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Originally Posted by Pam
The fact of the matter is that the death rates (from any cause) have been way over what would be in the average range for this time of year, indicating that something unusual is going on. (You can look this up. There are many graphs showing the spike in deaths vs the seasonal averages)
As a resident in the Boston area, I have been shocked at the size of the death notices section in the Sunday Globe for the last several weeks. Last Sunday's obituaries filled over 21 pages. It's pretty shocking to turn all those pages, and not at all normal. And these deaths are occurring within a lockdown scenario. Imagine if life had been going on as usual? The hospitals would be even more overwhelmed and we'd be digging mass graves.
It's great that NH hasn't been as hard hit, but no-one should minimize the risk of a very contagious and unpredictable disease. Especially since there are asymptomatic carriers.
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I prefer to look at the raw numbers. 2017-2018 was a particularly bad flu year. 60,000 to 85,000 Americans died of the flu. Forgive me for repeating information I posted elsewhere, but to date 59,819 Americans have died from the Chinese coronavirus. (I think this number is inflated, since hospice patients, regular flu victims and nursing/retirement home deaths are being lumped in regardless of whether there is evidence that the person had the Chinese coronavirus.) That said, let's accept the number as is. Although it is difficult to forecast the total numbers, especially after the second wave, let's forecast the total number of deaths to be 120,000. Although tragic, it is an especially bad flu year, maybe even historical. No matter how bad the virus, given the data we now know, we never ever, ever should have shut down our economy. The numbers do not support it.
It is apparent that a large portion of the deaths are occurring in nursing/retirement homes. Why is this happening with all of the precautions we are taking, e.g., shutting down restaurants, gyms, church services, social distancing, quarantining, masks, gloves, etc.? It isn't people sheltering in place who are dying, it's our most vulnerable. Sheltering in place and social distancing did nothing to prevent the spread of the virus. Is it really heretical to question why we destroyed our economy yet our most vulnerable still died?
Regarding hospitals, it is untrue that they are overwhelmed. In fact quite the opposite. Lakes Region General Hospital essentially shut down because of non-use.