I'll take Covid in Floriduh for $100...or "Is DeSantis toast?"

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by Maruzo

I think you are wrong about this. Covid is equal to if not surpass the deadliness of the 1918 Spanish flu.

We'll find out. Drawing parallels to the Spanish flu is difficult due to the time it occurred. Limited communication, medical technology, vaccinations, population size/density, etc.

Originally Posted by Maruzo

It is not just another new strain of your garden variety flu. It’s emergence signifies the beginning of a new batch of viruses with quicker and wider airborne infections, more serious injuries to the host, and much higher fatality rate than your regular flu.

What I fear isn’t Covid, but the possibility that more of these types are on the horizon.

There certainly will be. Naturally (and possibly unnaturally if we keep growing these things in labs in the name of "research"). It happens every 20-40 years, as in some of the virus' you have mentioned. And life goes on... we get scared for a year and move on. We do it when Zika pops up, or SARS, or some other virus. We take the precautions with bug repellent or whatever the recommendations are for that particular thing. And continue on.

In the US in 2020, covid wasn't the number 1 cause of death. It was third. Half as many deaths as the number 1, heart disease. CDC Mortality Data 2020. I don't want the government to be able to mandate that everyone run 2 miles every other day to save lives. We have out-paced that 2020 figure this year due to it just starting in 2020, but another ~181000 people will need to die by years end to catch the #2 cause of death which was cancer. Currently, a 2% mortality rate in the US for CV19. That number gets smaller when you break it down by age group. And even smaller when you factor in the vaccine protections.

I admire you and bcredliner wanting to save every potential life possible. I'm more pragmatic. People getting sick or dying is always sad. I know people who have done both, as I'm sure you both do. I don't want to ban drinking because drunks drive and I don't want to give the government carte blanche in regards to vaccinations because people choose not to take them. Excepting public schools, as I've mentioned before.