Reality help check

[Casita Greg]

Originally Posted by WaltP

Oh yeah, the full disclosure bit: Retired Statistics Professor here.

Walt

Another professional numbers fudger...

[MyronL]

• In NYC deaths from the Coronavirus surpassed the deaths from the terrorist attack on 9/11. That was on April 7, 2020.
  
• 2003 to 2019 - total Americans killed in the Iraq war? 4,569
  
• Today: total Americans killed by the virus? 57, 049.

Keep your perspective. Wear your mask, stay inside.
Reality is a bitch.

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by MyronL

• In NYC deaths from the Coronavirus surpassed the deaths from the terrorist attack on 9/11. That was on April 7, 2020.
  
• 2003 to 2019 - total Americans killed in the Iraq war? 4,569
  
• Today: total Americans killed by the virus? 57, 049.

Keep your perspective. Wear your mask, stay inside.
Reality is a bitch.

Now we just need someone to tell us this is "fake news" and these numbers are being used to lie to us. Or that it's unimportant.

[MyronL]

Right. Or that they were just being satirical. Contend, we must, with the absurdities of the modern world. So why do I have this growing sense of a dark foreboding?

[WizWid]

Originally Posted by Raspy

Now we just need someone to tell us this is "fake news" and these numbers are being used to lie to us. Or that it's unimportant.

Nope.
Just that those numbers are irrelevant to the subject under discussion.

How about the
average number of Americans killed by viruses each Winter, (Nov thru April)
versus the
number of Americans killed by viruses this Winter. (Nov thru April 2020)

Wouldn't that tell you a bit more?

[ZachO]

We were doing decent there for a couple weeks, avoiding politics.

[Renae in MN]

Originally Posted by widgetwizard

Nope.
Just that those numbers are irrelevant to the subject under discussion.

How about the
average number of Americans killed by viruses each Winter, (Nov thru April)
versus the
number of Americans killed by viruses this Winter. (Nov thru April 2020)

Wouldn't that tell you a bit more?

Exactly

[MyronL]

re: American deaths in Vietnam : 59 thousand in 10 years.
American deaths in America : 56 thousand in 6 months.

Agreed, this reality is a completely absurd comparison, yet, like the virus, it's out there.

So wear your mask, stay inside, and remember,
all perspective is relative.... and at least no one is shooting at you.

PS: USA Today just confirmed there are now one million cases of virus-infected Americans.

[AC0GV]

Originally Posted by MyronL

This 'could' help those who think they MIGHT go camping ...next year.

Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today
To get through this thing called life
Electric word life it means forever and that's a mighty long time
But I'm here to tell you there's something else (Go crazy)

Prince

[Iowa Dave]

I took both statistics and propaganda analysis in college. Worked in my favor my whole life especially when sales people tried to lie to me.
However, no comparison is needed between Vietnam and today with COV 19. The fact is 59,000 lives have been lost in the last 6 months and several were friends, classmates and acquaintances of mine. My son is nearly 39. Yesterday a fellow who was on his high school basketball team died. Makes you take note.
I’m guessing our camping this year at least will be severely curtailed. I’m going bigger than usual on garden. My brother gave me half of his sweet corn seeds yesterday, 500 seeds. I can only plant sweet corn out here every other year due to cross pollination with the adjacent crop field. This is a soybean year so should be ok. Electric fence to keep the coons at bay.
Getting the garden ready but not in a hurry. Heed the three frozen kings all you Bohemies.
Iowa Dave

[MyronL]

Happy to say that, so far none of my acquaintances have been lost to COV19, though can't say the same about RVN. My point isn't political, other than to imply both tragedies are/were, shared monster failures, entirely avoidable.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by MyronL

Happy to say that, so far none of my acquaintances have been lost to COV19, though can't say the same about RVN. My point isn't political, other than to imply both tragedies are/were, shared monster failures, entirely avoidable.

I’m in full agreement with you on this Myron.
Iowa Dave

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

My brother gave me half of his sweet corn seeds yesterday, 500 seeds. I can only plant sweet corn out here every other year due to cross pollination with the adjacent crop field. This is a soybean year so should be ok. Electric fence to keep the coons at bay.
Getting the garden ready but not in a hurry. Heed the three frozen kings all you Bohemies.
Iowa Dave

I have to assume these are Heirloom seeds. I didn't realize there were any of these in sweet corn. Unless they are Silver queen. My father used to grow Surecrop? back in the day for feed corn. It was great stuff except it was brittle as glass. Any kind of a gale, never mind a hurricane, would knock it flat. So as soon as someone came out with a rugged 90 day hybrid the Surecrop was history.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by ThomasC

I have to assume these are Heirloom seeds. I didn't realize there were any of these in sweet corn. Unless they are Silver queen. My father used to grow Surecrop? back in the day for feed corn. It was great stuff except it was brittle as glass. Any kind of a gale, never mind a hurricane, would knock it flat. So as soon as someone came out with a rugged 90 day hybrid the Surecrop was history.

My brother buys all of his seeds from Johnnys in Maine. Has for years. He buys a different offering every couple years. He has grown silver Queen a few times. The last one he had for the past two years was very prone to getting knocked down by the wind. So this latest one (and I did not look at the name) is supposed to be a strong stalk and with a very tight silk end for bug resistance. He studies them up pretty good. Years ago he went to New England for a leaf peeping excursion. Hit the color peak on the nose. Rented three different cabins, all were winners, had some great meals. However his best memory was going to Johnnys farm, parking and walking out into the field and meeting Johnny in person. Yup, he’s pretty deep end but a heck of a horticulturalist. The main watchwords on seeds out here these days is Non-GMO seed. Heirloom tomatoes are popular. They have the best names. I love the variety “Mortgage Lifter”. Tomato is good but the name is spectacular. We used to plant Northrup King N99 sweet corn when I was coming up. Huge ears and quite long. Just a shade off of field corn, which we used to eat too. Now field corn is so modified that it’s just not good at all.
Iowa Dave

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by MyronL

• ...
• ...
• Today: total Americans killed by the virus? 57, 049.

...
Reality is a bitch.

Here is some reality for you.. the virus did not kill anywhere near that number. The virus may have been the proverbial "straw that broke the camels back" but most young and healthy people survive it just fine.

So the reality is that this virus is only one of many health (and social) issues that, when combined, are often lethal. These include the most common causes of death in the U.S.:

• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Unintentional injuries
• Chronic lower respiratory disease
• Stroke and cerebrovascular diseases
• Alzheimer's disease
• Diabetes
• Influenza and pneumonia
• Kidney disease
• Suicide

All those things, except for one or maybe two, share a common factor... they can be reduced or eliminated by lifestyle and diet changes, as well as better medical care.

Age is of course also a major factor but we have some limited control over our physical age vs. our chronological age.

We can chalk it up as the cause of death in a particular case, but, like the flu, COVID19 seldom acts alone. The Grim Reaper is not a solo actor but instead a gang.

So, individually or as a society, we almost universally do have more control over our health and our health care system then we actually employ. We can eat better, drink less, exercise more, smoke not at all, etc. But the thing is that most of us wont make those changes, and when Covid comes a' knocking on our door we wont have the defense against it that we could have had.

That's reality... ain't it a bitch.

[ZachO]

Almost nothing is a solo actor. We really quickly get into splitting hairs. If we ask how many of those people wouldn't have died when they did were it not for Covid19, it gets us closer. And the answer is...that's pretty much exactly what that number expresses. People who, though many had other health conditions, died when they did because of Covid19.

[Glenn Baglo]

And, how many Olympic-size swimming pools is that?

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by MyronL

PS: USA Today just confirmed there are now one million cases of virus-infected Americans.

But how many cats and dogs?

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...g/animals.html
https://www.oie.int/en/scientific-ex...l-coronavirus/

[MyronL]

That’s great stuff, Gordon. (You forgot to add automobile crashes and gun violence.)

Really appreciate the corrective lesson. You must be a teacher. Me, I studied logic at the Samuel Clemens School, Hannibal, MO. Did my graduate work at the George Carlin Institute. (Never finished.) But The George introduced me to Proverbs 26:4.

[Donna D.]

Vietnam or Covid-19... still deaths that left grieving families, friends and communities. Vietnam took mostly the 18-26 y/os. Covid-19 mostly the Boomers. Do you see the comparison? Boomers fought in Vietnam! My generation has and is being decimated.