Redmond Loc: Oregon

then there are the groups of people protesting the stay at home orders, and our president cheering them on!!!!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I would just note that deaths from cardiac arrest are up 400% in NYC. Whether this is a direct result of the virus attacking the heart or the lower oxygen sats due to the pneumonia (or??) isn’t clear, but for those of us with cardiac disease, it’s an increased incentive to avoid contracting the virus if at all possible.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

I think we can date that back to 1963 with the assassination of President Kennedy. There was so much misinformation and conspiracy theories going around and the new media ate it up. To me that was the turning point -- the downward spiral of our news services.

srfdude Loc: San Diego

It is so disheartening to hear people equate the "economy" with money mongers and wall street. A very short sighted, polarized point of view. No, the economy is 100 million people who aren't working, or working part time, whose savings are being eaten away, landlords who aren't being paid so they can repay their bank loans, etc. It certainly is not whether Bill Gates or Warren Buffet lose or gain a few billions on their investments. My wife and I haven't been able to open our offices for 6 weeks with no end insight; we are still paying our employees a stipend, but that will have to end soon. Then we will be on the bread lines with the rest of the "economy". There is no context to the recent rants, 2018 flu deaths US: 80,000. (CDC) Or also CDC, how about drug deaths US: 67000. The list goes on. This is not to make light of the recent pandemic, rather in the context of life it is another challenge.
Sources: https://www.statnews.com/2018/09/26/cdc-us-flu-deaths-winter/
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA

I would disagree with you, in part. Yes, there was a lot of misinformation going around at that time. But that was because of the secrecy the Government itself promoted, which caused EVERYONE, media and not, to become alarmed and try to put some sense into the assassination. It was Watergate that caused the real problem, according to a friend of mine who used to be a member of the press throughout all of that. His point was that Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward became heroes and landed positions that no reporters had previously attained. From that point forward, every reporter wanted to land the next Watergate. Nothing was as it seemed to be; the Government and everyone around it had to be dirty and have a crooked agenda. That is really when sensationalism was born, in the press. And the 24-hour format of Fox, CNN and others followed by filling in by putting more and more opinionated pieces into the news in such a way that separating opinion from factual reporting became impossible to decipher.

CaptainBobBrown

Flu stats from CDC are available. Google it. But they are usually estimates because rarely does flu require hospitalization. Mortality rate in 2019 is estimated by CDC for U.S. at .09%, that's 9/100 of 1% or about 32000 out of an estimated 34 million cases in 2019. The reason Covid 19 gets all the attention is it's much higher morbidity and mortality. For example, as of this morning U.S. mortality was running at 5.34% (39,651 deaths out of 742,459 proven cases. The U.S. mortality rate could be higher or lower if only we had testing of many more of the living and not just those so seriously ill they are admitted to ER and/or intensive care.

SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

For those wanting to know more about flu statistics, just check the CDC website. It's all that there for all those inquiring minds.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm
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Whether the flu is just as bad, worse or less than Covid-19, I leave up to you to decide.
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This is just one of the data presentations from the CDC website. The data shows that there was a severe flu outbreak in 2017-2018 and the stats of Covid-19 in the 2020 data. So what happened in 2017-2018?

(Download)

Here's some info on the 2017-2018 fly season which was quite severe, also resulting in a large number of hospitalizations and deaths. But not as severe as today's Covid problem if you take all the mitigation into account and that this is not over.

(Download)

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

I think they are protesting about the irrational rules. You can’t travel to your vacation or second home. I do that twice a week, garage to garage with 1 stop for fuel every 3 weeks. I’d be a criminal in Michigan. You can’t buy seeds to plant a garden. You can buy alcohol and pot but not a gun. You are a criminal if you perform elective surgery unless it is an abortion. You can’t fish, even from your own dock. That is the kind of lunacy they are protesting.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Hard to make an accurate blanket statement as the rules vary by state, county and by local govt. For example, here in NC, you can buy both guns and seeds and fish from your own dock. I don’t know if elective surgeries are banned, but anyone who would go near a hospital at this time unless really sick or it’s a necessity is not thinking clearly. On the other hand, there are some local beach communities that are not allowing visitors and there is a lawsuit underway by non residents concerning their right to visit their vacation home.

Brownie45 Loc: Louisville, Kentucky USA

Governor Beshear of Kentucky reported some flu stats. The social distancing has helped decrease the number of flu cases and deaths in Kentucky this year. The health department tracks flu statistics carefully.

oregon don

I am old enough to remember when the paper came out with "DEWEY WINS!!!"

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

The question from the OP is a valid one. Comparing statistics is not down playing anything. It is just a comparison of facts and / or figures.

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

You are correct. I was referring to Michigan where the protest was recently on the news. My idaho contractor friends are earning money but in Washington they can’t work. In idaho, where I spend most of my time I can’t get a license to fish in the creek in my back yard or in my boat which I could do solo because I require an out of state permit. I can’t even get one by mail. Snowmobilers are turned back from the mountains. Wacky.

neillaubenthal

You're mixing apples and oranges…quoting death rates by age from Corona and then comparing it to the overall influenza death rate…which is actually 0.1% rather than 0.01% from what I just googled but no matter. The problem is that is the overall rate and is not adjusted for age. Flu death rate for > 85 is up at about 1% which is still less than the 10% or so that Corona kills…but again there is a problem with that 10%. Death rate is deaths divided by the number of cases…and we have no idea what the actual number of corona cases is. Since as many as 50% show no symptoms…that would double the denominator and make the >85 death rate 5%. Still high…but then event 50% no symptoms number isn't necessarily accurate. There is simply insufficient data to determine the actual death rate from corona vis-a-vis the flu at this point.

This doesn't mean that corona isn't a big deal…it is…but it is not necessarily as big a deal as the media is making it out to be…it could be…but then again it is apparently subsiding in NY state with far fewer deaths than the governor was predicting as recently as 2 weeks ago…we will really only have some idea of death rate way, way down the road from now.

People should still isolate and stay home though…but the purpose of that is not to save lives. The purpose is to reduce the strain and overload on the health care system. In the long run…the total number of cases and deaths at the end of the pandemic will likely be in the same ballpark regardless of isolation or not…but by spreading the cases and deaths over a longer period of time it will allow the medical system to manage it without being overwhelmed.

There is also a problem with the "total number of corona deaths" in the way it is being reported. Guidance from CDC is that if a person has a positive corona test and dies…they are reported as a corona death…even if they had a heart attack or a car accident or fell out of a window…nope, they're a corona death. Again…the true mortality rate won't be known until after the fact…and again…that doesn't make the virus not a big deal.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I could understand a heart attack in a someone infected with corona might be considered a corona death, but not car accidents or falling out of a window. I'd like to see where the CDC says that.