Rant away about COVID, the vaccine, etc.

Hidden means it doesn't show in the list of Active Topics. You can find it through All Topics and add it as a Favorite Topic.

People who don't want to see it under Active Topics can just block it from their personal view. I've done that for many topics that don't interest me.

runor, to your question, here is some information I found on excess mortality.

From the WHO:

"Excess mortality is defined as the difference in the total number of deaths in a crisis compared to those expected under normal conditions. COVID-19 excess mortality accounts for both the total number of deaths directly attributed to the virus as well as the indirect impact, such as disruption to essential health services or travel disruptions."

Most interestingly, the WHO have found that excess mortality in 2020 was significantly higher than the number of cases of Covid deaths. This most likely reflects the lack of medical care for those who died of other causes. I would expect that some of this is self-imposed; I recall reading reports last year indicating that a significant number of people were reluctant to go the hospital when they fell ill, resulting in unnecessary deaths for treatable conditions (heart attacks, strokes, etc.). But I'm sure there are also cases where people have died because they have been unable to get the medical care that they needed, despite trying. And I have no doubt that there will be more excess deaths in the future, for example people who were diagnosed with cancer months later than they otherwise would have been, due to delays in screenings and biopsies and operations.

Note that the WHO state that their information is incomplete, both due a lag factor in reporting and the fact that many underdeveloped countries simply have poor reporting systems.

The above is for 2020; the following is more recent information from a different source, "Our World in Data" from the University of Oxford. To make the graph legible, I've chosen to just include the U.S. and Canada.

This graph shows that during peak periods of the Covid pandemic, weekly mortality rates were as much as 45% - 50% higher in the U.S. than would be expected, and 20%-30% higher in Canada. Here again, it's stated that the figures may be inaccurate during to incomplete reporting and delays in reporting, so we can expect that the actual excess mortality will in the end be somewhat higher than what's shown here. And here again, this doesn't account for people who will unnecessarily die in the future due to delays in diagnosis and treatment during the pandemic period.

Unfortunately this source does not provide a global number, nor do they provide a cumulative number. Eyeballing the chart, it would appear that for the U.S., the average % increase in deaths for 2020 is about 30%.

What to me is most significant in this chart is to see how excess mortality has dropped in 2021, as vaccinations have become widely available in Canada and the U.S..

beesie,

Thank you for those clear graphic illustrations. I know some on here did not want info from WHO or the CDC for that matter but I believe they are reliable sources. Are they perfect 100% of the time? Of course not but I hope that as adults we understand that nothing is

Hey, we’re back on active topics! Thank you KBL for your efforts.

Hi All,

We aren't going to take this topic down, or lock it. We did end up taking it out of the Active Topics list, as we were concerned that new members would see this first, and perhaps get swayed away from joining the community due to it's "rant" aspect.

We sincerely understand the relevance of the Covid-19 conversation, as it deeply affects everyone. We will put it back into the active as long as it says informative and respectful. We know how personal this can become.

Many thanks,

The Mods

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-speed-...

https://rtmagazine.com/disorders-diseases/infectio...

These two articles were very interesting to read.

We'd like to share the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) information here on Ivermectin and Covid-19, in case it is helpful.

Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19

I was given a DNR/DNI to sign when covid broke out. Nobody here is going to be put me on a ventilator because with lung mets I'd likely never get off & what, they're going to give me a lung transplant? No ef way.

so I damned well hope that I serconverted enough & I'm still being careful by adding additional layers. Rationing of healthcare happens for all sorts of reasons. Let's not kid ourselves - some lives are more valuable than others

Breakthrough cases are occuring as a result of 2 things:

reduced serconversion (due to immune issues)

and

high circulating case counts <---- & this is the fault of people who are not taking the layers of precautions seriously. ALL the layers. Vax, mask, social distance, bubbles, avoid large gatherings, don't be around people with resp infections.

If there is little virus around, the risk is low. If there is tons. the risk is high. Allowing it to "rip through communities" results in deaths. People seem to have different opinions about how many and what kind of deaths are acceptable and what kind we should try to avoid.

oh & just a note about waning immunity from an Isreali study preprint : ".. people 60 years or older fully vaccinated in March 2021 ... were 1.7 (CI: [1.0, 2.7]) times more protected against severe COVID-19 compared to those who fully vaccinated in January 2021" https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/reports/vaccine-effi...

- immunity faded significantly if vaccinated 3 months earlier.. hence the whole booster shot thing

(age is also a risk factor for lowered immunity)