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dems_be_crazy 37 points ago +53 / -16

This analysis is dumb. First, abortions, as evil as they are, is not in the same realm. They're not acts of God or negligence, but systemic murder.

HIV/Aids are not passed through the air. It is almost always transferred based on life choices.

Cancer and road fatalities are non-contagious. Those numbers are more or less stable through the population.

So, you are left comparing the Wuhan Pneumonia with seasonal flu and "communicable diseases". Communicable diseases is a bucket of diseases, so it only helps so far as seeing how this virus stacks against the whole of viruses.

The flu doesn't start the year at near zero cases. The number ebbs and flows through the seasons, but there's always a large population with it at any given time. This is not the case with covid. It came out of no where, shows exponential growth and a proclivity to cause symptoms worse than the flu.

We still don't have an accurate death rate, but the growth is the aspect to fear currently. Some subset of those infected need medical attention and if we do not slow the growth, our medical system will not be able to handle them all which will cause the death rate to spike.

There are plenty of arguments for opening the economy, but this is a lazy one. Personally, I believe we verify the medications we have will work, stock up on them and tests, then open everything back up while mass testing and treating anybody that shows positive or has been in contact with them. Keep the high risk population at home until we can show we have it under control.

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booblitchutz 10 points ago +11 / -1

This is not the case with covid. It came out of no where, shows exponential growth and a proclivity to cause symptoms worse than the flu.

You don't know that, and in fact there's a lot of info coming to light that China lied about it and covered it up for far too long. There is a very high degree of likelihood that the virus has been spreading at a more steady rate over the fall and into winter, just like influenza.

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dems_be_crazy 7 points ago +7 / -0

You would have to believe that the medical community in the US did not realize they were seeing a new corona virus until after China. You're in the realm of speculation there.

I grant you that the numbers are are going to be fuzzy - it's always hard to grasp the extent of a virus in the middle of its run. We are seeing more cases as we do more testing. However, we do know that it shows exponential growth and estimate that every infected person will infect 2-3 other people. The deaths per day seem to show this. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

There's no steady rate to those curves.