[quote=frankj1]you aren't a lunatic. Even when we disagree, which may not even be the case here.
Just thought I'd tell you that up front.
So many variables when counting numbers as yuuuge as the those relating to this virus. One really needs to take a breath and try to ignore the politics, I think you agree.
Massachusetts has just decided to differentiate daily Covid case numbers in hospitals with two categories...one in which patients admitted were there directly due to Covid, and one in which patients were admitted for anything else (heart attacks, surgeries, etc.) and tested positive for the virus once inside. I like this distinction.
Category two reinforces my long held theory that there are zillions more people infected, and maybe dead, than have been counted/reported, simply due to the fact that such a tiny percent of the population is actually hospitalized at a given moment.
That alone can skew numbers such as real Covid related deaths, as no one has any idea how many thousands or more have died from it if the vast majority have not been tested/recorded or admitted to a hospital.
I personally know of several people who have tested positive at home (followed with repeat testing confirmation later) and those numbers are never accounted for as the tests were not conducted at an official site. I simply can't imagine how many people without even a fraction of the resources available to me and almost everyone here at cbid are now at home sick or have passed away that no one is counting...and I want to stress that we are really talking about every country in the world! Most of them don't come close to our standard of living.
I firmly believe the numbers we read, manipulated or not, are insanely low, both here and around the world.
But I also believe you just need a trim, not haircut. So I could be wrong.[/quote]
Are you saying that in America, year 2022, during the covid pandemic, there are people with severe flu-like symptoms that die before they get to a doctor and/or hospital and are never tested despite those severe symptoms? And that this number is large enough to more than offset the number of false (with covid) deaths already counted as "from covid" deaths?
Third world country? Maybe.
But Covid wouldn't be a unique harbinger of death in such places.
I agree that plenty of people have it that aren't tested/counted. Some might even have a sniffle. But the death toll is skewed in one direction only.
Frank, we have people waiting outside in 20F weather for hours.
Just to get a test.
With a result that might tell them to go home and quarantine.
After waiting in line.
For hours.
With other people.
I hope they wore a mask in their car while driving to the test site. Alone.
