerable individuals.







Those statistics, and more, here


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## Don M. (May 3, 2020)

Seniors are more vulnerable to this virus as they are more likely to have pre-existing conditions and weakened immune systems than younger people.  As such, it is important that we take extra precautions against this virus, and Not let our guard down.


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## Ronni (May 3, 2020)

Don M. said:


> Seniors are more vulnerable to this virus as they are more likely to have pre-existing conditions and weakened immune systems than younger people.  As such, it is important that we take extra precautions against this virus, and Not let our guard down.



Exactly.  And just to clarify, even seniors in excellent health with no pre-existing health conditions have weaker immune systems than younger people.  It's simply a factor of age-related immune response, which response weakens the older we get.  

For those of you with a Nerd-brain like mine, here's the science behind why.

_ Immunologists have identified some of the specific ways the immune system changes with age, allowing them to go beyond the simple assertion that it weakens.

“Older people are not as good at reacting to microorganisms they haven’t encountered before,” said physician and immunobiologist Janko Nikolich-Zugich of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He calls it “the twilight of immunity.”

Our immune systems have two sets of defenses against viruses and other pathogens: a first-line army of cells, called leukocytes, that attack invading microbes within minutes to hours, and a second-line force of precisely targeted antibodies and T cells that surge to the battle front as late as several days after.

With advancing age, the body has fewer T cells, which produce virus-fighting chemicals. By puberty, the thymus is producing tenfold fewer T cells than it did in childhood, Nikolich-Zugich said; by age 40 or 50, there is another tenfold drop.

That leaves the body depleted of T cells that have not yet been programmed to defend against a specific microbe. Fewer such “naïve T cells” means fewer able to be deployed against a never-before-seen microbe.

“We just have fewer soldiers dealing with attackers we’ve never experienced before, like the new coronavirus,” Nikolich-Zugich said. (The body does retain the “memory T cells” that learned to fight attackers in youth, which is why immunization against smallpox and many other viral disease lasts decades.)

Another age-related change keeps T cells away from battle. Even before T cells enter the fray, other cells recognize invaders and dispatch natural killer cells and other soldiers to destroy as many as possible in the first few hours after infection. Then these same front-line cells literally show the virus to T cells, saying in essence, this is the enemy; produce virus-killing compounds.

“But this communication doesn’t work as well as we get older,” Nikolich-Zugich said. The instructor cells grow scarce and start to do the biological equivalent of mumbling. T cells therefore respond too late and too little.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/30/what-explains-coronavirus-lethality-for-elderly/_


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## squatting dog (May 3, 2020)

I've used to trust "Worldmeter" to give me unbiased stat's too what was going on in the world, and I'm not saying there's anything weird going on here, but I want to make this fact known (and I could be wrong). Many of us are using the Worldometers site for information regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. Their "About" page states that they are owned by Dadax. That is mentioned only once, and there are no hyperlinks to the company site. A simple Google for 'Dadax' shows many links relating to this company, which is based out of Shanghai.   
Again, could be wrong, but I thought the connection was interesting enough to make public.
Example....
The Worldometer website shows 54,269 corononvirus deaths as of April 25th.  And 62,262 US deaths on May 2nd. This amount is 62% greater than the amount reported by the CDC.    (who to trust)? In addition, according to the CDC, there were no deaths confirmed or assumed to be COVID-19 deaths until the end of February 2020.  As of April 25th, the number of China coronavirus deaths appears to be decreasing:
Also, according to the CDC:
* less than 1% of all China coronavirus deaths occur in those younger than age 35
* less than 3% of all of the China coronavirus deaths occur for individuals younger than age 45
* nearly 60% of all deaths are age 65 and older
Looking at the CDC chart, I'm hopeful that maybe, just maybe we are finally seeing a downward trend.


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## Ronni (May 3, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> I've used to trust "Worldmeter" to give me unbiased stat's too what was going on in the world, and I'm not saying there's anything weird going on here, but I want to make this fact known (and I could be wrong). Many of us are using the Worldometers site for information regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. Their "About" page states that they are owned by Dadax. That is mentioned only once, and there are no hyperlinks to the company site. A simple Google for 'Dadax' shows many links relating to this company, which is based out of Shanghai.
> Again, could be wrong, but I thought the connection was interesting enough to make public.
> Example....
> The Worldometer website shows 54,269 corononvirus deaths as of April 25th.  And 62,262 US deaths on May 2nd. This amount is 62% greater than the amount reported by the CDC.    (who to trust)? In addition, according to the CDC, there were no deaths confirmed or assumed to be COVID-19 deaths until the end of February 2020.  As of April 25th, the number of China coronavirus deaths appears to be decreasing:
> ...


Yeah, I was using Worldmeter for a while, but with so much conflicting and confusing information regarding the virus, I decided as much as possible to go to reliable and reputable source sites for the information I was seeking.  Hence the CDC for information about US statistics, my Nashville's Covid-19 site for information regarding Nashville etc.  And while even in those specific instances there was some conflicting information, it gave me a clearer overview than what I'd been doing prior. 

The one thing I do use a variety of sites for is trends.  Even if the specific numbers conflict between them, it's a valuable information to be able to compare graphs and trends.  Generally speaking, the trending statistics compare similarly.


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## Buckeye (May 3, 2020)

It seems that all of the data is somewhat suspect.  Here in the US we seem to ascribe any senior death to Covid19 whether it was or not.  I've read that in Sweden, they don't count any nursing home/senior facility death as being caused by C19, regardless of the facts.  How many cases have we had? Really, we don't know that either.  My older brother and his wife believe they had it back in January, and my son and DIL think they had it in February, but just dealt with it at home because C19 wasn't really a topic.  They all assumed it was either the flu or a bad cold.  Their stories are not uncommon.  Ohio has a website that shows the data by county, and I look at that almost every day, but take it all with a large grain of salt.


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## win231 (May 3, 2020)

Buckeye said:


> It seems that all of the data is somewhat suspect.  Here in the US we seem to ascribe any senior death to Covid19 whether it was or not.  I've read that in Sweden, they don't count any nursing home/senior facility death as being caused by C19, regardless of the facts.  How many cases have we had? Really, we don't know that either.  My older brother and his wife believe they had it back in January, and my son and DIL think they had it in February, but just dealt with it at home because C19 wasn't really a topic.  They all assumed it was either the flu or a bad cold.  Their stories are not uncommon.  Ohio has a website that shows the data by county, and I look at that almost every day, but take it all with a large grain of salt.


Most people are wired to accept anything from someone with a degree in whatever field they're providing information for.  And, the more capital letters after their name, the more impressive they appear - to those who are easily impressed.

I was reminded of uniformed police officers being interviewed on TV, who said, "No one should have a gun in their home.  If you have a gun in your home, that gun is six times more likely to be used against a family member than an intruder."  Well, he's a police officer, so....he must be right.  He's even wearing a uniform & badge!  And, guess who has guns in their home?

Every time we have an earthquake, the "geniuses" at Caltech rant on & on about their predictions of more earthquakes, complete with impressive, scientific words.  How clever of them to figure out that we're going to have more earthquakes.  _All this time, I thought each earthquake was the last one._
The head of the CDC has already tried to BS us about the mortality rate & the "Horrible Winter Wave of Coronavirus Coming," then he backtracked & tried to edit his original (stupid) comment.  Now, Dr. Fauci is trying to do the same thing.  Then they wonder why many don't take them seriously.


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## Buckeye (May 3, 2020)

win231 said:


> Most people are wired to accept anything from someone with a degree in whatever field they're providing information for.  And, the more capital letters after their name, the more impressive they appear - to those who are easily impressed.
> 
> I was reminded of uniformed police officers being interviewed on TV, who said, "No one should have a gun in their home.  If you have a gun in your home, that gun is six times more likely to be used against a family member than an intruder."  Well, he's a police officer, so....he must be right.  He's even wearing a uniform & badge!  And, guess who has guns in their home?
> 
> ...



Oh, it isn't about having initials after their names.  I've had a few myself (MBA, CPA, VP, BFD, WTF).  It's that we don't have the resources to test everyone, and so it makes sense to save those tests for the living instead of the dead, and to test those that show symptoms instead of folks who don't.  Also, we don't have enough anti-body tests to test everyone, so we have no way of knowing the real exposure.  

My point was that the numbers are too fuzzy at this point to be the basis for detailed analysis. I do agree that some of the decisions about how to count the deaths are politically motivated.


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## Sunny (May 4, 2020)

Thank you for your good common sense, Ronni.  Your opening note says it all.


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## win231 (May 8, 2020)

Here's another "Covid-19" death:  (not the strokes, paralysis & other issues from the tiger attack)
http://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainm...rom-covid-19/ar-BB13OA3L?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=iehp


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## Ronni (May 9, 2020)

win231 said:


> Here's another "Covid-19" death:  (not the strokes, paralysis & other issues from the tiger attack)
> http://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainm...rom-covid-19/ar-BB13OA3L?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=iehp





This is so sad.  At one point he was responding well to treatment.


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