That fetus is almost as old as me.
Do you think God would be very angry if the second coming of Jesus was
thwarted because Mary2 terminated her pregnancy? And would that fetus still be the son (or daughter) of God?
Presumably…until he/she is born and they discover it’s another Palestinian rather than a white baby. 
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No, not silence. Just options that you don’t want to consider. You’re not willing to entertain the idea, for example, that “if you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything”. As someone (the_bear?) said way back there, pandemics gonna pandemic. That means the power of mitigation is now mostly in the hands of the individual, not governments. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. If you’re ill, self-isolate. The usual obvious stuff that has not yet been discredited. But at this point, everyone is now pretty much guaranteed to become infected before this mythical vaccine appears in production quantities. And that means the individual has two choices:
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Get as fit and healthy as you possibly can. The link between Metabolic Syndrome and COVID-19 is being investigated and the research is showing some interesting results. So if you’re diabetic, stop being diabetic. People have had close to a YEAR to sort themselves out, and they just haven’t bothered. They’re still eating shite, still scarfing down their metformin and their statins, and still sitting on the couch wasting their lives away. So you know what? Screw them. If you don’t want to lift a finger to save your own life, I don’t see why society should attempt to do it for you - particularly when there’s little that can be done.
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Look death in the eye and accept that all lives end, eventually.
As far as “lockdowns” go, the only variant that actually works (for a very narrow definition of “works”) is to isolate those people who (a) have a high probability of being infected and (b) are at high risk of complications. The more usual scattergun approach, as implemented by people who know nothing about epidemiology and don’t want to take professional advice, causes nothing but trouble.
IMO what governments should be doing is this: focus on the 10-20 year outlook. Make sure this doesn’t happen again. That’s where governments actually hold the levers of control. But because voting cycles are shorter than that, they won’t.
However we do rather seem to be going round in circles here, so perhaps it’s best to just agree to disagree.
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You mean the vast majority of people (not me) including most governments when push comes to shove e.g UK, Czech.
Also vaccines are coming in a reasonable timeframe.
No not everybody will be infected, far from it.
Even in a free for all pandemic it usually means about 60-70% will be infected .
Some interesting data on excess deaths due to COVID-19:
“Overall, an estimated 299,028 excess deaths occurred from late January through October 3, 2020, with 198,081 (66%) excess deaths attributed to COVID-19. The largest percentage increases were seen among adults aged 25–44 years and among Hispanic or Latino persons.”
Also
“Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the Veterans Health Administration had a more than five times higher risk for in-hospital death and increased risk for 17 respiratory and nonrespiratory complications than did hospitalized patients with influenza. The risks for sepsis and respiratory, neurologic, and renal complications of COVID-19 were higher among non-Hispanic Black or African American and Hispanic patients than among non-Hispanic White patients.”
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is it due to biological differences or social factors?
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Can’t say based on this study. They did some statistical modeling to see if other variables accounted for differences and found that statistically significant differences persisted “after adjusting for age and underlying medical conditions.”:
“Among patients with COVID-19, the risk for respiratory, neurologic, and renal complications, and sepsis was higher among non-Hispanic Black or African American (Black) patients, patients of other races, and Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) patients compared with those in non-Hispanic White (White) patients, even after adjusting for age and underlying medical conditions.”
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Why though? I thought studies said people with Neanderthal genes have higher risks. That might explain the Hispanic patients, but not non-Hispanic African Americans having higher risk for complications.
Most likely lifestyle I.e. weight related.
I agree. I’m only handwaving here, but it’s most likely because they tend to be more unhealthy (in specific ways) than Caucasian Americans. Those groups are at higher risk of diabetes, heart disease and obesity (at least when exposed to the Standard American Diet) so it’s hardly surprising that there is an observed correlation with COVID-19 deaths. In fact it would be an earth-shattering discovery if there were no correlation at all.
Metabolic Syndrome is most noticeable in middle-aged people - that is, the main reason people in the prime of life (25-44 age group) develop chronic diseases is down to poor diet. Beyond age 60, that factor becomes less and less relevant.
I think it is a combination of poor underlying health AND low socio-economic status , i.e., no healthcare, marginalisation in health systems, lower education level (and hence use of anti-virus strategies), and so on.
Low socioeconomic status may certainly push someone in the direction of a worse-than-usual diet, but I was trying to pinpoint proximate cause. The causes of poor diet are many and complex, and can affect the upper classes and the educated just as readily. Low socioeconomic status in and of itself doesn’t necessarily make you unhealthy, although it may contribute to higher stress.
People in the 25-44 age group should not need healthcare. The fact that they do (and that nobody really finds this remarkable) says a lot about US attitudes to health.
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They also generally have jobs that require more human to human contact.
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I don’t know what ethnic group they were, very tough break for the kids. Both parents were overweight.
Good point by BD that more human contact could be a very significant factor.
BBC News - Coronavirus: ‘I just wish my parents were still here’
What did the super wealthy do when the pandemic hit? They hid themselves away on yachts or mansions. What did the upper middle class do? They worked from home. Their only risk being poor people delivering them food.
What could bus drivers, or cashiers at Wal-Mart, or zero hours workers do to avoid the virus?
Yes, but the article seems to be discussing death rates among those who are infected, not raw infection rates.
I was thinking about viral load.
In Africa mortality rates are relatively low. The general obesity and pre-existing health conditions with black people in America are obviously factors. Genetic factors don’t appear to play a part. It’s tricky, but I think the higher viral load of having contact with many infected people is likely to be the answer.
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No, but it can contribute, as in urban food deserts, and less access to gyms, etc. Lower income urban areas also tend to have higher levels of asthma though to be associated with environmental factors. In terms of risk of getting Covid-19 occupation also has a role. Underrepresented minorities may be overrepresented in front line roles such as retail and healthcare. I’m terms of severity, as BD mentioned, the level of initial exposure could affect the disease course.
I haven’t looked at that sequence website recently, but I presume there’s also multiple strains/variants kicking around at the moment due to random mutations. I wonder whether that might also play a role in severity/outcomes, if people are being “infected multiple times”.
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Yup, that sounds plausible. If you’re in a service industry you’re maybe more likely to come into contact with a particularly nasty strain?
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