Here comes the second wave (Covid)

It is true that cases are increasing in certain places, but that is also due to the fact that testing has significantly ramped up. More testing equals more cases. Simple math. A fact the media conveniently leaves out. They also tend to leave out that the percentage of positive results coming back from the increased testing is also lower. Fear mongering at its finest.

In Georgia the number of people currently hospitalized has been going down for awhile now. New cases have slanted up and down over the past couple weeks, but the positive percentage compared to total tests has been dropping.

In the end, the best thing to do is what should have been done the first time. Power through it. Protect those most vulnerable like the old and those with some medical conditions and let the rest of us go on with life. We never should have wrecked the economy and sent millions into unemployment for something for something that is not real deadly to 99% of the population. I think kids have a higher chance of dying from the regular flu than they do from Covid. This whole thing has been one worldwide bad decision after another.

I am not sure we can even call what is happening a second wave. What I have read on the news is not at all alarmist, just factual. Some states have cases going up and some have cases going down. Hospitalization rates have the same thing. This is not a surprise. Even the experts have said that going forward most interventions will be on a more regional or local level as the rates of infection will vary by location.

We do need to keep our borders closed IMO and people should wear masks in public IMO to keep the rates of transmission lower. I am not suggesting masks for kids playing soccer, but it would not surprise me if they have to wear them in school in some areas of the country.

Overall the country's rate of new cases has been flat to slightly down the last two weeks. In the last seven days most days new infections have been around 20,000. Considering many of these are asymptomatic or mild cases it is not a bad sign. We are testing more. What we really need to do to TRULY understand what is going on is to have measure ACTIVE cases and we totally failed there. Many states aren't reporting that at all GEORGIA included. Total failure. Active cases will give a better idea of where we actually stand. Without that the next best is hospitalizations.

I don't think masks are necessary, and I think the close it down people are using it as a virtue signaling and call-out thing which doesn't help matters any more than the people that refuse to wear them for a political reason.  People just need to leave each other alone and quit virtue signaling.


That being said, I wear a mask when I have to work in close quarters, or in a store where I know I will be in close quarters with people (grocery store, etc...).  I don't do it because I think it helps much at all because I really don't think it does that much if you are not actively sick.  I do it as a nicety to the other people that are genuinely scared still.

The studies are starting to come out showing that asymptomatic positive people are way less likely to be spreading this virus than actively sick one.  That makes logical and scientific sense as well since the majority of people getting it are getting it from virus load in water vapor molecules from breathing and coughing sick individuals.  If you aren't coughing, sneezing, etc... you aren't going to be spreading as much virus and asymptomatic people also have lower virus load to begin with. 

Kudos to you for being reasonable and understanding that doing it even if you don't believe in it is still the right thing to do. I have a few reasons for doing it. You are absolutely right that an asymptomatic individual is less likely to spread it, however you don't have to be sick to sneeze or cough. Sometimes you just get a tickle in your throat or in you nose and those things happen. Allergy suffers especially have this issue. The percentage of people with allergies in the ATL area is HUGE!!! So asymptomatic plus a sneeze or cough and there you go. Secondly I wear it to protect myself. After all this is an issue of viral load. Small amounts of virus getting in to your body are unlikely to make a healthy person very sick. While cloth masks do not protect very well they are better than nothing even if you filter a small percentage of the virus.

One person in a mask or 10 people in a mask is not that helpful. Everyone wearing a mask would drop the rates of transmission significantly. It is all about percentages. I would rather wear a mask and go around the area doing my thing than sit at home. I am not afraid of the virus for me or my kids, but when I walk past the 80 year old lady at the store I hope that my sacrifice of wearing a mask will save her life even if I don't know her.

New CDC slogan:

Wear a mask - it's better than getting peed on!

Unfortunately, in my community (South of Atlanta), we have a spike in cases and hospitalizations-as in many cases it’s the poor and elderly getting hit.

I'm blown away by people saying oh it probably won't kill you when nobody actually wants to suffer through having it either. The flu probably won't kill me, but I certainly want to avoid getting it. Same thought should go for covid, you can do what you can to avoid getting it and still not be as concerned about it killing you than any other thing in the world today.

Recommendations should have been put into place and businesses should have created their own rules and guidelines which they expect customers to follow. We should have nearly boarded up nursing homes and required that all staff at those facilities to wear masks and gloves. I've seen figures where nearly 50% of deaths in the NE US (possibly country-wide) have been in nursing homes. Massive failure of policy, massive.

Exactly! Most people who do not have underlying conditions or immunity issues will have no or minor symptoms. I've probably had it as I was in an area right when it was shut down as a hotspot. 5 days after I returned home from this area, I had about 18 hours where I felt bad but quickly recovered.

The Albany area got hit really hard, particularly in relation to the population. My understanding is that its a primarily minority and poor area. I don't know if the spread of the virus in that area was an effect of people in the area not taking isolation seriously or some other factors. The virus has a particular affinity for targeting for obesity (and especially unchecked diabetes) and existing cardiopulmonary complications afflicted.

People need to be cognizant of their own (and their family) vulnerability to the virus.

SARS-8 US Cases
Ebola-11 US Cases
Flu-Vaccine to mitigate, and any amount of death is a terrible loss

And the roads argument is laughable.

www.healthline.com/health-news/how-deadly-is-the-coronavirus-compared-to-past-outbreaks

You clearly have your mind made up and we'll move on.

So are nursing homes fair game now? This is some Logan's Run level shizat.

Sorry, granny.. we had a good run

There really is no point in talking about this. We stopped the economy to stop the virus and that was possibly the worst thing we could have done if we wanted people to believe it was dangerous.

Some people don't have compassion. Some of the compassionate have compassion fatigue and just want their lives back. And the rest of us are just talking at a wall at this point.

Either loads more deaths are coming, or they are not. I guess my only question, and maybe just a question to myself, is how many dead is enough to convince people? Quarter million? Half million? More?