How many times does the comparison with the flu have to be explained for the dimwits on here and elsewhere to even approach understanding it?
Covid-19 is a mainly a respiratory disease, so quite like the flu. The fly varies year to year, some years it is fairly benign, other years it can be very virulent with high mortality. If you look at US data for example, the flu season which peaks in January was quite bad in 2018 and fairly benign in 2019 and 2020 (based on excess deaths). Average weekly deaths in the US are about 55K. Deaths per week peaked at 65k in Jan 2018, 57K in Jan 2019, and 58K in Jan 2020. Deaths in April, the peak for COVID-19 in the US, was 75k/week. A reasonable conclusion is that Covid at it’s peak killed about 10K per week more than the last bad flu season in 2018.
Where Covid-19 is not like the flu is the way it impacts different groups of people. Children by and large are not affected at all, whereas the flu can make a child very sick. The great majority of younger people in good health have mild symptoms. Younger people with underlying condition like hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, etc, can get very sick and the mortality rate could be as high as 1% for this group. This is a relatively lethal disease for older people with underlying conditions, and many older people have at least one or more underlying conditions. The mortality rate for people over 70 with underlying conditions is in the range 5 - 10%.
All of this was largely known by early February, and the appropriate measures to protect the most vulnerable could have been put in place, but were not. Lockdowns were a panic response a month later than necessary when the majority of those who have died had already received their death sentence.
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While Europe is emerging from this, the curve is definitely heading the wrong way in South America. The lockdown fatigue will be off the hook, off the chain down there if they have to extend the 5k limit over it. India simmering away nicely as well.
Lolzers, you’re not qualified to give an opinion but you put trust in @anon7035031?
You put your trust in some unnamed and unknown group of people who are dictating what governments worldwide are doing.
Who are these people exactly?
The claim is that politicians are being told what to do by some unnamed group. I’d like to see some evidence of that.
The Irish policy is being driven by Hoolahan and his backing teams of medical expertise.
Varadker has said multiple times they are following Hoolahan on this
That’s not what @mikehunt is claiming.
It is, he’s saying medical experts are advising policy. At least that’s what I’m reading
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Unnamed and unknown? Quite the over reaction there. Most governments would be pretty transparent about who/what they base their decisions on.
Varadker was falling over himself telling how they are being led by medical experts.
I don’t know if that’s changed because I’ve stopped following it
You’ve already conceded previously that Ireland doesn’t have any experts.
Who are the experts that advised Ireland to go into lockdown, and advised what you referred to as “various other countries” to go into lockdown.
We know who it was in the UK, the London Imperial college. Did Ireland follow their lead?
Who are the medical experts in Ireland advising policy?
There are lads getting cramps from twitching their curtains.
The 5km restriction is madness. It’s like something the Green Party would bring in.
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That’s Varadkar distancing himself from it — Tony H gave us the cervical crisis. Lest we forget.
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What are you on about now?
It’s a very basic question that you seem unable to answer.
Who are the experts that Ireland have followed in determining their response to the Covid-19 pandemic?