Just to keep track of the nonsense that has wrecked our economy and generally made our politicians run around as if their fool heads were on fire, each day I publish the corona virus total death toll in the US based upon the latest data I can find. A single death is an immense tragedy if you love the person. However, we are not talking about love, but rather public policy, which should always involve a sober analysis of risk and cost. Please recall that in a bad normal flu year our death toll in the US can be as high as 90,000.
Note: this will be a total death toll since the beginning of this bad farce, and not a daily toll. As of the beginning of May 26 the claimed, as suspect as that claim is, death toll is 99,805. May the Perpetual Light shine upon them. The death toll yesterday was 505. That is down 498 deaths from last week at this time, although I suspect the holiday lowered the reports of deaths yesterday.
Latest US CDC fatality rates (to symptomatic China Murder Virus patients):
•0-49 years old: .05%
•50-64 years old: 0.2%
•65+ years old: 1.3%
•Overall ages: .4%
Adding in the 35% of CMV asymptomatic CMV positives that’s 0.3%, much lower than the dire forecasts that fomented economic suicide.
Not to worry, the panic porn statisticians will report that as 3,000 per million – thing is in the US all of 100,000 died, not 100,000,000.
Although I would chalk this up to unforeseen consequences, an interesting article in the Federalist on a correlation between mass transit use and Covid. The state graph within (mass transit use / age adjusted fatalities) is of particular interest.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/26/data-left-demanded-mass-transit-fueled-covid-19-deaths/
I’ve seen this same correlation in my state of Massachusetts by County and mass transit availability.
Packing people into subways or on buses would seem ideal for spreading communicable disease.
I seem to remember some work in New York that traced specific outbreaks to specific stations, back when they were trying to diagnose cases.
Of course, mass transit isn’t in a vacuum– so there might be a shared cause, too, unless folks break it down like those early, squashed studies in New York.