How many people do you know who have had Corona Virus?

[Colleen27]

We shutdown for three months. We have mask mandates in some stores. We mask mandates in some cities. We still have a lot of restaurants closed as well as movie theaters, concerts, and live sporting events. We also have better treatment options for it now too. Maybe it’s all this stuff that is slowing its spread and making it less deadly.

Changing demographics are also playing a role. More than a third of our deaths were in nursing homes. Over 40% were among people 80+. But my state still has a statistical zero for fatalities under 19 (I believe 2 children have died so far, but that's vanishingly small when calculated as a percentage) and only .01% have been among patients 20 to 29. Those are the groups where the majority of new cases are now being found, and the groups that were most fully isolated early on when the schools were closed and most workplaces closed. They were under-represented in the case counts early and are over-represented now, and that's changing the fatality rates dramatically.

We've been discussing this on the 'non-US COVID' thread. I pointed out that unfortunately as the US dominates the world media, it's really difficult to discuss or question without being considered 'ultra right wing', or a 'covidiot', etc. But there are a lot of media reports now questioning the actions taken, and the death rates.

Daily deaths from cancer are often 30-40x more than from COVID, for example, and excess deaths from Alzheimers rose dramatically in many countries recently (perhaps fueled by forced isolation?) Other countries with no forced isolation still are seeing a sharp drop in deaths, even if cases rose.

I know that it is hard for Americans to see outside their current situation, but there is a lot of interesting discussion going on now about the severity of the illness etc. The general trend in Europe is cases have risen again, but deaths are very much flat.

That's happening here in Michigan too. March and April were brutal in the Detroit area, with 1200 daily cases at peak and thousands of deaths. Now we're bouncing between 500 and 800 cases most days, way up from the lockdown low of 100ish, but hospitalizations and deaths are flat. But as you said, it is hard to have a discussion about anything even remotely positive or encouraging here right now because of the political polarization around the pandemic.

 

[aggiedog]

Add another one to my list. A friend of dd's that I ran into today. She had it in June.

 

[TB'sWidow]

5 one death a sweet lady who made our masks for all of us at work when this began, husband got it an he had a mild case. She fought for four weeks before succumbing to the virus

 

[aggiedog]

I'm not sure what's going on today, but add 4 more, grandparents, mom, and son. Grandfather owns the gas station I use. His wife died last week.

 

[scoutie]

I know eight. A few family members (very mild symptoms), and a few of my kids' friends' family members (asymptomatic).

 

[fortwildernessishome]

2 Covid - both recovered.

And for a little perspective:
7 cancer - 5 have since died.
4 mental health suicides.
8 heart attacks - 6 have since died.
3 natural deaths.
4 vehicular accidents - all past away.
1 drowning.

This just seems crazy to me, but maybe I am not understanding. Have these 23 deaths all occurred in the last 6 months? The only way your "perspective" works is if these deaths have happened this year if your comparing them to the 2 covid cases!

I am 53 and in my entire life I know
-12 cancer-4 died
-2 suicide
-3 heart attacks-all 3 died
-20+ natural deaths
-1 car accident-he passed away
-I don't know anyone that has drowned

Those deaths are over my lifetime. I truly can't imagine losing 23 people in 6 months in the way you have described, seems especially gruesome.

 

[lovin'fl]

So I said zero because the question was do you 'know anyone' but it seems the question has been taken to mean do you 'know OF anyone'. In that case, yes I 'know OF' several. Never met them but are acquainted with someone close to them. Like DD's college friend and her whole family had it in July and recovered. Our nephew's girlfriend's grandfather passed away from it months ago. DH's old coworker's brother passed away from it months ago as well. But nobody I know personally has had it...again, knock wood.

 

[Tallis]

So I said zero because the question was do you 'know anyone' but it seems the question has been taken to mean do you 'know OF anyone'.

If we are moving to "know of" my number jumps from dozens to hundreds.

Pretty much everyone in my sister's circle of friends has had it. She gets COVID tracers warnings from the health department all the time, and got three in one day earlier this month. (Florida)

One of her ex-friends is a perfect example of why it keeps spreading. This woman (63 years old! Not a kid) knew she had tested positive and supposed to be quarantining. She had only cold like symptoms and decided to put everyone else at risk because she was "bored." She attended a charity even with over 100 people present. There were three different photos of her at the event, cheek to cheek with people, smiling away, without even a mask on, that was required at the event. She took hers off after awhile.

AND, to make matters worse, she came up to the food line and asked to help. She wanted to handle everyone's food, knowing full well she had COVID-19. Her help wasn't accepted with the food, but her behavior did cause an outbreak on the island. Needless to say, nobody wants anything to do with her anymore.

This makes me wonder how many people that we are not aware of are doing the same thing. They feel okay, so they do what they want. Selfish, and may be considered criminal. I'm not sure if she had had anyone report her or if there were any consequences.

 

[aggiedog]

Nope. All of mine are actually people I know. Small town.

Tallis, I think that going out, especially to a large gathering, when you are positive and are supposed to quarantine IS criminal and should be treated as such.

 

[mikehn]

My 82 year old dad tested positive for the anitbody. Neither he nor I have a clue how that happened.

 

[AuntieMe3]

So far 10 and unfortunately numbers in our area are still going up so there may be more. These were all recent too, 2 from back in July but the rest have been within the last couple weeks.

Adding 4 more people....a friends family just all had positive tests. One is pretty sick(first to test positive), the others seem mild so far...hope it stays that way for them.

 

[AKLover]

Well to date about 20 to 25 if I were to sit and count them all out.

Two of those being myself & fiancé, a few of those resulting in hospitalizations, and 1 of those resulting in a death.

 

[robinb]

Two, both recovered.

 

[ChrisFL]

I've only known a couple.

Statistically though, in the U.S. we're basically about 1 in every 50 people who tested positive for it...and there's probably a lot more who had it and never had symptoms.

So, again statistically, if you walk past 50 people, one of them has or had COVID

 

[Imzadi]

One. She died the third week after the Coronavirus had hit NYC/NJ.

I was finally able to see my doctor for a "routine" visit a few weeks ago, he said that he treated about 20 patients with COVID before the hospital system he is a part, decided to deal with COVID cases directly in the hospitals, as private practices had to closed down for a few months.

 

[Colleen27]

This just seems crazy to me, but maybe I am not understanding. Have these 23 deaths all occurred in the last 6 months? The only way your "perspective" works is if these deaths have happened this year if your comparing them to the 2 covid cases!

I am 53 and in my entire life I know
-12 cancer-4 died
-2 suicide
-3 heart attacks-all 3 died
-20+ natural deaths
-1 car accident-he passed away
-I don't know anyone that has drowned

Those deaths are over my lifetime. I truly can't imagine losing 23 people in 6 months in the way you have described, seems especially gruesome.

Part of it is going to depend on the size of your social circle, your extended family, your office/workplace. If you know more people, you'll eventually know more people who have died.

Those in my social circles have been fortunate through the pandemic; the Detroit area, where I'm from, has been pretty hard hit with covid but I only know one person who died of it, my husband's elderly uncle. In the same time frame, a regular substitute teacher at my daughter's school and her husband died in a car accident, two friends lost fathers to cancer, one of my mom's cousins had a fatal heart attack, a priest we were close to died in a boating accident, and two of my friends from "back in the day" lost their battles with addiction. I really don't think of myself as a particularly social person or one with a huge network of friends, family and acquaintances - I come from a huge extended family on my mother's side and I'm pretty active in the small town I live in, but I'm not a social butterfly and I'm self-employed and work mainly from home. Someone more social would likely have an even larger circle and therefore know more people who have died in any period of time.

 

[Boopuff]

Zero.
We live in Colorado. But I have family in the Chicago suburbs.
We also flew to Disney World end of July. Oldest DD works retail. College is online. DH works from home. Younger kids doing online school until end of September when their high school will re evaluate.

Oddly, our lives are similar. I live in Colorado and have family in Chicago Suburbs. My cousin lives in Cook Co., and has immune issues. She hasn't left her house in months. She can't believe that here in CO we're moving around with masks.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

One of the things people don't think through when they see that report from CDC that says 6% of COVID-19 deaths didn't have another underlying condition is that ... there are a lot of underlying conditions.

According to the CDC, about 42% of Americans are obese; that's an underlying condition by itself.

Plus, I don't really understand how to use that information. Like, how does that change anything? 94% of people who died of COVID had another illness... ok, and?? How does that change my behavior? Even if I don't have any underlying condition, I know people who do, right? So, what? To heck with them?

 

[onesam319]

Zero!

 

[AppleDumpling]

Six, including one friend who died in April.