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!