Is the common cold a pandemic? Is the flu a pandemic?

[Starkiller]

1 hour ago, OzTitan said:

I honestly don't get what is so hard to understand here. Who gives a fuck about labels - does the common cold or the seasonal flu have the potential to choke a hospital system into disarray and cause unnecessary death due to being unable to get proper health care? yes or no?

 

No? then WHY are you comparing it? WHY?

Dear Leader said it’s a hoax!

[abenjami]

I honestly don't get why you guys are responding to this nonsense.

[Bink]

On 7/6/2020 at 6:58 AM, Denali said:

Think about it.

 

Labeling something a pandemic brings along with it all sorts of baggage.  Everyone runs away and freaks out at all costs.

 

Cholera was a pandemic.  So was small pox.  So the mind set is that therefore, anything labeled a pandemic is catastrophic and deadly.

 

Regardless of the actual mortality rate. 

 

The world has gone crazy.

 

 

 

Can we move beyond a middle schooler's logic? Can we try to apply critical thinking skills and look at the larger context? Can we not cherry pick a vague mention of a statistic and pass it off as profound?  

 

Can we just fucking try?

 

 

[nine]

For each week of the year, the CDC has a projected number of of total deaths by all causes.   This projection is based on the number of deaths that occurred during that same week in recent years.

 

During February and March of this year, the actual number deaths each week was between 98% and 102% of the numbers predicted by the CDC....so their projection of the total number of deaths was quite accurate.

 

In late March, the total death rate suddenly climbed to 111% of the CDC's projection....followed by 127% the next week.   

 

By the second week of April, the number of deaths from all causes was an incredible 140% of  CDC projections....a number that held for two weeks in a row.    The last week of April was 133%;   in May, it was 123%....122%...116%....110%.....105%.     America's total death rate didn't return to normal until the first week of June (99%).

 

These numbers are taken directly from the CDC's weekly tracker.   Pay particular attention to the columns for "Deaths by all causes" and "Percent of Expected Deaths"

 

 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm

 

So you tell me:   what was it that happened in April/May that would have caused the country's combined death rate to explode by up to 40% over previous years?       I'm pretty sure it wasn't the common cold.