^ I was just going to say something similar.

People keep comparing this to war. Don’t get me wrong, we can all agree that all death is tragic.

But most normal people can also agree that the death of hundreds of thousands of people on their teens and twenties is a much different level of tragedy compared to the death of hundreds of thousands of elderly, many of whom are in nursing homes.

I’m talking numbers here. The number of deaths move very smoothly year after year, 2% at most, Covid made it go up to 10%, 20%, a variation never seen in recorded history in several countries.

None of those people would have died this year, but within 2, 5, 10 or 20 years. That’s why we talk about “excess deaths”. Brazil had 200k extra deaths in 2020, the UK 120k, the US 400k, Italy 100k. Demographically speaking, that’s a huge phenomenon.

Regarding age, there are plenty of people in the 50’s or 60’s dying. Today a Brazilian Senator, 58 y/o, passed despite having the very best treatment available.

War deaths are hardly all teenagers unless you intentionally limit your data to combat casualties. Most deaths in wars are civilians and include all ages and sexes—all demographics with the most vulnerable usually taking the worst hits. In WW II, starvation and disease wiped out huge numbers of European and east Asian seniors.

In Florida, mask wearing has been universal, at least in South Florida. I have never, not even once, seen a maskless person since late Feb last year in any store or indoor facility outside of a bar or restaurant. It was a bit of a culture shock when I went to Austin over Christmas and saw a few maskless people wandering grocery stores. For example, when Texas lifted their mask mandate, locals were up in arms at the stores that still required masks. Florida lifted their mask mandate way back in early October but 100% of stores still required them, and still do to this day. Moral of the story, masks work. Basically Florida proves when mask wearing is universal, lockdowns are totally unnecessary.

^^^ Thanks for sharing. I did notice back in late December that most people that I encountered in the Treasure Coast had masks on.

Up in Lady Lake and The Villages though, you'll usually get the shit eye from everyone when you are wearing your mask, indoors or out.

According to the CDC, COVID killed 7,351 people aged 18 - 40 in the U.S. as of March 17, 2021. According to Wikipedia, there have been 6,996 U.S. military casualties due to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. The Iraq War lasted 8 years, and the Afghanistan War is entering its 20th year, versus one year of COVID.

Iheart, do you have data for people between 40-60? That age bracket is 40-20 year below the US life expectancy.

Regardless how people few about Covid, if you are Bolsonaro type or a person panicking about the pandemic, the fact is, demographically speaking, it's the biggest event in the West since WWII or in most countries, since 19th century. It completely deformed the death curve for 2020 and in Brazil, even the 2021 one is already compromised.

Here is the source that shows U.S. deaths by age brackets: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/c...ekly/index.htm

It has killed nearly 100,000 people in the 40 - 64 age bracket. Obviously, that is skewed to the 50+ side, but the disease has killed nearly 15,000 people aged 40 - 49 year old alone. So COVID-19 is likely a top 5 cause of death for that group, if not top 3.

Covid has highlighted just how unhealthy of a populous we are. The vast majority of Covid deaths and intubations are those with co-morbities; i.e. obesity and related illnesses.

What we can safely state is all those extra 400k deaths are people that wouldn't have died in 2020 otherwise. They could have died in 2021 or 2023 or 2030, but not in 2020. But then, we're all up to die at any moment, so it's nonsensical to dismiss Covid as something minor.

And aside all deaths it pushed the world's best medical systems to their limits.

That sounds like there's something to blame us for. The fact is that we greatly outlive our primitive ancestors and perhaps the programming of our genes. I know it's popular to attach guilt and shaming to illness, but it mystifies me why. Yes, our bodies are fragile things, prone to all sorts of dysfunction, some of which we could avoid by behaving differently, but is it morally wrong if we don't? To whom do we owe different behavior?

Using the past tense may be wishful thinking. Yesterday's news told us that they are transferring people from overcrowded Parisian hospitals to places outside (and perhaps distant from) the city NOW.

We can thank modern medicine for most of that and improved quality of life; we don't have to worry about parasites in drinking water. Someone in poor health can be sustained with adequate healthcare for years. That still doesn't negate the fact that there are a lot of unhealthy people be it genetics or lifestyle. It's probably why Covid had such an impact on mortality rates in the country.

Indeed. There are 140,000 doctors, 5,200 ICU beds, in São Paulo state and this week the first patient died waiting for an ICU bed, while things are deteriorating quickly every passing day.

A very eerie alert came up yesterday, as health state secretaries informed the supply of medicines used for intubation will ran out within 10-20 days in the whole country.

That's fascinating and ironic since I suspect the medicine in question would be tubocurarine, a muscle relaxant, and a derivative of curare, the stuff that Amazonian natives famously dipped their arrow and spear heads in to make them lethal.

Maybe the health secretary should speak to the folks out in Amazonia?

The U.S.'s mortality rates are actually slightly below the global average (confirmed cases only). We're unique because the virus infected so much of our population.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/a...de-for-animals

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/16/97540...-from-covid-19

How many 18-40 year olds are there in the US? How many troops were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan?

Yep. It should really highlight the obesity problem, and the fact that being fat is a health problem and not a “different body type”.

It’s also a moral failing in a country that has publicly funded healthcare, like the UK. A person’s unhealthy habits, poor diet and lack of exercise impose a cost (financial and otherwise) on other people.

Once the lockdowns were lifted I knew the temporarily stress-free experience of driving on the major streets and freeways of LA was over.

But sheez, since the first counties in the region more recently moved out of the state's purple tier, traffic has really come back with a vengeance.

Being "fat" is really a result of the human physiology which is designed to store energy (i.e. fat = 9 cal/gm) in times of abundant food in order to preserve life in times of scarcity. The problem is simply that we've managed to totally banish food scarcity in developed countries. You can call that a problem if you wish, that is.

You should note that in the animal kingdom there are many species that store massive quantities of fat as an essential part of their existence, usually before hibernating and eating very little for extensive periods. This boom/bust cycle, to which their physiology and genetics is adapted, does not shorten their lives. It may not have shortened ours either back when most of us did experience periodic food shortages as during winter when fields were fallow and after we'd eaten whatever could be stored.

You take a very moralistic attitude toward health issues as you seem to to everything. "Do as I do or you are B_A_D."

Last June I cruised across the Bay Bridge on a Saturday morning (it was like this video in which traffic is also bizarrely light):

Hint: Westbound, stay in the left lane

• Video Link

Right. There is no food scarcity for >90% of the human population, nor is physical effort required for most jobs, so discipline and exercise for the sake of exercise are necessary.

Human (or any other mammal) physiology will also lead to atrophy of muscle without use, because muscle is metabolically expensive. That doesn’t mean that is isn’t both healthier and more aesthetically pleasing to have an adequate amount of muscle mass.

Being fat is not “ok”, it is unhealthy and a product of poor habits.

I've pointed out that here in Chicago traffic is not only back, but people seem more aggressive than ever. It's stressful.

Could be a silver lining. People are stressed driving and gas prices are going crazy, maybe some will opt for transit.

I am 5'10 and weigh about 175 pounds. My doctor told me I had a "fatty liver" and that I needed to work out more and eat better.


Being fat is an issue. No way around it.

i've got nothing scientific, but the brown line rolls right by our kitchen windows.

my casual passenger counts of inbound and outbound rush hour trains are definitely trending upward.

still a FAR cry from what i typically noticed pre-pandemic, but now more like 5-10 people per car instead of 0-2 during the tightest of the lockdowns last spring.

I'm not one to usually complain... but what I witnessed today in the area around and near Penn Station in NYC was sad. The area has really gone downhill. Skid Row vibes and it was sad to see some shops closed.

:(

Some of which closed because of this panic.

Its also sad to see that the city is doing little to help the homeless in the area. I mean when you have folks pissing in public, and little kids are looking at that, like what I witnessed today... that's not good.

That is not the "welcome to new york" message as folks arrive via Penn Station. It shouldn't be.

today, for the first time in a year, both of my young children went to school for an entire fucking day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My son has been going to a pre-school since January, which has been wonderful, but my daughter was still doing remote learning until today. She attended her first ever day of in-person kindergarten!

Today with 3,100 deaths in Brazil, 1,000 deaths in São Paulo state. Completely out of control.

As of Monday, 15.4% of the metro New Orleans population has been fully vaccinated. Things are progressing along nicely on the vaccine front here in New Orleans. https://ldh.la.gov/coronavirus/

Within a month, if the US continues to vaccinate the same amount of people (around 4% of US every week), and if we include people under 18 (who are 55x less likely to be hospitalized or die from Covid than someone who is 70+), we will have 66% of our population vaccinated or near vaccinated. That is incredible. Here in Chicago we have seen a slight uptick in cases due mainly to youth sports and other places mainly used by young people and even the health department lady (Arwady) said that she is hopeful that this won't translate into an increase in deaths.


Things are changing and its wonderful!

Yep, and the rate of vaccination is accelerating as we have more supply and we finally are getting the logistics figured out.

I DO hope that some of the "I don't want the vaccine" hold outs will wise up and realize that hundreds of millions of people have already gotten the vaccine, it's safe, and go ahead and get it themselves.

Starting today 3/24, everybody aged 16+ in the state of Arizona is eligible for a covid vaccine.

the last i heard, IL was proposing 4/12 for everyone 16+.

so we're still 3 weeks out from really putting a lid on this bullshit.

I agree.

Now that being said, what's with the joggers who jog in the street, even though there's a sidewalk? Even before the current pandemic, in my neighborhood, there are the joggers who for some reason don't use the sidewalk, even though there's no one on the sidewalk (like at 6:30 am) so I have to watch out for them while driving through the residential part of my neighborhood on my way to work.

It's easier to jog on flat surfaces. And streets paved with asphalt are softer than concrete sidewalks.

I do this.

I run at a decent pace and sidewalks are generally too uneven, especially if there are curbs at every intersection. In a real city, vehicle traffic shouldn’t going that fast anyway and I’m not going to risk twisting an ankle or dodging strollers running on the sidewalk.

The worst are adults that take bikes on the sidewalk. If you can’t handle riding in traffic, don’t ride a bike.

And to bring the conversation back to Covid - I miss London’s deserted streets in April last year. They need to ban automobiles from a lot of roads permanently, especially the Regent’s Park Outer Circle.

I don't drive fast through my residential neighborhood, and the maximum speed is 25 mph.

Depending on the time of year, it's often still dark when I'm driving to work, and the street I drive down has those acorn-type streetlamps mounted on the shorter posts, which honestly don't really light the street too well (I feel they're more ornamental and light the sidewalk better than they do the street). Often the jogger(s) aren't wearing bright or reflective clothing. They do get over when they see my headlights coming from behind, but in the daytime sometimes they don't get over; I assume it's the ones who jog with their earbuds in, which I think is silly, because I think you should be completely aware of your surroundings while you jog.

And I also hate it when cyclists ride on the sidewalk.

Traffic in Austin seems to be significantly picking up.

Tons of people outside on the trails and walking the neighborhoods with this SoCal weather Texas gets for approximately 26 days.

I jog in the street when it's convenient, but would never do that at night in any city. I also try not to bike after dark. People really underestimate how hard it is for drivers to see people in the street when it's dark out.

I generally run contraflow so that I can see oncoming traffic even if I’m listening to music. I can also promise that you will not see me jogging so early in the morning that it’s still dark out. Those people are psychopaths.

You just keep making it clearer that you want the world redesigned for your pleasure and convenience. Lock up the old people so the bars and gyms can reopen, ban cars from the streets where you want to jog or ride your bike but certainly not from those where you need to drive.

Fortunately, the world has different priorities.

Jogging early in the morning is quite common where I live; I see it as being akin to people who go to the gym at 5am. My former boss used to do that, because she would be in at work at 6:30am. My start time at work is 7am, and I often get to work by 6:50am. I only live 8 miles away from my job, so I leave for work at 6:30am, and like I said, depending on the time of year, it's still dark at 6:30am, and by then, there are quite a number of joggers and dog walkers out there. I've seen people walking their dogs even at 5am.

That's a CA thing. West Coast is insanely early to rise, early to bed. It always messes me up every time I'm there. Maybe it's the more body conscious/less drinking environment?

I remember a bunch of friends going out to dinner at 10 PM once, and my buddy from CA looked at us like we had two heads. Gotta hit the gym at 4 AM, apparently. Our office, pre-pandemic, wasn't really full till 10 AM.

https://blog.bayareametro.gov/posts/...-be-far-behind

On the other hand:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/ar...e-16047792.php

It's also a legacy from when the economy on the west coast was largely made up of "branches" of older companies on the east coast that operated from 9 to 5. So the west coasters had to adapt their hours (to some degree) to be able to talk to their colleagues in New York, Boston, etc.

i moved all of the off-topic kids walking to school discussion to its own thread: https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=246337