(That last cartoon would work better with a swastika, since the Biden administration is following the fascist model more than the communist one, but it still gets the point across.)
So another week, and it looks like for the US at least, the worst is past with the rolling 7-day average of cases peaking around September 1st and the number of deaths peaking around the 14th:
Godstud wrote:Unless you compare it to it's direct neighbours, Norway and Finland, who did spectacularly, by comparison.
I can see why you, and others wanted, to compare Sweden to USA ...
If the European Union as a whole was on the list it would come in at 36th, seven ranks above Sweden, with Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, & Belgium all even higher, but Sweden is doing
so catastrophically bad.
But I haven't been comparing the US to Sweden, other than having them on the same list. I just find the need some have to talk down the performance of the country that's 15th out of the 27 EU nations for total deaths per million, and 20th for the current deaths per million over the past week--currently, Hungary, Denmark, Poland, Netherlands, Czechia, Finland, & Luxembourg are the only EU nations with lower death rates--to be rather problematic.
JohnRawls wrote:Just a reminder to everyone that Covid just surpassed the hispanic flue in the number of deaths. So if it manages to surpass the Civil war then Covid will be the largest die off event in US history.
Just out of curiosity, how do the deaths per million numbers compare?
XogGyux wrote:The primary method of spread of covid 19 is droplet. There is strong evidence that it can also spread via aerosol, but it is not the primary method of spreading.
And for the actual current science:
How the Coronavirus Spreads: Biggest Threats Are in Air, Not on Surfaces. And that's based on the CDC--while its "advice" might be ludicrous (as illustrated by its refusal to consider the protection provided by the disease itself, once you've recovered), you can
probably trust the actual numbers it publishes.
Doug64 wrote:SO we come back to a simple question: if someone can avoid serious risk of dying by being vaccinated and chooses not to, why am I obligated to alter my own behavior in order to protect them? Why am I morally required to be more concerned about their health than they are?
annatar1914 wrote:There is a real simple answer; ''do unto others as one would have done unto you''.
Yes, "
as you would have them do unto you," not
more than you would have them do unto you." I don't think others have a moral obligation to care about my health more than I do.
If you had it, You wouldn't want to wish it on anyone, even your worst enemy. You wouldn't want others to give it to you, and you would want them to take medicines that would either mitigate or destroy the threat. Similar thinking applies to masks. There are 24 hours in a day, wearing a mask for 20 minutes isn't going to hurt you and it might reduce transmission, certainly better than doing nothing about transmission at all!
And if I chose not to get the vaccine and then caught the Wuhan virus and died, the responsibility would be
mine for the decision I made--a clear case of negligent suicide (as opposed to negligent homicide).
boomerintown wrote:National identity will always be based on lies in a sense, but the lies often become true when enough people believe in them.
Who was it that said that a nationality is any group that is cursed with, or wishes to be cursed with, a foreign office? I can't remember.
annatar1914 wrote:I've been recently just been exposed to COVID, but tested negative, although two of my anti-vaxxer, anti-masker co-workers tested positive and are now under quarantine with their families. I'm so very tired of selfish and stupid people around me all day every day who don't even have the decency to do the right thing when it truly counts. We do not have a political problem, we have a socio-cultural/spiritual problem.
It sounds like your co-workers made their choice and suffered the consequences. Outside of the fact that they are home instead of at work (assuming they can't work remotely), is it any business of yours?
Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
—Edmund Burke