Coronavirus Discussion

[Astreya]

@blackmagicrose

Yeah, that's why I suggested you would best ask doctor or pharmacist about my suggestion - there can always be problems with interactions between meds. As for that stuff I mentioned - in Germany it is "over the counter", and the doctors suggested it to both my elderly parents who already get a veritable breakfast of various pills each morning. -_-'

 

I hope that you will be fully recovered very soon and also get rid of this tiredness!

 

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As of today, Saturday, January 29, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 4171 (+248) active cases, while 18 763 (+110)  people are considered to have recovered. 416 (+1) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 23 350 (+359) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1233.0 (+46.3) / Incidence for NRW: 1145.3 (+61.2).

 

Currently 79 (-5) persons are treated in hospital, with 2 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 2 (+1) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

There have been 158 051 (1st jab, 75.42%) and 152 762  (2nd jab, 72.89%) vaccinations so far. (Vaccination data from Jan 19, 2022). Interestingly, the number of boosters in Oberhausen is much higher than the German average (52.6%) with 143 762 (3rd jab, 68.6%) vaccinations. (Vaccination data from Jan 24, 2022).

 

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As of today, Sunday, January 30, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 4142 (-29) active cases, while 19 016 (+253)  people are considered to have recovered. 416 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 23 574 (+224) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1259.7 (+26.7) / Incidence for NRW: 1176.2 (+30.9).

 

Currently 80 (+1) persons are treated in hospital, with 6 (+4) of them in intensive care, 3 (+1) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Tuesday, February 1, 09:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 4695 (+483) active cases, while 19 095 (+26)  people are considered to have recovered. 416 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 24 206 (+509) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1161.0 (-11.4) / Incidence for NRW: 1272.0 (+59.1).

 

Currently 77 (-3) persons are treated in hospital, with 5 (-1) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Wednesday, February 2, 09:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 4994 (+299) active cases, while 19 218 (+123)  people are considered to have recovered. 416 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 24 628 (+422) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1165.7 (+4.7) / Incidence for NRW: 1299.0 (+27.0).

 

Currently 80 (+3) persons are treated in hospital, with 5 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 3 (+1) of them needing artificial respiration.

There have been 159 339 (1st jab, 76.03%) and 154 495  (2nd jab, 73.72%) and 151 644 (3rd jab, 72.36%) vaccinations so far. (Vaccination data from Jan 30, 2022).

Source: Stadt Oberhausen

Edited February 2, 2022 by Astreya

[Queen Firebreath]

My sister-in-law is the first person in my family/extended family to get sick. She sounded pretty bad and was coughing and wheezing with a sore throat. We encouraged her to get tested and it came back positive. It's been a week since she was tested and she's been staying home, and I've stayed away from her and my brother just in case. But they came over so I'm staying in my room. I've been having some sudden health problems and was really sick several times last year with non-Covid related illnesses, so catching Covid would not be good for me. The rest of my family acts like it's not a big deal. She is still coughing and is really congested, and says she's still very fatigued. If it were me I'd still be staying at home but she's been out shopping, and she wanted me and the rest of my family to join her and my brother for dinner. I'm rude for suggesting we not intermingle till she's better. 😒

[AsymDoll13]

5 minutes ago, Queen Firebreath said:

My sister-in-law is the first person in my family/extended family to get sick. She sounded pretty bad and was coughing and wheezing with a sore throat. We encouraged her to get tested and it came back positive. It's been a week since she was tested and she's been staying home, and I've stayed away from her and my brother just in case. But they came over so I'm staying in my room. I've been having some sudden health problems and was really sick several times last year with non-Covid related illnesses, so catching Covid would not be good for me. The rest of my family acts like it's not a big deal. She is still coughing and is really congested, and says she's still very fatigued. If it were me I'd still be staying at home but she's been out shopping, and she wanted me and the rest of my family to join her and my brother for dinner. I'm rude for suggesting we not intermingle till she's better. 😒

 

I've heard that the CDC is now recommending only 5 days of quarantine, but then... I've been quarantined for almost two weeks now. lol. Since I tested positive on January 22. 

[Queen Firebreath]

28 minutes ago, AsymDoll13 said:

 

I've heard that the CDC is now recommending only 5 days of quarantine, but then... I've been quarantined for almost two weeks now. lol. Since I tested positive on January 22. 

I heard that, too, and that's what my job is going by, but we've had people miss a month because they were so sick there was no way they could come in. Coughing, vomiting, fever, fatigue, etc. I'm probably a lot more worried than I should be but I don't like taking chances with my health, especially after the year I had health-wise.

[AsymDoll13]

Oh no. I have heart failure, so I got ya. Stay safe, alright? 

[Queen Firebreath]

59 minutes ago, AsymDoll13 said:

Oh no. I have heart failure, so I got ya. Stay safe, alright? 

I will. You do the same 🙂

[Lagie]

8 hours ago, Queen Firebreath said:

I'm rude for suggesting we not intermingle till she's better. 😒

If that's what they're telling you, they're wrong. You need to keep yourself safe. Hope she's feeling better soon.

 

7 hours ago, AsymDoll13 said:

Oh no. I have heart failure, so I got ya. Stay safe, alright? 

Stay safe!

 

 

Our numbers are finally slowing down and the positivity rate is now between 9 and 15% so a definite move in the right direction (it was 30+ two and three weeks ago). Looks like we might actually have crested the fourth wave.

 

Did you know there's a Covid info TV channel? All it does is show the current case numbers to soothing music. The top several countries stay static and the smaller ones scroll contantly up and down on the right side of the screen. I deleted the screenshot I took of it or I'd show you. I think it might be a Canadian station.

[Astreya]

@Queen Firebreath @AsymDoll13

Stay safe and take care!

 

I have had flu-like symptoms for some days now, but in my case it shows that there are still other viruses around other than Covid-19, as I now repeatedly tested negative even though otherwise the Covid numbers here are still steadily on the rise. 

 

Interestingly, my home town has a really high number of people who got boostered by now with 72.36%, while the average for all of Germany is 53.63%. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean our 7-day-incidence is low - it appears as if the virus still has it easy enough to pick out sufficient people to infect.

 

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As of today, Thursday, February 3, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 5338 (+344) active cases, while 19 309 (+91)  people are considered to have recovered. 418 (+2) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 25 065 (+437) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1188.6 (+22.9) / Incidence for NRW: 1314.1 (+15.1).

 

Currently 95 (+15) persons are treated in hospital, with 6 (+1) of them in intensive care, 2 (-1) of them needing artificial respiration.

There have been 159 339 (1st jab, 76.03%) and 154 495  (2nd jab, 73.72%) and 151 644 (3rd jab, 72.36%) vaccinations so far. (Vaccination data from Jan 30, 2022).

 

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As of today, Friday, February 4, 09:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 5528 (+190) active cases, while 19 388 (+79)  people are considered to have recovered. 419 (+1) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 25 335 (+270) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1113.3 (-75.3) / Incidence for NRW: 1370.8 (+56.7).

 

Currently 75 (-20) persons are treated in hospital, with 6 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 3 (+1) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Saturday, February 5, 10:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 5812 (+284) active cases, while 19 388 (+-0)  people are considered to have recovered. 419 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 25 619 (+284) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1124.0 (+10.7) / Incidence for NRW: 1420.1 (+49.2).

 

Currently 83 (+8) persons are treated in hospital, with 5 (-1) of them in intensive care, 2 (-1) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Sunday, February 6, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 5933 (+121) active cases, while 19 443 (+55)  people are considered to have recovered. 419 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 25 795 (+176) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1117.0 (-7.0) / Incidence for NRW: 1416.7 (-3.4).

 

Currently 77 (-6) persons are treated in hospital, with 5 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Monday, February 7, 15:15 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 6105 (+172) active cases, while 19 470 (+27)  people are considered to have recovered. 419 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 25 994 (+199) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 750.1 (-366.9) / Incidence for NRW: 1444.3 (+27.6).

 

Currently 71 (-6) persons are treated in hospital, with 6 (+1) of them in intensive care, 3 (+1) of them needing artificial respiration.

There have been 160 590 (1st jab, 76.63%) and 156 635  (2nd jab, 74.74%) and 160 886 (3rd jab, 76.77%) vaccinations so far. (Vaccination data from Feb 7, 2022 - the numbers are a bit messed up as people from outside Oberhausen can use the vaccination centres to get their boosters, too).

Source: Stadt Oberhausen

Edited February 8, 2022 by Astreya

[AsymDoll13]

Took another test today, since I'd like to know if I'm free from the virus. lol

[HeatherMarie]

Sending hugs and love to everyone!! (And lots of mental-strength vibes to deal with frustrating family and anti-vaxxers...)

 

We are still getting increased new case numbers each day, in the mid-100s each today and yesterday and approx 900 over the weekend. I'm still not going anywhere except the occasional grocery trip and doctor's appt (had a mandatory check-up last week so the doctor would refill my meds, first time I've been to that dr since the pandemic started). My mom's newish physical therapy is 3 times a week instead of once a week like before, so she's been having to get out more often, but thankfully it's a small place and they seem very on top of everything.

 

Looks like the last time I posted one of these stat-counters was Jan 12th. Looking at that one compared to this one, there has been over 12,000 new cases reported since then. In less than a month. Pretty positive this is worse than before we had vaccines available. I'll be over here muttering angrily at the whole world.

[AsymDoll13]

Got retested today to confirm that it's gone, even though I feel so much better. And technically my quarantine was over yesterday. Today, my friend was also tested to confirm it was gone, but it's caused some lung issues that we have to get sorted. It's all so crazy though. 

 

Only other thing I did was run into Krogers to get my friend's cough meds (with a mask and everything.) No chances here. And if I were still in quarantine, I would never have gone. lol

[Astreya]

The case numbers for Covid-19 infections still have only one direction - upwards. But luckily it appears as if the severity of the disease isn't as bad as in the former waves, probably because the virus now infects people who were already vaccinated, too - and these usually get much less severe cases.

 

The high number of infected persons causes quite some problems nonetheless as many businesses experience problems because their employees need to quarantine.

 

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As of today, Tuesday, February 8, 08:30 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 6723 (+618) active cases, while 19 620 (+150)  people are considered to have recovered. 419 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 26 762 (+768) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 842.7 (+92.6) / Incidence for NRW: 1485.0 (+40.7).

 

Currently 87 (+16) persons are treated in hospital, with 3 (-3) of them in intensive care, 1 (-2) of them needing artificial respiration.

There have been 160 590 (1st jab, 76.63%) and 156 635  (2nd jab, 74.74%) and 160 886 (3rd jab, 76.77%) vaccinations so far. (Vaccination data from Feb 7, 2022 - the numbers are a bit messed up as people from outside Oberhausen can use the vaccination centres to get their boosters, too).

 

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As of today, Wednesday, February 9, 08:30 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 7304 (+581) active cases, while 19 724 (+104)  people are considered to have recovered. 420 (+1) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 27 448 (+686) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1085.1 (+242.4) / Incidence for NRW: 1483.9 (-1.1).

 

Currently 94 (+7) persons are treated in hospital, with 3 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 1 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Thursday, February 10, 09:30 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 8050 (+746) active cases, while 19 847 (+123)  people are considered to have recovered. 420 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 28 317 (+869) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1348.5 (+263.4) / Incidence for NRW: 1525.6 (+41.7).

 

Currently 82 (-12) persons are treated in hospital, with 5 (+2) of them in intensive care, 2 (+1) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Friday, February 11, 09:30 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 8836 (+786) active cases, while 19 916 (+69)  people are considered to have recovered. 420 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 29 172 (+855) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1502.2 (+153.7) / Incidence for NRW: 1532.7 (+7.1).

 

Currently 77 (-5) persons are treated in hospital, with 4 (-1) of them in intensive care, 3 (+1) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Saturday, February 12, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 9376 (+540) active cases, while 20 006 (+90)  people are considered to have recovered. 421 (+1) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 29 803 (+631) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1454.4 (+47.8) / Incidence for NRW: 1537.5 (+4.8).

 

Currently 71 (-6) persons are treated in hospital, with 5 (+1) of them in intensive care, 3 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Sunday, February 13, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 9595 (+219) active cases, while 20 067 (+61)  people are considered to have recovered. 421 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 30 083 (+280) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1291.7 (-162.7) / Incidence for NRW: 1524.4 (-13.1).

 

Currently 68 (-3) persons are treated in hospital, with 5 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 1 (-2) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Monday, February 14, 09:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 9736 (+141) active cases, while 20 117 (+50)  people are considered to have recovered. 421 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 30 274 (+191) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1292.2 (+0.5) / Incidence for NRW: 1508.0 (-16.4).

 

Currently 66 (-2) persons are treated in hospital, with 4 (-1) of them in intensive care, 1 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Tuesday, February 15, 09:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 9826 (+90) active cases, while 20 401 (+284)  people are considered to have recovered. 421 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 30 648 (+374) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1089.4 (-202.8) / Incidence for NRW: 1479.9 (-28.1).

 

Currently 74 (+8) persons are treated in hospital, with 7 (+3) of them in intensive care, 2 (+1) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Wednesday, February 16, 13:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 10 055 (+229) active cases, while 20 568 (+167)  people are considered to have recovered. 423 (+2) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 30 648 (+374) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 1057.4 (-32.0) / Incidence for NRW: 1437.1 (-42.8).

 

Currently 83 (+9) persons are treated in hospital, with 7 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Thursday, February 17, 10:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 10 628 (+573) active cases, while 20 776 (+208)  people are considered to have recovered. 425 (+2) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 31 829 (+783) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 923.8 (-133.6) / Incidence for NRW: 1395.5 (-41.6).

 

Currently 83 (+-0) persons are treated in hospital, with 7 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Friday, February 18, 09:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 10 620 (-8) active cases, while 21 544 (+768)  people are considered to have recovered. 425 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 32 589 (+760) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 930.5 (+6.7) / Incidence for NRW: 1359.9 (-35.6).

 

Currently 81 (-2) persons are treated in hospital, with 12 (+5) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Saturday, February 19, 10:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 10 162 (-458) active cases, while 22 230 (+686)  people are considered to have recovered. 425 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 32 817 (+228) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 843.6 (-86.9) / Incidence for NRW: 1290.0 (-69.9).

 

Currently 83 (+2) persons are treated in hospital, with 12 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Sunday, February 20, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 9544 (-618) active cases, while 23 099 (+869)  people are considered to have recovered. 425 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 33 068 (+251) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 834.6 (-9.0) / Incidence for NRW: 1261.2 (-28.8).

 

Currently 80 (-3) persons are treated in hospital, with 12 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

Source: Stadt Oberhausen

Edited February 21, 2022 by Astreya

[Confused Cat]

The Swiss government has decided the pandemic is over. Almost all restrictions have been lifted. Masks are only mandatory in public transport and, I think, hospitals and the like. Not for shopping, meetings or events. The daily case numbers were at an all-time high about two weeks ago, now they seem to be declining because, I don't know, maybe the virus just encounters more people that already had it than others. (We might also be out of tests.)

Some of the pro-virus people still complain. I think at the moment they're asking the government to apologize for applying the restrictions in the past.

[Astreya]

In Germany the voices to declare the pandemic over are getting louder, too. Unfortunately, the numbers of infected people are as high as never before (there are around 3 million actively infected people in the whole of Germany).

 

At the moment, there are quite some restrictions in place in NRW, though. Since January 26, there are no visits possible in hospitals in my home town at all. Sadly my Dad needed to be admitted to hospital with severe heart problems today, and this time no one can drop in and visit him.

 

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As of today, Monday, February 21, 09:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 8762 (-782) active cases, while 23 954 (+855)  people are considered to have recovered. 425 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 33 141 (+73) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 817.4 (-17.2) / Incidence for NRW: 1249.9 (-11.3).

 

Currently 85 (+5) persons are treated in hospital, with 14 (+2) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

Source: Stadt Oberhausen

[Lagie]

33 minutes ago, Astreya said:

Sadly my Dad needed to be admitted to hospital with severe heart problems today, and this time no one can drop in and visit him.

Aww. Sorry to hear that. *hugs* Hope he'll be okay. Can you chat by phone or video?

 

Our numbers have finally gone down and stayed down, and the rules regarding numbers of people at events have relaxed just a little. There are still a lot of people in hospital, though.

 

As of Sat, February 19th, the Bahamas has 33,052 total cases, 42 people in hospital, 3 of those in the ICU, and 770 people have died ( ). Positivity rate has been under 5% for four days now.

[Astreya]

@Lagie

Yeah, phoning is possible, but of course it is a bit inconvenient to get him stuff he wants to have. I have to figure out how we can do that if need be.

 

It's good to hear that the numbers are going down in your place! The new infections are slowly going down here, too, but the absolute numbers are still way too high.

[AsymDoll13]

Seems it's still going up in GA USA, but I hadn't checked in a bit. 

 

I still wear a mask, have the vaccine/booster and try to only go out when I need to. 

[trystan]

so here's what i've been wondering.

knowing what we know with all the mitigation measures all the countries have taken, has anyone run simulations or data as to what it would have looked like if some countries (y'know,  'Murica) just ignored it and didn't do ANYTHING? how insane the death toll could have been, that kind of thing?

[Lagie]

1 hour ago, trystan said:

so here's what i've been wondering.

knowing what we know with all the mitigation measures all the countries have taken, has anyone run simulations or data as to what it would have looked like if some countries (y'know,  'Murica) just ignored it and didn't do ANYTHING? how insane the death toll could have been, that kind of thing?

Yes. Someone did. Now ask me if I can remember who and how to find it...

[trystan]

7 minutes ago, Lagie said:

Yes. Someone did. Now ask me if I can remember who and how to find it...

LOL

feel free to link it and tag me when someone finds it? 

one of the idjits trying to run for PA Senator says in his ad "the government got covid wrong..." and, a lot of the retrumplicans still moan and groan about reopening the economy completely and lifting all covid restrictions.

*wonders when the next wave will hit...*

[Astreya]

@trystan

I have yet to find such a simulation, I'm sorry. One needs to take into account the population in the various countries, too. If you would let the virus run rampant in a country like Germany or Japan with a very old population (average age of the population 47.8 and 48.6), you'd get much higher death rates than in countries with not as many old people (in Niger the median age is 14.8).  [Population age data: https://www.worlddata.info/average-age.php]

 

Let's take a look at Niger - there you have an estimated population of 24 million people and a vaccination rate of 4.3% of the population. The cumulative number of cases on Feb 21 is given as 8743 and the cumulative number of deaths is given as 306. Now we have no idea how reliable the data from Niger is, but according to https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

the cumulative number of deaths in Niger is 12.8 per 1 million people.

 

In Germany, with about 75% of the population being fully vaccinated, we still get a cumulative death rate of 1445.62 per 1 million population.

 

But of course we have no idea how many people in Niger really were infected and died from/with Covid as the number of tests is possible only catching a fraction of the infected people. But nonetheless, it appears that the number of deaths is comparatively low.

 

So I guess letting the pandemic just run its course, would probably have led to very high death rates in the countries with older populations, while countries with younger population would have an advantage as with Covid-19, age and comorbidities are the major risk factors.

 

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As of today, Tuesday, February 22, 10:15 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 8252 (-510) active cases, while 24 585 (+631)  people are considered to have recovered. 425 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 33 262 (+121) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 794.0 (-23.4) / Incidence for NRW: 1189.2 (-60.7).

 

Currently 78 (-7) persons are treated in hospital, with 9 (-5) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Astreya

[trystan]

44 minutes ago, Astreya said:

So I guess letting the pandemic just run its course, would probably have led to very high death rates in the countries with older populations, while countries with younger population would have an advantage as with Covid-19, age and comorbidities are the major risk factors.

well, yes, this makes total sense. thanks for thinking the numbers through!

so in the US it would turn into something like what happened in the Stand.  there'd probably be a small fraction of the people left.

as i said, there's people who say "the government got covid wrong..." and are thinking that we shouldn't have shut down, that it messed up the economy and all the inflation and all that.  but i'm sure those same people would have shrugged their shoulders if 99% of the population died. yeesh.

(edit: the virus in the Stand had a 99.4% fatality rate - https://stephenking.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_Trips)

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by trystan

[Astreya]

@trystan

[SARCASM]Well, maybe someone should tell the many old and white anti-vaxxers that they are the ones most likely to die from Covid-19, while the younger non-white populations will thrive and thus set out to replace them that way. Maybe that would convince them to get vaccinated (of course only for all the wrong reasons). [/SARCASM]

 

As for that "Captain Trips" virus from "The Stand"... I'm always a bit amused if someone sees something like "99.4% lethality" and then concludes "the human population is virtually wiped out". People obviously don't like to do numbers - but with a current population of about 8 billion (short scale) people, 0.6% of these are still 480 million people (which were the whole human population around the 14th to 16th century). And if these 480 million people indeed have a genetic resistance, they will likely pass it on to their offspring.

(By the way, this article is pretty interesting about genetic HIV resistance: https://www.wired.com/2005/01/genetic-hiv-resistance-deciphered/)

Edited February 22, 2022 by Astreya

[trystan]

12 minutes ago, Astreya said:

[SARCASM]Well, maybe someone should tell the many old and white anti-vaxxers that they are the ones most likely to die from Covid-19, while the younger non-white populations will thrive and thus set out to replace them that way. Maybe that would convince them to get vaccinated (of course only for all the wrong reasons). [/SARCASM]

teehee!

 

so The Stand was written in 1978, where the world population was half of what it currently is (google told me the population was 4.06 billion in 1975), but yeah, .04% of 4 billion is still a LOT.

[Astreya]

@_Terminus24

I'm sorry, but your "evidence" is not convincing at all. I assume you have no education in medicine, biochemistry or biology, or you would not post your baseless claims which are refuted by about all proper scientists world-wide.

 

By the way, here is an interesting article that sheds some light on the people behind the anti-vaxx movement(s), their backers, financing and strategies:

Quote

Dismantling the anti-vaxx industry

by Imran Ahmed

 

Investigations show that those spreading misinformation that undermines the rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 are well financed, determined and disciplined. To counter their activities, we need to understand them as an industry actively working to sow doubts about the deadliness of COVID-19, vaccines and medical professionals’ integrity.

 

The term ‘anti-vaxxer’ may evoke images of a conspiracy theorist in a grimy basement or a disheveled figure on a crate railing against ‘microchips’ and ‘global plots’. In reality, the key protagonists in the ‘anti-vaxx industry’ are a coherent group of professional propagandists. These are people running multi-million-dollar organizations, incorporated mainly in the USA, with as many as 60 staff each1. They produce training manuals for activists, tailor their messages for different audiences, and arrange meetings akin to annual trades conferences, like any other industry.

 

In October 2020, researchers of the Center for Countering Digital Hate attended and recorded a private, three-day meeting of the world’s most prominent anti-vaxxers3. Our team gained unprecedented insight into the organized opposition to the rollout of the vaccine against COVID-19. Despite the banality and vacuity of the anti-vaxxers’ presentations, there was nevertheless a chilling level of organization and intent.

 

What also became clear was the sophistication of the means they employ on social media. They have been able to develop these tactics only because social-media companies have been happy for the key players in this anti-vaxx industry to use their services to recruit new followers and spread their lies further than ever before. As a result, there is an online infrastructure of anti-vaccine websites, Facebook groups, YouTube channels, Instagram pages and Twitter accounts with a combined audience of 59 million3. In the UK alone, there are 5.35 million followers of anti-vaxxers across social media.

 

Anti-vaxxers are training each other in identifying potential targets online. They discuss their tactics for deepening people’s fears, sowing doubt as to whether people should take a vaccine, deepening vaccine hesitancy, and converting the chosen few into fully fledged anti-vaxxers—the people who further propagate the lies. Anti-vaxxers distribute themselves across social media, finding new and varied ways to inject misinformation into users’ news feeds. In that sense, they are far better equipped to reach people than are the UK National Health Service and World Health Organization, which rely on centralized digital communications through accounts with low engagement and little ‘personality’ or ‘authenticity’.

 

This was all true before the pandemic hit. Anti-vaxxers see COVID-19 as their opportunity to rapidly create widespread hesitancy for the vaccine against COVID-19 and, indeed, for all vaccines4. There are several factors militating in their favor. Social media breathed new life into several forms of extremism, as extremists of different shades recognized its potential to drive social change. Misinformation, which traditional media filters out through its editorial standards, suddenly had unfiltered access to most of the world’s population. Remember that the UK lost its measles-free status in 2019, well before COVID-19, due to declining immunization rates, while measles outbreaks emerged in parts of the USA.

 

There are steps we can all take to counter this misinformation industry, which threatens our health and that of our loved ones, and our society.

 

When we see anti-vaxx misinformation on social media, we must resist falling into the trap of engaging with it, however tempting it may be to point out obvious flaws and falsehoods. Engaging with misinformation online spreads it further: if we scratch the itch, we spread the disease. It is far more helpful and effective to instead share good information about vaccines from trusted sources. And when we each have our turn to be vaccinated, we should tell our friends and followers. Photos and clips posted on social media of the early recipients of vaccines encourage us all and show there is nothing to fear.

 

For the public-health organizations involved in developing and rolling out the vaccine, it is vital that they study the anti-vaxxers’ plan to prevent it from succeeding. Every anti-vaxx message can be boiled down to a master narrative of three parts: “COVID-19 isn’t dangerous; vaccines are dangerous; you can’t trust doctors or scientists.” Instead of attempting to rebut every silly conspiracy theory, practitioners should inoculate against those three central claims. And they must do so in every corner of the internet, meeting people where they are. For example, doctors and scientists should join their local community’s Facebook group and offer to answer any questions their neighbors have about the vaccine against COVID-19.

 

The simplest solution to this is for social-media companies to remove the anti-vaxx misinformation superspreaders: the professional propagandists making a living from the anti-vaxx industry, from their platforms, as detailed in our July 2020 report4. There is no moral justification for profiting from harmful lies, and there is no legal barrier to social-media companies’ removing them for breach of their terms of service. In fact, in the USA, moderation decisions are explicitly protected by law5. The problem has never been ability; instead, it has been the will to act. Tech companies have failed to act because their business model relies upon keeping users on their platforms scrolling through content interspersed with advertising, regardless of that content’s impact on society. Their failure to act should be punished with tough government regulation.

 

All of us have been doing our bit in 2020 and 2021 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Think of the friends and family you have not seen. Think of the medics risking their own lives and losing patients to this cruel virus. Think of the Herculean efforts made by scientists to develop a vaccine in record time. The anti-vaxx industry and technology companies, however, for their own solipsistic reasons, threaten to derail all that progress. It is up to all of us to stop them from doing so.

Source:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01260-6

 

Oh, and this article is useful, too:

"How do you argue with anti-vaxxers who believe they’re on a noble mission?"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/20/how-do-you-argue-with-anti-vaxxers-who-believe-theyre-on-a-noble-mission

 

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As of today, Wednesday, February 23, 10:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 8239 (-13) active cases, while 24 865 (+280)  people are considered to have recovered. 425 (+-0) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 33 529 (+267) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 725.8 (-68.2) / Incidence for NRW: 1152.1 (-37.1).

 

Currently 80 (+2) persons are treated in hospital, with 7 (-2) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

 

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As of today, Thursday, February 24, 10:15 GMT+1, my home town (population 210 000) has 8348 (+109) active cases, while 25 056 (+191)  people are considered to have recovered. 429 (+4) persons sadly died.  All in all there have been 33 833 (+304) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 693.3 (-32.5) / Incidence for NRW: 1130.3 (-21.8).

 

Currently 79 (-1) persons are treated in hospital, with 7 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 2 (+-0) of them needing artificial respiration.

There have been 160 590 (1st jab, 76.63%) and 156 635  (2nd jab, 74.74%) and 160 886 (3rd jab, 76.77%) vaccinations so far. (Vaccination data from Feb 7, 2022 - the numbers are a bit messed up as people from outside Oberhausen can use the vaccination centres to get their boosters, too). 

Source: Stadt Oberhausen

Edited February 25, 2022 by Astreya