Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Funny thing about the truth ... truth doesn't change. Every facet of the Wuhan Flu has gone through a series of illogical changes. If lockdowns work, if masks work; then why is there a spike? Why is the annual rate of influenza, which we have records of dating more than 50 years, nearly zero? Why has the CDC said that ~6% of the reported Covid Deaths are people who died FROM COVID, rather than had COVID as a contributing factor? If you have cancer, heart disease, pulmonary failure, emphysema, uncontrolled diabetes - COVID isn't going to help.

But, as the CDC states that the average life expectancy in the US is 78.6 years, and has remained unchanged for the past several years; and the average death from COVID is over 80 years of age (even with Comorbidites, as listed previously) - why are we locking down?

Logically, Texas, South Dakota and Florida should be leading the USA for Covid deaths and infections - they aren't. Sweden never did lock down, they should all be dead - they aren't.

Barnum is quoted as "You can fool some of the people some of the time", obviously never was aquatinted with pushing a non-existent pandemic. "15 weeks to Flatten the Curve; now in month 9"
Lockdowns and masks are preventatives, not guarantees. Without them, things would be even worse than they are.

Coincidently, masks and lockdowns certainly helped with that low influenza rate.

Just because someone is old or sick doesn’t mean they deserve to die.

Sweden admitted they made a huge mistake and are backtracking because things have gone so poorly for them.

And the fact that you think this pandemic doesn’t exist is precisely why it’s gone on for so long.
 
PCR-positive results, not virus cases. There's a diff.

I don't think those ICU beds are full of false positives, if that's what you're suggesting...

Funny thing about the truth ... truth doesn't change. Every facet of the Wuhan Flu has gone through a series of illogical changes. If lockdowns work, if masks work; then why is there a spike? Why is the annual rate of influenza, which we have records of dating more than 50 years, nearly zero? Why has the CDC said that ~6% of the reported Covid Deaths are people who died FROM COVID, rather than had COVID as a contributing factor? If you have cancer, heart disease, pulmonary failure, emphysema, uncontrolled diabetes - COVID isn't going to help.

But, as the CDC states that the average life expectancy in the US is 78.6 years, and has remained unchanged for the past several years; and the average death from COVID is over 80 years of age (even with Comorbidites, as listed previously) - why are we locking down?

Logically, Texas, South Dakota and Florida should be leading the USA for Covid deaths and infections - they aren't. Sweden never did lock down, they should all be dead - they aren't.

Barnum is quoted as "You can fool some of the people some of the time", obviously never was aquatinted with pushing a non-existent pandemic. "15 weeks to Flatten the Curve; now in month 9"
Wow.

Ok. If lockdowns work, and then you lift the lockdown, the spike is anticipated. In other words, there is a spike because lockdowns work. The lockdown is what you're comparing against.

The average life expectancy you are describing is years from birth. An average is taking all the numbers, adding them together, and dividing by the number of people. Infant mortality contributes a lot of zeros into that average calculation. Once you survive a few years your life expectancy increases.

For men, once you live to see 50, you're expected to live to see 80. Once you live to see 80, you're expected to live to see 88. Once you see 88, you're expected to see 93. At 93, you're expected to see 96. Women do better.

The probability of dying in any given year doesn't cross 50% until you turn 108 in the US.

In other words, for everyone younger than 108 that asked "am I going to die in 2020?", the answer was "probably not".

So if your argument is "they're going to die anyway", then why have a healthcare system at all? Next time someone gets hit by a car, leave them there in the road unless they can walk home. Remember, the life expectancy doesn't only include disease, it includes death by accident so if we're taking life expectancy as destiny, we should stay hands off, right?

Survival is programmed into us. The argument that "they lived longer than they should have" is sociopathic.
 
Last edited:
A of whole lot of unexpected bodies. Call them COVID cases or not, all you need are deaths per week in relation to the previous 4 years. Worse mortality in some states versus others, but when the ICUs are full, you start digging the mass graves.
Note that the US has around 250,000 deaths PER MONTH right now.... COVID is a small percentage of that.

In 2019 over 3,000,000 people died in the US... There were no mass graves then.
 
Some cultures in CA refused to follow the rules just like other cultures in the midwest did the same. No difference. Except the reporting and the local governments in CA aren't brave enough to call it out. Dead is dead no matter what your background or politics.
The mix of cultures in CA didn't change from spring to fall, but the growth rate of infection did.

Yes, there are subcultures everywhere but, in aggregate, California had an enviable record for most of the year and it suddenly went very, very wrong. The state was better than its peers for most of the year and now significantly worse than its peers.
 
Eh, NY is just as big of a mess IMO... ridiculous and arbitrary rules, many businesses permanently closed, rising crime, mass exodus, plunging property values, etc. and a shutdown looming after the New Year. A lot of people are moving out for a reason, and with higher taxes coming, it’s only going to get worse... just like California. I love NY but I don’t have high hopes for its future, even after Covid ends.
Speaking as an American who lives overseas but loves his country: the whole US is a mess. Some states slightly bigger than others, but there is a rightful shock and pity I get from people these days when they hear I’m an American. Americans can’t even agree a pandemic exists, let alone that basic precautions are a good thing (we can look no further than this forum even to see people arguing conspiratorial garbage).
 
If lockdowns work, if masks work; then why is there a spike?
American living abroad here in a country that had more COVID cases than anywhere else except China back in Feb. Today we haven’t had a single new case in many weeks thanks to masks and (a single, relatively short) lockdown.

So they do work, but only when people actually get on board and follow the measures. As in, only when EVERYONE wears a mask, not just some of the people while others go on pontificating about Sweden (even though Swedes themselves long ago rejected the “herd immunity” nonsense) or rejecting basic science by implying “it’s just the flu” or “those deaths didn’t REALLY happen because of COVID.” Meanwhile the rest of the world looks at what our great country has turned into and just looks on in pity and awe.
 
California blew it. They were doing really well up until early Autumn. Thanksgiving takes a lot of blame, but I think they got too lax in restrictions and didn't respond quickly enough. Monitoring available ICU beds is a lagging indicator.

It's a totally different situation in the Dakotas, mind you. I get the sense that California let their guard down while the Dakotas strapped themselves to the mast and sailed straight for the storm.

It's all the more terrible now that the vaccine is starting to enter circulation. While there was an argument in the past that the best strategy might have been to manage the spread rather than prevent it, now it's clear that every death that could have been delayed a few months could have been prevented.
California vs Dakotas? Really? California has the population of ENTIRE COUNTRIES!!! The Dakotas, all spread out and rural, is the population of some cities in California. It's about population. COVID spreads exponentially. The more people you have, clustered together, the faster it will grow.

FWIW, while CA has the most cases in the nation, by far, it has the same number of daily deaths as Texas and Florida, who have 1/3 the number of cases. So sure, we have record cases, but people in TX and FL are dying with much higher frequency.
 
The mix of cultures in CA didn't change from spring to fall, but the growth rate of infection did.

Yes, there are subcultures everywhere but, in aggregate, California had an enviable record for most of the year and it suddenly went very, very wrong. The state was better than its peers for most of the year and now significantly worse than its peers.
In cases only, not deaths.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hodar1
Funny thing about the truth ... truth doesn't change. Every facet of the Wuhan Flu has gone through a series of illogical changes. If lockdowns work, if masks work; then why is there a spike? Why is the annual rate of influenza, which we have records of dating more than 50 years, nearly zero? Why has the CDC said that ~6% of the reported Covid Deaths are people who died FROM COVID, rather than had COVID as a contributing factor? If you have cancer, heart disease, pulmonary failure, emphysema, uncontrolled diabetes - COVID isn't going to help.

But, as the CDC states that the average life expectancy in the US is 78.6 years, and has remained unchanged for the past several years; and the average death from COVID is over 80 years of age (even with Comorbidites, as listed previously) - why are we locking down?

Logically, Texas, South Dakota and Florida should be leading the USA for Covid deaths and infections - they aren't. Sweden never did lock down, they should all be dead - they aren't.

Barnum is quoted as "You can fool some of the people some of the time", obviously never was aquatinted with pushing a non-existent pandemic. "15 weeks to Flatten the Curve; now in month 9"
Masks work and lockdowns work. People not following lockdown rules and refusing to wear masks... doesn't work. This isn't hard. I could go on an tell you why every sentence you said is wrong, but you wouldn't believe it anyway so... Yeah. People like you are the reason we aren't out of this yet.
 
Yet your state has about as many daily deaths as CA. Go figure. Why not use your "freedom" and go visit some of the dying in the hospitals in Florida and ask them if "freedom" was worth it? Let us know what they say...

Yeah, I use to be brainwashed like so many others and I was living in fear over COVID statistic numbers. I then had my brain cleansed by a few of my friends who actually work in a couple of our local hospitals here in the Orlando area. All of my hospital worker friends (of which three work in the ER department at Orlando Regional Medical Center) have told me the same thing. The fear from the media when it comes to COVID deaths are highly exaggerated beyond belief. They told me they have had some COVID cases in their hospitals but the actual death cases are nowhere near as high as what the media wants us to believe.

It took me a while to believe them so I did some research on my own. There are several videos on YouTube of where people have been shooting actual outside footage of the ER departments in NYC and the videos show them to be almost a ghost town. In other words, once again, things have been blown way out of proportion. I finally came out of my fear shell and I decided to start living again. I use common sense and I wear my face mask in public and of course I wash my hands quite often as well.

Fear is a very powerful tool that the soon to be dictators of this country will be gaining more and more power as time moves on. But I will tend to believe my friends that actually work in the front lines and not garbage media like CNN and many others that want to drive people to the point to where they're afraid of their own shadows. So, that being that. I say go ahead and live in fear if you must. I'm going to live my life as I normally would with a few but minor inconveniences like wearing a face mask in public and so on. But to keep my butt locked up in my own house will never happen. I'll take my own life before I allow any wanna-be dictator politician to direct how my life is lived.
 
Funny thing about the truth ... truth doesn't change. Every facet of the Wuhan Flu has gone through a series of illogical changes. If lockdowns work, if masks work; then why is there a spike? Why is the annual rate of influenza, which we have records of dating more than 50 years, nearly zero? Why has the CDC said that ~6% of the reported Covid Deaths are people who died FROM COVID, rather than had COVID as a contributing factor? If you have cancer, heart disease, pulmonary failure, emphysema, uncontrolled diabetes - COVID isn't going to help.

But, as the CDC states that the average life expectancy in the US is 78.6 years, and has remained unchanged for the past several years; and the average death from COVID is over 80 years of age (even with Comorbidites, as listed previously) - why are we locking down?

Logically, Texas, South Dakota and Florida should be leading the USA for Covid deaths and infections - they aren't. Sweden never did lock down, they should all be dead - they aren't.

Barnum is quoted as "You can fool some of the people some of the time", obviously never was aquatinted with pushing a non-existent pandemic. "15 weeks to Flatten the Curve; now in month 9"
South Dakota and North Dakota each have roughly the same population as San Francisco, a city crammed into 50 square miles. The Dakotas each have almost 10x the number of Covid deaths as SF. Guess which place is more densely populated but also has mask rules and more restrictions?
Florida has the population of Taiwan. Taiwan locked it down early, and now they're having concerts. They've had 7 Covid deaths. Florida has had 20,000.
You really think because Sweden didn't have a lockdown "They should all be dead"? and because not all Swedes are dead... that's proof that lockdowns aren't necessary? Nice logic.
 
Yeah, I use to be brainwashed like so many others and I was living in fear over COVID statistic numbers. I then had my brain cleansed by a few of my friends who actually work in a couple of our local hospitals here in the Orlando area. All of my hospital worker friends (of which three work in the ER department at Orlando Regional Medical Center) have told me the same thing. The fear from the media when it comes to COVID deaths are highly exaggerated beyond belief. They told me they have had some COVID cases in their hospitals but the actual death cases are nowhere near as high as what the media wants us to believe.

It took me a while to believe them so I did some research on my own. There are several videos on YouTube of where people have been shooting actual outside footage of the ER departments in NYC and the videos show them to be almost a ghost town. In other words, once again, things have been blown way out of proportion. I finally came out of my fear shell and I decided to start living again. I use common sense and I wear my face mask in public and of course I wash my hands quite often as well.

Fear is a very powerful tool that the soon to be dictators of this country will be gaining more and more power as time moves on. But I will tend to believe my friends that actually work in the front lines and not garbage media like CNN and many others that want to drive people to the point to where they're afraid of their own shadows. So, that being that. I say go ahead and live in fear if you must. I'm going to live my life as I normally would with a few but minor inconveniences like wearing a face mask in public and so on. But to keep my butt locked up in my own house will never happen. I'll take my own life before I allow any wanna-be dictator politician to direct how my life is lived.
Ah yes... "I did my own research" is the phrase that has probably caused the most damage to this country in the last 25 years, and a good argument why the internet shouldn't exists.
Sure, the media is the problem. The evil media! Of course!
I love how people are acting like we're living under the thumb of a tyrannical government when in reality we've never really had a real "lockdown." If we'd have a true, nationwide lockdown, we'd have been out of the worst of it MONTHS ago. Instead we half-ass it so people can eat in restaurants and pretend that everything is normal so we can watch football and try to act like everything might be OK without any real sacrifice. "Minor inconvenience? Sure!" Any other measure that requires staying inside for two weeks! "I'd rather kill myself!"
 
Yeah, I use to be brainwashed like so many others and I was living in fear over COVID statistic numbers. I then had my brain cleansed by a few of my friends who actually work in a couple of our local hospitals here in the Orlando area. All of my hospital worker friends (of which three work in the ER department at Orlando Regional Medical Center) have told me the same thing. The fear from the media when it comes to COVID deaths are highly exaggerated beyond belief. They told me they have had some COVID cases in their hospitals but the actual death cases are nowhere near as high as what the media wants us to believe.

It took me a while to believe them so I did some research on my own. There are several videos on YouTube of where people have been shooting actual outside footage of the ER departments in NYC and the videos show them to be almost a ghost town. In other words, once again, things have been blown way out of proportion. I finally came out of my fear shell and I decided to start living again. I use common sense and I wear my face mask in public and of course I wash my hands quite often as well.

Fear is a very powerful tool that the soon to be dictators of this country will be gaining more and more power as time moves on. But I will tend to believe my friends that actually work in the front lines and not garbage media like CNN and many others that want to drive people to the point to where they're afraid of their own shadows. So, that being that. I say go ahead and live in fear if you must. I'm going to live my life as I normally would with a few but minor inconveniences like wearing a face mask in public and so on. But to keep my butt locked up in my own house will never happen. I'll take my own life before I allow any wanna-be dictator politician to direct how my life is lived.
What is the actual number of deaths vs what the media says?
 
Yeah, I use to be brainwashed like so many others and I was living in fear over COVID statistic numbers. I then had my brain cleansed by a few of my friends who actually work in a couple of our local hospitals here in the Orlando area. All of my hospital worker friends (of which three work in the ER department at Orlando Regional Medical Center) have told me the same thing. The fear from the media when it comes to COVID deaths are highly exaggerated beyond belief. They told me they have had some COVID cases in their hospitals but the actual death cases are nowhere near as high as what the media wants us to believe.

It took me a while to believe them so I did some research on my own. There are several videos on YouTube of where people have been shooting actual outside footage of the ER departments in NYC and the videos show them to be almost a ghost town. In other words, once again, things have been blown way out of proportion. I finally came out of my fear shell and I decided to start living again. I use common sense and I wear my face mask in public and of course I wash my hands quite often as well.

Fear is a very powerful tool that the soon to be dictators of this country will be gaining more and more power as time moves on. But I will tend to believe my friends that actually work in the front lines and not garbage media like CNN and many others that want to drive people to the point to where they're afraid of their own shadows. So, that being that. I say go ahead and live in fear if you must. I'm going to live my life as I normally would with a few but minor inconveniences like wearing a face mask in public and so on. But to keep my butt locked up in my own house will never happen. I'll take my own life before I allow any wanna-be dictator politician to direct how my life is lived.
Research on YT? And Orlando Regional Medical Center is the metric for every other city and state in the nation? In SoCAL, the ICU capacity is 0%. ZERO. You're saying that's fake news? Well, I feel much better now.
 
Ah yes... "I did my own research" is the phrase that has probably caused the most damage to this country in the last 25 years, and a good argument why the internet shouldn't exists.
Sure, the media is the problem. The evil media! Of course!
I love how people are acting like we're living under the thumb of a tyrannical government when in reality we've never really had a real "lockdown." If we'd have a true, nationwide lockdown, we'd have been out of the worst of it MONTHS ago. Instead we half-ass it so people can eat in restaurants and pretend that everything is normal so we can watch football and try to act like everything might be OK without any real sacrifice. "Minor inconvenience? Sure!" Any other measure that requires staying inside for two weeks! "I'd rather kill myself!"
Grow up.

There have also been several videos on YouTube that show professional groups of physicians proving that most of the face masks people are wearing do NOTHING to prevent the spread of COVID. This includes the morons who wear those stupid face coverings that cover their entire necks. You know, the ones that are as thin as pantyhose? Yeah, those.... But yet the media wants us to believe we need to wear masks if we need to go out in public. Whatever.... Like I said earlier, I wear N95 masks because I do it out of respect for all my local businesses that require masks upon entering their establishments. But I certainly don't believe that wearing a mask is going to shield me from getting COVID if I happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever happens happens but I'm not going to live in fear no longer.

Do what you must and continue to be part of the fear spreading if it makes you feel better.
 
Research on YT? And Orlando Regional Medical Center is the metric for every other city and state in the nation? In SoCAL, the ICU capacity is 0%. ZERO. You're saying that's fake news? Well, I feel much better now.

Do you actually know anyone that can confirm what their ICU rates are or are you continuing to believe media statistics? If it's the latter, you have bigger worries to worry about than COVID.
 
What is the actual number of deaths vs what the media says?

That's like asking how high is up. No one knows the exact numbers or the exact TRUTH. What I do know is my local hospitals had emergency tents set up in their back parking lots for if and when they were overrun by COVID cases. Guess what? My friends that work at ORMC told me they never used their tents. They were never occupied by one patient. Why? Because once again, things didn't get out of hand like what was thought. I have several friends that have contracted COVID and they all pulled through. They all said the same thing. It was like having a very bad cold (aka the Flu) that made them feel pretty crappy for a few days. Of course that might not be the case if you're someone that's already in bad health. So in that case, you shouldn't be out at all if you can avoid it.
 
That's like asking how high is up. No one knows the exact numbers or the exact TRUTH. What I do know is my local hospitals had emergency tents set up in their back parking lots for if and when they were overrun by COVID cases. Guess what? My friends that work at ORMC told me they never used their tents. They were never occupied by one patient. Why? Because once again, things didn't get out of hand like what was thought. I have several friends that have contracted COVID and they all pulled through. They all said the same thing. It was like having a very bad cold (aka the Flu) that made them feel pretty crappy for a few days. Of course that might not be the case if you're someone that's already in bad health. So in that case, you shouldn't be out at all if you can avoid it.
You keep saying that the publicized numbers are wrong, yet you refuse to tell us what numbers are right. Why?
 
California is more proof lockdowns don’t work and spread is STILL not completely understood. ”Experts” don’t know. They don’t understand it or have political reasons to tell you what to do. California’s covid numbers are trash...no better and in many cases are worse than states that are far more open.

Apple is only closing stores there bc they are in California. There are ways to run businesses with safety parameters in place...California is just a ridiculous state without a clue.

Again, life is a @#&#. There isnt always some obvious, great answer that is so black and white. “Oh, just lockdown and it’s all fine.” Doesn't work. Isn’t practical.

People are going to die. It’s sad. There is no easy answer to this. We don’t kill everyone opening up. We don’t save everyone locking down. Locking down isn’t the end all answer. There are downsides. It has problems. Problems are complex and require balance and don’t always lend the result you want.
 
Last edited:
I don't think those ICU beds are full of false positives, if that's what you're suggesting...


Wow.

Ok. If lockdowns work, and then you lift the lockdown, the spike is anticipated. In other words, there is a spike because lockdowns work. The lockdown is what you're comparing against.

The average life expectancy you are describing is years from birth. An average is taking all the numbers, adding them together, and dividing by the number of people. Infant mortality contributes a lot of zeros into that average calculation. Once you survive a few years your life expectancy increases.

For men, once you live to see 50, you're expected to live to see 80. Once you live to see 80, you're expected to live to see 88. Once you see 88, you're expected to see 93. At 93, you're expected to see 96. Women do better.

The probability of dying in any given year doesn't cross 50% until you turn 108 in the US.

In other words, for everyone younger than 108 that asked "am I going to die in 2020?", the answer was "probably not".

So if your argument is "they're going to die anyway", then why have a healthcare system at all? Next time someone gets hit by a car, leave them there in the road unless they can walk home. Remember, the life expectancy doesn't only include disease, it includes death by accident so if we're taking life expectancy as destiny, we should stay hands off, right?

Survival is programmed into us. The argument that "they lived longer than they should have" is sociopathic.
Lockdowns don’t work...otherwise, they would have worked. Oh, but we just didn’t lockdown, correctly, right? More proof they don’t work. You can’t mandate lockdowns with an iron fist...it doesn’t work. People won’t do it...you can cry, but it’s America. They aren’t going to listen very long.

You also could mean lockdown forever, which of course, again doesn’t work...and you realize there is no “lockdown” right? Picking and choosing what you lockdown is unfair and against everything American. Lockdown, but not grocery stores? But what about Covid? Can’t get it in a grocery store?

There is also mounting evidence lockdowns just cause more gathering in homes without mask, distancing, or any precautions and is actually worse than something like, umm....outdoor dining.
 
Masks work and lockdowns work. People not following lockdown rules and refusing to wear masks... doesn't work. This isn't hard. I could go on an tell you why every sentence you said is wrong, but you wouldn't believe it anyway so... Yeah. People like you are the reason we aren't out of this yet.
It seems to me that the poster just stated facts and you refused to believe them. Perhaps you should heed your own advice and do some research and actually counter his arguments with your own evidence rather than make ad hominem attacks.

Take masks, for example. How can you be so sure they work when science says it’s inconclusive? Real science, that is, not CNN and politicians who’ve hijacked science. In fact, a recent Danish peer-reviewed study showed that masks are not effective. There’s also also a reason why the initial recommendation by the CDC and Fauci was for Americans to not wear masks. It’s not as if these studies haven’t been done before Covid. I’m guessing the only thing that changed was desperation on the part of experts and politicians because there was no definitive study that showed that masks, especially cloth masks that most people wear, have any effect at preventing the spread.
 
California is a mess. I’m glad New York has been able to keep their stores open and avoid another shutdown to this point.

NY Times: Why California Sent Ventilators to New York...
You're welcome, btw. 👍

California blew it. They were doing really well up until early Autumn. Thanksgiving takes a lot of blame, but I think they got too lax in restrictions and didn't respond quickly enough. Monitoring available ICU beds is a lagging indicator.

SoCal native here. No, CA was doing great until the state turbo re-opened back in May.

However, when Newsom fired asked for the resignation of the state public health director, I think everyone knew we were in trouble with data on a statewide level.

Local and county governance (e.g., LA city and county) continues to do a really good job at contact tracing, testing, etc. Our nearest county, Orange (think: The "Florida" of California), continued to flaunt public health guidance (looking at you HB!). Orange's rates are almost parity with LA County now, it's bad getting worse by the day.

I think by now everyone in CA knows about the French Laundry snafu so that hasn't helped his image at all.

Yeah, I use to be brainwashed like so many others and I was living in fear over COVID statistic numbers. I then had my brain cleansed by a few of my friends who actually work in a couple of our local hospitals here in the Orlando area.

You're kidding, right? Like, really?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.