braindamage Loc: Appley Bridge, Lancs, U.K.

Coronavirus

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Very interesting.
--Bob

ELNikkor

A month ago, where was Coronavirus? In a month, where will it be? The preventative measures being taken hopefully will keep it this low and descending on the chart.

Lucian Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio

That is of little interest/use if it does not show the number of people infected with those diseases that are killing people in the chart, above the Corona virus. Plus there needs to be another chart showing the daily increases in the world of those other ailments along with the subsequent related deaths with the new cases. Then and only then can a direct comparison be done to show the true data relating to each disease. Just like stating the thousands of deaths from the FLU this year, suggesting it is worse, is not a real comparison for deaths from the Corona Virus, because that can only be compared when the same number of people that got the FLU equal those who got the corona virus. Then if the death numbers are lower with the corona virus, we have a fair assessment, otherwise it is pointless to compare one with another.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Tuberculosis (TB) and Hepatitis, three versions there are, A, B, and C, which affects the liver, are indeed serious diseases. I knew two people who had those diseases. A nurse told me, that measles, that was thought to be conquered. Is coming back, mainly because some parents, refuse to have their children vaccinated, before attending school. And, we haven't determined those who die in car crashes. Just in my County alone, 5 people died in car crashes, the past two weeks. Italy had 368 die in one day from the Coronavirus. That is catastrophic. Regardless of age.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

And why then is most of the world shutting down because of the coronavirus? I think that it’s because so little is known to-date about this new virus. Most casual observers of this chart would use it to reinforce their bias that this new scourge is not really a big problem.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Keep in mind that a number of the people who have the coronavirus also get pneumonia which contributes to their death. But that aside, the graph also does not indicate the percentage of people who die from any one of those diseases, nor does it indicate the virulence of Covid-19 which in short order has spread to every country in the world and is increasing in the number of infections every day. Do we need to wait until the number of deaths is on the top of this list before we take it seriously?

Based on the current statistics, worldwide about 3.5% of all the people who get the coronavirus die. In Italy, which seems to be an outlier, that number is double that, at over 7%. That is 7 people out of every 100 who are infected by it in Italy die!! Not really very comforting odds. What is also disheartening, for those of us who are older, is that people over 60 have a much much greater chance of dying from it than younger people. The percentage of older people that die from the coronavirus is significantly higher than for the population as a whole. The generally older population of this particular forum should be very concerned about that.

A poorly designed graph can twist statistics any way it wants if it leaves out critical data. The current rate of death for the coronavirus is approximately 10 to 15 times as high as for the seasonal flu, which has a rate of death that is a small fraction of 1% of those who become ill. The graph gives the false and dangerous impression that the flu is a much more serious disease. It is not!

All that graphs like the one you posted do is to irresponsibly downplay this very serious issue and give people a false sense of security. It was clearly developed by someone trying to prove through obfuscation that people are overreacting. Perhaps a little education for the people who believe coronavirus is not a big deal is in order.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Exactly, and it is either hopelessly out of date or intentionally misleading since there were clearly 8x the number of deaths shown just for Italy in a single day.

braindamage Loc: Appley Bridge, Lancs, U.K.

It was posted NOT to downplay the serious nature of the outbreak. In fact the opposite-to show how high up the disease was ranking in a very short space of time (first case Wuhan December 2019) compared to diseases that have been around for millenia. We only eradicated smallpox in the 70's and that killed hundreds of millions over the centuries.
I don't know who or when the chart was made but you can be sure of one thing, Covid-19 is going to climp up the charts and may even get to number 1!

P.S. Don't shoot the messenger. The more info out there the more debate! The more knowledgable people become by deciding themselves what to believe.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Unfortunately the graph you presented, with no context, does not give the impression you were trying to show. Graphs like that will be used by people to downplay the seriousness of this disease. And, it does not display the dynamic nature of this new disease compared to other diseases that statistically have a long track record.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Death by COVID-19 comes from the pneumonia that it causes.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Media freak out and panic for ratings during an otherwise fairly slow news period and politicians who believe in never passing up a "crisis" that can help them increase their power and get people used to it. It makes it look as if the politicians and bureaucrats are "doing something".

A huge % of the things being pushed should have been routine procedures for other things like the various regular flues each year but at a lower level and without the panic and hoarding.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Often the news media does put their own spin on things for their own purpose, however no one can overstate the seriousness of what we're facing now.

The two biggest things that hospitals are concerned about is the availability of beds and ventilators. There's less than 1 million hospital beds available in the United States, and many of them are already occupied with people with other illnesses, conditions, and surgeries. There are not much more than a hundred and fifty thousand ventilators available in the United States. The purpose of self isolating and closing venues will not prevent this pandemic from spreading but it is hoped that it will slow down it's spread and the bell curve of new cases is kept lower so the hospitals and medical staffs in this country are not overwhelmed. Look at what's happening in Italy. People are dying of this virus at a greater rate than anywhere else in the world in part because their medical system has been overwhelmed and they do not have enough ventilators to go around.

My wife is a doctor at a large medical center in my state. I cannot overstress her concern, especially for anyone over 60. I'm 73, I'm staying home as much as possible at least for the next several weeks.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Good answer. The more accurate data we get the less freak out there will be. People need to know what the danger is and the best path they can take to minimize their risk. Ignoring the danger will not motivate people to take risk avoiding action.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

My wife is a retired Lab/Surgical RN. Our daughter is a second year Med student and coming home this week as the University is shutting down. Old oldest son is Army Reserve Civil Affairs and just to kill time during an active duty stint at Fort Bragg went through all but the last class to be a special operations medic. So I have lots of medical advice. In fact sometimes I wish they would let up a bit.

I asked a doctor and checked on line - a CPAP machine can be used as a light duty ventilator for someone with mild breathing problems and awake to remember to keep breathing. Between us we have several CPAP machines. I and one child have asthma (mine is "acute"but controlled by meds and our daughter is very mild and controlled), our younger son and my wife have allergies and snore so 4 of the 5 of us have CPAPs and instead of tossing the old ones when Kaiser gave us new ones after better models came out I just put them on a shelf for emergency backup. I was told that the nose/mouth type large mask is better than the nasal only I use - that is OK, we have a lot of extras of those since they replace them and the hoses about every 6 months. I clean the old ones with bleach and soapy water and put them in baggies when we get new masks and hoses.

I also read that for people alert and breathing with difficulty on their own any decent mechanic/tech can turn any air compressor into a low pressure constant flow/pressure substitute for a ventilator with a hose and mask. Those would work for people awake and breathing on their own but need the help. That will leave the full fledged computer controlled models for the serious cases.