2022-23 Flu/covid/RSV season

[Sliver]

Ugh.

[Knut]

It is bad but please take anything Eric Feigl-Ding says with a giant grain of salt. He over-exaggerates everything. "Thermonuclear bad" ... who says that stuff.

[TorqueDog]

This thread should have been moved into the COVID-19 forum, there's a reason it exists.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Knut

It is bad but please take anything Eric Feigl-Ding says with a giant grain of salt. He over-exaggerates everything. "Thermonuclear bad" ... who says that stuff.

I get Eric Ding is one to take with a grain of salt, but anticipating another 1M dead (Bloomberg article he linked to) is pretty not good even if it's not "thermonuclear".

Almost 1 million people in China may die from Covid-19 as the government rapidly abandons pandemic curbs, according to a new study by researchers in Hong Kong.

In the absence of a mass vaccination booster campaign and other measures to reduce the impact of the virus, some 684 people per million would die in a nationwide reopening, according to the report, which was co-authored by Gabriel Leung, the former dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong.

That would amount to about 964,400 deaths, based on China’s population of 1.41 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/china-s-...hows-1.1859576

And this just as supply chains were starting to normalize, better go stock up on TP.

[Locke]

Man...I guess its a good thing I dont have to use Chinese Hospitals...

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Torture

I get Eric Ding is one to take with a grain of salt, but anticipating another 1M dead (Bloomberg article he linked to) is pretty not good even if it's not "thermonuclear".

A million is a big number but comparatively speaking that results in per capita deaths that are still fewer than Canada or the USA. So not bad, maybe?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

This thread should have been moved into the COVID-19 forum, there's a reason it exists.

I debated it, but with the lack of medications, and potential for China to suck up supply, I thought it might be helpful here.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Posting here because the covid forum is not very lively and it has implications for us...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1604748747640119296

China has abandoned covid zero, for better or worse. Lots of topics cover in this thread, like the issue of not very effective vaccines and high RT of Omicron.

Easy enough to say LOL China, but this could effect us

You post a tweet about potential for a million deaths and follow it with "Easy enough to say LOL China"...

Quality human response right there.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

A million is a big number but comparatively speaking that results in per capita deaths that are still fewer than Canada or the USA. So not bad, maybe?

That's a million people in just a couple of months - they're talking about now to January 2023, not the 2+ years that you're comparing to Canada/USA. And not some rando or Eric Ding, it's the former Dean of the University of Hong Kong's school of medicine that co-authored the paper predicting this.

Call me a softy but it's hard to call a million dead people "not bad".

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

You post a tweet about potential for a million deaths and follow it with "Easy enough to say LOL China"...

Quality human response right there.

What are you talking about, people do that all the time. I'm saying ignore at our peril. But OK, you always have a China angle, don't you?

[blankall]

This is the result of zero COVID policies. Eventually you gave to open up and with zero natural immunity in the population is pandemonium.

China not using proper vaccines sure doesn't help things.

[TorqueDog]

A million does sound like a lot, but consider that we're talking about a population so large that a person dies roughly every three seconds on average.

In the context of Canada, yeah, 1,000,000 deaths in a few months is devastating -- it takes roughly 3.5 years for that many people in Canada to die. In China, that occurs every 36 days as a norm. So in terms of understanding severity, how much is it elevating the death rate?

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

What are you talking about, people do that all the time. I'm saying ignore at our peril. But OK, you always have a China angle, don't you?

You basically wrote "I know it's easy to laugh at millions of Chinese dying, but this could affect our supply chain and markets, so let's be serious about that".

It's not a 'China angle'. It's a matter of decency and empathy. Perhaps you should reconsider the implications of how you chose to express yourself there.

Originally Posted by blankall

This is the result of zero COVID policies. Eventually you gave to open up and with zero natural immunity in the population is pandemonium.

China not using proper vaccines sure doesn't help things.

Vaccine efficacy and adoption is definitely going to make things worse than it could have been, but no population has natural immunity before the population gets infected. How many millions more would have died had covid been widespread during earlier variants such as Delta? Those lives saved are the result of Zero-COVID.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

You basically wrote "I know it's easy to laugh at millions of Chinese dying, but this could affect our supply chain and markets, so let's be serious about that".

Well either my post is poorly worded, for that I apologize, or you are misunderstanding my point. Either way, I was not in any way laughing at millions dying, I was pointing out that a typical reaction on the internet to China's covid polices has been "LOL, China", and you can't deny that. I didn't comment on that being a good reaction, just what it is. Anyway....moving on.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Well either my post is poorly worded, for that I apologize, or you are misunderstanding my point. Either way, I was not in any way laughing at millions dying, I was pointing out that a typical reaction on the internet to China's covid polices has been "LOL, China", and you can't deny that. I didn't comment on that being a good reaction, just what it is. Anyway....moving on.

Okay. I can accept your intent was not to condone that response. I don't think it's a typical reaction everywhere on the internet, but I accept that it unfortunately is in many contexts and that's where you were coming from with it.

[tvp2003]

Apologies if discussed previously -- how reliable is wastewater testing for things like the flu and RSV? I see they're tracking that data as well; while Covid and the Flu appear to be dropping (Covid especially), RSV is the opposite: https://covid-tracker.chi-csm.ca/

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Apologies if discussed previously -- how reliable is wastewater testing for things like the flu and RSV? I see they're tracking that data as well; while Covid and the Flu appear to be dropping (Covid especially), RSV is the opposite: https://covid-tracker.chi-csm.ca/

The last datapoint is a pretty significant drop. Hopefully a sign the trend has broken.

[Matata]

Originally Posted by Matata

One of the best ways to naturally boost your immune system is to take cold showers. For years I've watched colds and flu's ravage my household and every time I'd barely get sick. It sounds deranged to most, but for a daily investment of 1 minute and zero cost, nothing comes close.

Originally Posted by Sliver

lol, this guy

Mid-season update. I have been in a high exposure household all fall&winter, armed with nothing but cold showers. I haven't even gotten a sore throat. I've watched the sickly crumble and fall all around me, while I coast by with an ease that seems to defy all logic and reason. Go ahead and cough on my food, my ultra-chad white blood cells are going to make mincemeat of that wimpy little cold that has brought you to your knees.

Quit being a bunch of sickly, medicine-guzzling weaklings and start taking your cold showers. Would highly recommend the Wim Hof Method as an introductory course. It's also an incredible tool for testosterone and muscle recovery.

[IliketoPuck]

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Matata

Mid-season update. I have been in a high exposure household all fall&winter, armed with nothing but cold showers. I haven't even gotten a sore throat. I've watched the sickly crumble and fall all around me, while I coast by with an ease that seems to defy all logic and reason. Go ahead and cough on my food, my ultra-chad white blood cells are going to make mincemeat of that wimpy little cold that has brought you to your knees.

Quit being a bunch of sickly, medicine-guzzling weaklings and start taking your cold showers. Would highly recommend the Wim Hof Method as an introductory course. It's also an incredible tool for testosterone and muscle recovery.

Well I started working out earlier and as a result I don't have time for a coffee ahead of that. I get up, take a 2 minute cold shower and head to the gym. There's a lot of evidence that cold exposure is really god for you, and it wakes me up, to say the least! Do I think that this is a replacement for "modern medicine"? No. It's a replacement for my first coffee that I'm not willing to wake-up early enough to enjoy!

All that said...I generally feel great! I think t hat could be partly that cold shower. It could also be the delayed caffeine (there's also a lot of evidence that having caffeine after 90 minutes is better than first thing). I'm not sure, but it's actually a good routine for me now.