Almost 100 Apple Stores Closed Again, Including All Stores in California

[A MacBook lover]

I’m afraid Covid has become the leading cause of death in USA recently. But sure live in your alternative reality bubble. Not a problem we have here. I’m going to have a normal Christmas.

COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in the U.S. this week, report says

In the U.S., COVID-19 cases have surpassed 14.3 million, and more than 278,500 deaths have been recorded, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

www.google.com.au

Yet, we have less total deaths compared to 2019, 2018. Where’s the pandemic?

Why not argue on merits, why do you feel the need to insult?

 

[Plutonius]

Maybe they shouldn't have opened in the first place.

Even with a vaccine, Covid-19 will not disappear .

Outside of government mandates, businesses will have to decide how they respond to a future where Covid-19 is present.

 

[justperry]

Pretty much everyone I know are effected by this economically.

0 people I know who are effected by this health wise.

For me it's:

Pretty much no-one I know is affected by this economically.

Quite a few people I know who are affected by this health-wise.

 

[Natzoo]

Even with a vaccine, Covid-19 will not disappear

Sadly this is because the trump virus has spread everywhere and now we need to vaccinate the majority of Americans but his cult followers believe it's some hoax or contain a microchip (if the gov wanted to microchip Americans, they can do it with the $2 meals from fast-food restaurants).

 

[Attirex]

The pandemic has been an IQ test, and America scored about a two.

 

[contacos]

The pandemic has been an IQ test, and America scored about a two.

they are literally the only country in the world that would argue against universal health care and are also really the only ones feeling oppressed by a god damn mask. Not really surprised

 

[A MacBook lover]

they are literally the only country in the world that would argue against universal health care and are also really the only ones feeling oppressed by a god damn mask. Not really surprised

Also the only country who makes quality products with a great economy.

 

[Plutonius]

Be glad, I know a lot of people who had or currently have Covid and I have friends who have had friends or relatives die from it.

I had two elderly relatives with medical conditions die in a nursing home from Covid. I also know people who had elderly relatives die from Covid.

Otherwise, I know many people (not elderly) who had Covid and were only mildly sick for a few days.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

The virus is now out of control in Great Britain and people are just not listening. They travel from region to region and don’t seem to care that their home regions are in lockdown. Recent infections in parts of Britain were caused by new variants of the virus.
Yes we are rolling out a vaccine but I don’t think that’s going to change much.
A growing number of EU countries including Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands moved over the weekend to halt travel from the UK after a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. It’s a good thing and I think there should be blockades in every country now. No one goes out and no one comes in.
I can’t see the end to this for several years to be honest

 

[citysnaps]

So many epidemiologists, immunologists, and infectious disease experts here. Wondering what universities their degrees are from?

 

[jayducharme]

Pretty much everyone I know are effected by this economically.

0 people I know who are effected by this health wise.

I have had many friends and relatives battle the virus, and I knew some who have died from it. Remember that the rate of infection in the U.S. is currently just 1.3% and the death rate is 1.8%. So many people might have the perception that the virus isn't real or that it's not that serious. But in terms of 350 million people, that's about 4 million people that could be infected. And because of the poor testing rate, the actual number is probably MUCH higher. And also remember that a lot of people can be carriers of the virus without showing symptoms. So if we conservatively say 5 million people are infected, that puts the eventual death rate in the U.S. at close to a million people. Again, chances are you might not know anyone. But other people do. I would choose a sluggish economy over death.

 

[kahkityoong]

So many epidemiologists, immunologists, and infectious disease experts here. Wondering what universities their degrees are from?

MBBS University of Melbourne : statistics, epidemiology, immunology, microbiology. Clinical infectious diseases in various hospitals around Melbourne.

 

[citysnaps]

MBBS University of Melbourne : statistics, epidemiology, microbiology. Clinical infectious diseases in various hospitals around Melbourne.

Thank you!

Who else?

 

[Natzoo]

Thank you!

Who else?

Well I just read published articles and not something from newsmax or other alt right networks. You don’t need a degree to be educated, but you need common sense to not be misinformed.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

The pandemic has been an IQ test, and America scored about a two.

On the other side of the coin are Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, plus Australia and New Zealand.

Japan -- with a population 38% the size of the USA's -- has about 2828 cumulative COVID-19 deaths as of December 19th. The USA has 306,345.

Free to read: Coronavirus tracked: has the epidemic peaked near you?

Find any country or US state in the live-updating and customisable version of the FT’s Covid-19 trajectory graphs

ig.ft.com

If you look at COVID-19 death rate by 100K people:

• UK: 100.4 deaths per 100K
• USA: 93.3 deaths per 100K
• Canada: 37 deaths per 100K
• Australia: 3.6 deaths per 100K
• Japan: 2.2 deaths per 100K
• South Korea: 1.3 deaths per 100K
• New Zealand: 0.5 deaths per 100K
• Taiwan: <0.1 deaths per 100K

It's worth noting that the population density in those three Asian countries is far higher than the USA and they also are extremely heavy users of mass transit. Compared to the USA, Japan has a far larger percentage of senior citizens (their average life expectancy is #1 of all industrialized nations) who are the greatest risk of COVID-19 fatalities.

Japan's suicide rate is higher than its COVID-19 fatality rate.

 

[jonblatho]

Remind me, what were the total deaths from all causes in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2018....?

Well, we don’t know yet because, among other reasons:

1. 2020 isn’t over yet
2. Forecasting fatalities for the remainder of the year is more difficult than assuming that deaths occur at a constant pace throughout the year (because they don’t; they typically peak in the winter months)
3. There’s a lag (“from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction and cause of death”) in reporting deaths
4. The CDC report to which you’re presumably referring doesn’t include the first few weeks of 2020 (until the week ended February 1)

Let me make these issues with the data you’re probably referring to more tangible:

I was able to locate an archived version of the CDC’s “Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)” report from November 16 and compare it to the most recent, last updated December 18. These reports include weekly total fatalities from both COVID-19 and all causes combined, along with the percentage of expected deaths for the week.

In the November 16 report, the CDC estimated the number of fatalities from all causes between January 26 and November 14 to be 2,487,350. That’s 40 weeks and an average of about 62,183 deaths per week, so let’s extrapolate that out to include the 4 weeks since. That’d put our estimate for what we’d see in the current report at 2,736,085 deaths, for the period between January 26 and December 12. The current report has 2,800,974 deaths in that period.

Where did all of those extra deaths come from? Well, deaths pick up in the winter months, as I mentioned, which is part of it, but the CDC already factors this into their weekly “expected deaths” calculation. But also, as I mentioned, there’s a lag in reporting deaths. The number of COVID-19 fatalities for the week ended November 14 in the November 16 CDC report was 240 and the number of all fatalities was 6,716 — just 12% of the expected deaths for the week. In the December 18 version, the numbers for that week have been revised to 9,500 and 62,571, respectively, or 114% of the expected deaths for the week, which is pretty well in line with adjacent weeks in the neighborhood of roughly 110–115%.

Setting aside the past few weeks with incomplete data, the most recent week we had with 100% or fewer of the expected deaths was that ended February 15. Being more generous, we can bump the threshold to 105% or fewer. The most recent week where that was true was that ended March 21. That means that each week since that ended March 28, we’ve seen greater than 105% of the expected fatalities. Each and every week.

 

[burgman]

Pretty much everyone I know are effected by this economically.

0 people I know who are effected by this health wise.

N=1 experience is worthless, try reading some local news in the worst hit areas.

 

[burgman]

But masks work, don’t they?
Just wear a mask and everything will be okay, right?
I get that this is a highly contagious virus and CAN be deadly, but c’mon folks. >99.95% survival rate.
How many more suicides and livelihoods destroyed have been a result of this? Not to mention trafficking is up, divorce is up, drug & alcohol use is up...
But just for two weeks, right? Two weeks to flatten the curve...

Glad your ok with other people dying and live in a bubble that friends and family are ok, it’s all about me is so sad.

 

[iOS Geek]

Sadly this is because the trump virus has spread everywhere and now we need to vaccinate the majority of Americans but his cult followers believe it's some hoax or contain a microchip (if the gov wanted to microchip Americans, they can do it with the $2 meals from fast-food restaurants).

I find it amazing how some of the same people b*tching that this virus is being politicized...many (but not all) of those same people call it the “Trump virus”. Seen how Europe’s doing lately? Is it the Trump virus over there too? The US isn’t the only country in bad shape right now. Shocking, I know. The fact that people have managed to take a WORLDWIDE problem and put blame on one man...is godda**ed astounding to me.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

It's absolutely being politicized. Democrats want you to wear masks and shut things down, Republicans think the damage to the economy isn't worth the health benefits. Unfortunately the real effect of shut downs would've been early on in the pandemic and we didn't do it as well as we should have when we should have. Now it's too late for shut downs to be of any real help; I don't think shutting down Apple Stores is going to make a difference. The vaccine is the only thing that can help now. But even that will be a problem if too many people are resistant to getting it.

 

[MacHiavelli]

Masks work in time-limited, hygienic, clinical conditions. In public spaces and prolonged use, they don't.

People touch their faces / masks all the time and then they touch things in shops, work places, on transport, etc, picking up dirt and bugs and spreading dirt and bugs. And the masks get dirty (people sneeze and cough and breathe into them) and damp from the inside and the outside, and the dampness attracts more dirt and more bugs, and then because the masks are right over people's mouths and noses, they breathe in concentrated amounts of dirt and bugs, and they get sick.

We know this from research into scarves and into face coverings worn by polar explorers: they have more germs than underwear not changed for weeks. Gross. And far too many people wear masks for months without washing or changing them. Dumber than dumb.

Action needs to be taken, but masks are part of the problem. Would anyone here really walk round with a sheet of toilet paper over their face that's been used by numerous people? That's what a mask is.

Was there an increase in numbers after the mass BLM protests worldwide? No. Were people wearing masks then? No. Are people wearing masks now? Yes, in the main. Are numbers increasing? Yes?

Just look up scarves and germs on the net.

Could Your Scarf Make You Sick? | TriHealth

Could that plush, soft scarf you’re wearing to stay warm actually make you sick? And what about your gloves? Are they germ carriers, too?

www.trihealth.com

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Masks work in time-limited, hygienic, clinical conditions. In public spaces and prolonged use, they don't.

People touch their faces / masks all the time and then they touch things in shops, work places, on transport, etc, picking up dirt and bugs and spreading dirt and bugs. And the masks get dirty (people sneeze and cough and breathe into them) and damp from the inside and the outside, and the dampness attracts more dirt and more bugs, and then because the masks are right over people's mouths and noses, they breathe in concentrated amounts of dirt and bugs, and they get sick.

We know this from research into scarves and into face coverings worn by polar explorers: they have more germs than underwear not changed for weeks. Gross. And far too many people wear masks for months without washing or changing them. Dumber than dumb.

Action needs to be taken, but masks are part of the problem. Would anyone here really walk round with a sheet of toilet paper over their face that's been used by numerous people? That's what a mask is.

Was there an increase in numbers after the mass BLM protests worldwide? No. Were people wearing masks then? No. Are people wearing masks now? Yes, in the main. Are numbers increasing? Yes?

Just look up scarves and germs on the net.

Could Your Scarf Make You Sick? | TriHealth

Could that plush, soft scarf you’re wearing to stay warm actually make you sick? And what about your gloves? Are they germ carriers, too?

www.trihealth.com

Many people don't understand that the point of masks is to prevent you from spreading the disease to others. If the disease is spread mostly by droplets, then masks prevent those droplets from getting into the air. That is the function of masks. It's not the same function as wearing one in a wildfire to protect yourself from smoke. It's protecting others from you.

 

[9927036]

Also the only country who makes quality products with a great economy.

And which products would those be?

 

[9927036]

The virus is now out of control in Great Britain and people are just not listening. They travel from region to region and don’t seem to care that their home regions are in lockdown. Recent infections in parts of Britain were caused by new variants of the virus.
Yes we are rolling out a vaccine but I don’t think that’s going to change much.
A growing number of EU countries including Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands moved over the weekend to halt travel from the UK after a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. It’s a good thing and I think there should be blockades in every country now. No one goes out and no one comes in.
I can’t see the end to this for several years to be honest

Boris made it worse. Did you see the people jam packed at Kings Cross and other stations?

I agree, I can't see the end to this for several years both in the UK and the USA.

 

[9927036]

So many epidemiologists, immunologists, and infectious disease experts here. Wondering what universities their degrees are from?

All one needs is common sense and that in the USA is not very common.