Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by Darian Rachal

Thanks, Jim, I appreciate you taking the time to provide this information.

Hi Darian:

You're welcome of course!  As you and I have discussed before, I like fussing with the data a lot more than some folks!  I'm going to do a multi-part post in the long "data and graphs" thread that I think is pretty interesting.  Let me know what you think after I get it done and you check it out.

Jim

Post 1 of 3

Picture yourself on February 15, 2020.  I think some few with a lot of foresight were worried about Covid-19.  Others like me, not so much.  

There were no mask mandates, there were no business shutdowns.  We were about three weeks away from the market crash (wish I had a time machine)!

I am pretty sure that most of us had never heard of "social distancing" which was first mentioned on the forum in March 2020, late in this thread:  https://astromart.com/forums/commentary-careful-read-the-terms-of-service/politics/anybody-home?page=3

Heck, it would be a month before David posted this link, which was indeed a real wake-up call for me:  https://astromart.com/forums/commentary-careful-read-the-terms-of-service/politics/the-hammer-and-the-dance-why-mitigation-is-not-enough?page=1

Meanwhile, in the happy days of February 15, 2020 (week 7 of the flu season) we were shaping up to have a seriously crummy flu season.  See below from the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

See the next post for an interesting comparison.  Jim

Originally Posted by James Brown

Picture yourself on February 15, 2020.  I think some few with a lot of foresight were worried about Covid-19.  Others like me, not so much.  

There were no mask mandates, there were no business shutdowns.  We were about three weeks away from the market crash (wish I had a time machine)!

I am not sure that most of us had ever heard of "social distancing" which was first mentioned here late in this thread:  https://astromart.com/forums/commentary-careful-read-the-terms-of-service/politics/anybody-home?page=3

Heck, it would be a month before David posted this link, which was indeed a real wake-up call for me:  https://astromart.com/forums/commentary-careful-read-the-terms-of-service/politics/the-hammer-and-the-dance-why-mitigation-is-not-enough?page=1

Meanwhile, in the happy days of February 15, 2020 (week 7 of the flu season) we were shaping up to have a seriously crummy flu season.  See below from the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

See the next post for some thoughts.  Jim

Post 2 of 3

Fast forward to week 7 of the 2021 flu season - mid February 2021 - about two weeks ago.  Perhaps the cleanest week 7 of the flu season in the history of the nation.  See next post for some conclusions.  Jim  

Originally Posted by James Brown

Fast forward to week 7 of the 2021 flu season - mid February 2021.  Perhaps the cleanest week 7 of the flu season in the history of the nation.  See next post for some conclusions.  Jim  

Post 3 of 3

We all know why this is - masks, social distancing, work from home, restricted travel, no large gatherings and all of the other social mitigation efforts we hate so much.

I'm not saying that social distancing, masks and so on are justified by kicking flu's ass - of course that is just a fringe benefit.  I am saying that the virtually non-existent 2021 flu season proves to anyone who still doubts it the effectiveness of masks, distancing, stay at home and so on.

Now; consider that the US has had 29.5 Million Covid 19 cases and 550,000 deaths, even with the mitigation efforts in place.  The comparison between week 7 of the 2020 and 2021 flu seasons certainly gives me pause.  Think about how bad the economy and society might be right now if we had not taken the social mitigation efforts we did.  The flu graphs suggest that literally millions would have died in the US if we had not mitigated the pandemic - a death toll lots of us, me included, dismissed as irrational in February 2020.

I'm ready to drop my mask as soon as the experts say it is safe to do so.  I am happy to see the economy opening up.  I am sorry for the death and the suffering, and I wish we had done a better job, although I don't blame the Feds nearly as much as some do.  I think most states did what was necessary and did it effectively.  Somehow we are walking the tightrope between economic ruin and disease.    

I do think that the comparison of the week 7 flu graphs is a reminder that we can't let our guard down now.  The experts have been right each and every step of the way in this pandemic.   It could have been so much worse.  It really could have been so much worse.

Jim

Originally Posted by Steven Moore

This has been a crazy time with all this Covid crap and people staying at home most of the time so this should be the theme song for this whole covid crap.

Steven, I'll be particularly curious whether anything I just posted in the data and graphs thread resonates with you.  Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Jim,
What also may be interesting and enlightening is a graphic comparing the death rate in the USA with other countries.

Hi Rod:

James' linked article is more informative than you acknowledge.  There is a lot more going on than just anti-maskers.  Anyway, here you go.  We're pretty much upper middle of the pack.  I spoke with a niece in Berlin yesterday.  Apparently the vaccine roll-out in the EU is non-existent.  She hopes to get vaccinated in the US when she visits in June.  Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

And not to be outdone in Colorado yesterday,  SWAT got pummeled: "The large gathering came a day after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis extended the state's Covid-19 mask mandate, which has been in place since July 2020. Nearly 6,000 people have died in Colorado due to Covid-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/07/us/boulder-colorado-large-party-officers-injured/index.html

Have you ever been to Boulder Rod?  Have you ever been to a party on University Hill?  This is our Berkeley.  I can absolutely guarantee that there was not a single Trump supporter at that party.  At least not any willing to admit it.

Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"Vaccine-skeptical Trump country poses challenge to immunization push"

You missed my point I guess.  That huge mob of not-mask wearing, not-socially distanced "maskholes" (as you like to say) are the polar opposite of "Trump country."  Those kids up in Boulder are to the left of Sanders and Warren.  That doesn't make them particularly smart when it comes to the pandemic, does it?  I think you need a new target for your ire - if the Boulder fiasco becomes a super spreader event, you have no one but young starry-eyed democrats to blame.

Jim  

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

I was picking up produce today and I was talking to two of the guys in the warehouse who I know are admirers of Trump and one flat out told me he's not going to take the vaccine as it's all a scam. The other said he'd probably take it to appease his wife so she can visit her Mom, but he more of less doesn't think the virus is real or as contagious as they make it out to be. I felt like saying tell that to my best friend in Arizona who died of Covid19 in November, but I held my words. I just wanted to see where they were at and know that there are millions out there just like them.

According to the Colorado Department of Health, I should be able to get my first vaccination in two weeks.  Group "1B4" - ages between 50 and 59.   I could be getting vaccinated now, if I was just a few months older.  But then I'd be 60, like some of y'all  

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

Felt a little cranky that evening...

So you felt like your normal self?