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Ok, I'll take a stab at OP's question. Yes, right now, the number of people who have died from this coronavirus is smaller than the number of people who have died from influenza in previous years.
But.....
The huge concern with Covid is that it is much more contagious than the flu. The contagion rate (R naught) of flu is 1.3. What that means is for the flu, if one person has it, they pass it on to 1.3 people, who pass it on to 1.3 more people, etc, such that after 10 cycles of passing it on (1.3 to the tenth power), just under 14 people have been infected.
For this novel coronavirus, R naught is currently estimated at 2 to 2.5. The lower estimate, R naught of 2, leads to 1024 cases after 10 cycles of passing it on. If the R naught is 2.5, then that number of infected people jumps to a staggering 9536.
Now in actuality both diseases have a lot more "layers" of being passed on than 10. So the difference in contagious spread is even more enormous than my examples above.
Add to all of that the fact that Covid has a much higher fatality rate than flu (thought to be at least 10x higher), and maybe you will start to understand why there is all the "hysteria," as you call it. The only reason we won't have millions dead is because of the precautions that are being taken around the world.
If this thing turns out to be nothing, you know they will be claiming it was all because of the hype, hysteria and outright disinformation being pushed by the lame stream media. They've twisted almost all the news around and used it as yet another reason to attack Trump. I'm surprised they didn't start calling it the Trump virus.
Of course, those same people will claim Trump's travel ban in January has nothing to do with the relatively low number of deaths in the USA, and the fact that we aren't even on the top 20 list of highest percentage of population infected. The politicized nature of the media's coverage of this virus, along with the extreme double standards and hypocrisy is the most shameful aspect of all.
While I don't agree, I don't entirely blame the OP for saying this. Both the White House and Fox News have spent 2 months saying this is nothing to be worried about and that it's all overblown, no big deal... actually many GOP media voices have been angrily ranting that this is just a manufactured crisis to make Trump look bad! Sooooo, surprise, surprise, most Republicans believe and say all these same things that they've been hearing over and over and over from the people that they trust to give them information.
2 weeks ago, my hospital had it’s first case of COVID in our ICU.
Last weekend, when I left the hospital on Friday night, we had 9 cases in our ICU.
When I came in on Monday, the ICU was completely full.
By Wednesday, the ICU, CCU, Neuro ICU, and Pediatric ICU were all full, and my recovery room was being converted to another ICU.
Yesterday, the new ICU we made out of the recovery room was full, and we were down to the last ventilator, not including the ones in the operating rooms.
So in between surgeries, I started converting positive pressure operating rooms into negative pressure COVID rooms. We have had 10 patients die over the weekend. All the while, putting on hazmat suits and intubating people who were completely healthy just days before. I even intubated a 25 year old, 27 week pregnant woman yesterday, who may or may not make it.
For anyone who thinks this is like the flu, all I can say is that I have been a doctor through 25 flu seasons without ever having to put on a hazmat suit.
Or converting any other parts of the hospital into ICUs, for that matter.
In fact, in 25 years, I don't think we have had more than 3 or 4 people on ventilators with flu related pneumonia at any given time.
And all of the local area hospitals are experiencing the same thing we are experiencing.
Coming to a hospital near you.
When this thing is mild, it’s mild. It is no big deal as an upper respiratory infection, and in most people, that is all it will be. But when it attacks your lungs, it does so with a vengeance.
This is clearly an overwhelming problem for healthcare professionals such as yourself. I do not believe that is being disputed.
However, must it necessarily be made to be ae as overwhelming for literally our entire society? lt appears that we are going to have to find a way to provide you guys with all the support and assistance that we reasonably can, while recognizing that a long term shutdown of our entire society is not sustainable or maintainable.
As much as this might seem like the best approach to doctors and health professionals effectively under siege, the larger part of our population cannot and will not be able to endure this for more than probably about a month or so.
We are going to have to be reasonable, realistic and practical here. I hope that you guys can appreciate that, as difficult as that might be for you given the circumstances that you guys are operating under.
You can read my more detailed posts about this topic in the investment forum, and how I think the coronavirus is being used as a smokescreen to ram through record-setting central bank intervention across the globe, but let's look at some numbers for a second.
The coronavirus WORLDWIDE has killed about 37,000 people so far. In 2017-2018, according to the CDC, the flu, just in the United States killed over 80,000 people. The CDC also said that in 2017 the flu WORLDWIDE killed up to 650,000 people.
So where was all of the hysteria then that we are seeing now with far fewer numbers? No talk of shut downs then, no talk of lock downs, no talk of record central bank balance sheet expansion. NOTHING! Interesting to say the least.
What I think is that we were having MAJOR liquidity issues surfacing back in the summer of 2019. The Fed decided to do consecutive rate cuts at that time which made no sense whatsoever if we were truly in the "greatest economy ever." Then in September 2019, we get the repo crisis. The Fed said they would prop the repo market up for one week to help dissolve the liquidity issues that had surfaced between the banks with $50+ billion in daily repo operations. That was only supposed to last one week but then it got extended through October and turned into $100+ billion in DAILY repo operations. After October, these repo operations were extended "indefinitely."
So my point is there were major liquidity issues brewing well before any of the virus talks started. A crisis was needed (real or manufactured) as an excuse for central banks around the world to go "all in." That doesn't happen without a "crisis." The virus hysteria gave central banks the excuse to go all in.
Turn off the media for a second and think about all of it has a collective whole.
While I don't agree, I don't entirely blame the OP for saying this. Both the White House and Fox News have spent 2 months saying this is nothing to be worried about and that it's all overblown, no big deal... actually many GOP media voices have been angrily ranting that this is just a manufactured crisis to make Trump look bad! Sooooo, surprise, surprise, most Republicans believe and say all these same things that they've been hearing over and over and over from the people that they trust to give them information.
LOL
I have a right winger aunt that for weeks she railed on and on about how this is a manufactured crisis to make Trump look bad. Then starting a week ago she got really scared and stopped leaving her house. Just talked with her last night. She's scared to death of catching this thing.
I don't know who is pushing this, but I agree with OP that this is a manufactured crisis. Makes no sense considering that 80,000 people died 2 years ago from the flu. But who is driving this is impossible to tell. But there is no doubt in my mind that powerful people behind the scenes are pushing this. What their goal is is also hard to determine. It could be the deep state trying to blame Trump for everything in the fall. It could be big banks? No way to know at this point in time. It could also be that while they planned some sort of crisis, it will get away on them, take on a life of its own and the result will not be at all what they want. I don't worry about it. I look out for my family and react to the present situation and take care of my responsibilities.
I have a right winger aunt that for weeks she railed on and on about how this is a manufactured crisis to make Trump look bad. Then starting a week ago she got really scared and stopped leaving her house. Just talked with her last night. She's scared to death of catching this thing.
The thing is, she didn't come up with idea on her own, that's my point - she's been hearing dozens of people on Fox et al (and the President's Twitter account) ranting this for weeks and weeks. Those communications work.
My Dad, who has been a lifelong Republican, but is still normally pretty sensible, has a girlfriend who watches Fox News 24x7... so my Dad in turn has been watching it all the time. I call him up, and while we're talking about the Covid-19 problem that's got the world tied in a knot, my Dad is ranting about illegal immigrants from Latin America, and governors who embarass the President - both of which are current topics of rage on Fox. He's 94, so I respond gently.... but I think wow, that stuff really works!
2 weeks ago, my hospital had it’s first case of COVID in our ICU.
Last weekend, when I left the hospital on Friday night, we had 9 cases in our ICU.
When I came in on Monday, the ICU was completely full.
By Wednesday, the ICU, CCU, Neuro ICU, and Pediatric ICU were all full, and my recovery room was being converted to another ICU.
Yesterday, the new ICU we made out of the recovery room was full, and we were down to the last ventilator, not including the ones in the operating rooms.
So in between surgeries, I started converting positive pressure operating rooms into negative pressure COVID rooms. We have had 10 patients die over the weekend. All the while, putting on hazmat suits and intubating people who were completely healthy just days before. I even intubated a 25 year old, 27 week pregnant woman yesterday, who may or may not make it.
For anyone who thinks this is like the flu, all I can say is that I have been a doctor through 25 flu seasons without ever having to put on a hazmat suit.
Or converting any other parts of the hospital into ICUs, for that matter.
In fact, in 25 years, I don't think we have had more than 3 or 4 people on ventilators with flu related pneumonia at any given time.
And all of the local area hospitals are experiencing the same thing we are experiencing.
Coming to a hospital near you.
When this thing is mild, it’s mild. It is no big deal as an upper respiratory infection, and in most people, that is all it will be. But when it attacks your lungs, it does so with a vengeance.
How big was that check you got from the international Illuminati to tell these lies?
The thing is, she didn't come up with idea on her own, that's my point - she's been hearing dozens of people on Fox et al (and the President's Twitter account) ranting this for weeks and weeks. Those communications work.
My Dad, who has been a lifelong Republican, but is still normally pretty sensible, has a girlfriend who watches Fox News 24x7... so my Dad in turn has been watching it all the time. I call him up, and while we're talking about the Covid-19 problem that's got the world tied in a knot, my Dad is ranting about illegal immigrants from Latin America, and governors who embarass the President - both of which are current topics of rage on Fox. He's 94, so I respond gently.... but I think wow, that stuff really works!
I had someone very close to me tell me that there aren't refrigerated trucks at Elmhurst hospital, along the lines of some of the videos posted on this site earlier today.
This conspiracy crap is circulating all over the internet like the giant toilet bowel that it is.
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