re: Alabama Board Coronavirus Thread

The problem though is the Gov of GA and in other states are touting numbers of new cases are declining to justify reopening but based on the information coming out those numbers are being skewed.

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A representative for the Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed Monday that data on its website listing the total number of tests performed includes both antibody and viral tests for the novel coronavirus. The two tests are not the same. Antibody tests tell signs of previous infections while viral tests identify those who are currently infected.

“You’re putting apples and oranges together and calling them oranges,” said Dr. Harry J. Heiman, a clinical associate professor at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health. “You’re mixing two different tests. ...All that does is over-inflate the testing number.

“If anything, it skews those numbers to make it appear like the level of disease relative to testing is actually dropping much more dramatically than it is.”
On its website that explains the data it reports, Georgia health officials do not indicate antibody testing is included in the total testing count. Nor did officials say that some labs or medical facilities were not reporting negative tests. Issues like these “continue to erode the credibility that the Department of Public Health has as an honest broker of reporting test results,” Heiman said. “What we have is a continuing process of having to make adaptations to the reporting because of logistical challenges — some with the Department of Public Health, but some with partners that are doing testing — without any transparency about changes that are being made,” he said. “This is not the first time, not the second time, not the third but the fifth or sixth time that you have failed to appropriately communicate what you are doing.”

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So it is an issue in GA when numbers that are being used to depict the virus are being falsely presented to the public. This is not a political call out from inside the state this being reported nationally now from multiple sources that are being validated by medical professionals. The numbers were not accurate at all when the two tests were being combined as they look at two totally different things and now requiring negative test results to show decreases. No matter how you spin that the numbers that the public were being told were a lie.

Now in the end it may not matter on how it affects the hospitals and deaths but the data being told to the public has been a flat out lie based on all the information coming out now regarding GA.

There are also reports of people with gun shot wounds being reported as COVID deaths.

I am not concerned about people that have died with COVID as I am about those that have died from COVID.

Also there is a pattern as to who what where and why there is an uproar at certain states but since this is a Politics Free Edition I will leave that up to you guys to figure that out.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to all you folks. Hope everyone is well out there.

I don’t wish to go back into lockdown but I also think it’s damn foolish to manipulate the data deliberately or be too ignorant to use the data you are provided properly. It’s dangerous and disingenuous. I think most of us want politics kept out of scientific data reporting that is critical to proper decisions being made. It’s pretty evident now that we will destroy the economy and people’s lives if we stay locked down. But to throw everything open and ignore the data produced and the consequences instead of making necessary adjustments to keep a lid on things is criminal. There must balance and expertise must be valued and heeded.

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Happy Memorial Day weekend to all you folks. Hope everyone is well out there.

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Ditto

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NYC also said they added a few thousand deaths to Covid of people that were suspected to have it but weren’t confirmed.

Then you had Colorado that actually revised their total death count by 200-300 because those deaths weren’t really because of Covid. The one started it off was a person who overdosed but since he had it, he was listed as a death.

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Yes. There needs to be careful research over time to adjust the death counts and have more precise info on them. More precise information the better. No one should disagree with that.

However, when that happens, you will certainly see the overall death numbers increase unless the state officials in Texas and Georgia are cooking the numbers like with the testing.

There will be a number subtracted where there was a positive test but Covid was probably not the primary cause of death. However, there will be even more added since the vast majority of deaths still only count people who died in hospitals/care facilities.


All heavily affected areas in the US and around the first world-- like NYC from your example -- have had large excesses of unexplained "at home" deaths in addition to every one so far attributed to Covid. NYC, from your example, has had over five thousand excess deaths after known suicides ect etc have been removed! https://www.cdc.gov/

Areas of the country/world without huge outbreaks have not seen similar explosions of excess deaths simple because they enacted extreme shutdown measures.


It would be shocking to find that a lot (certainly not all) of "at home" deaths so far uncounted were not from people dying at home of Covid during the height of the cases in hard hit areas.


It's common sense that a lot of the excess deaths were people who didn't go to hospitals when being told not to especially since many monitored hospital deaths follow the pattern of seeming fairly OK then taking a very sudden bad turn.

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There will be a number subtracted where there was a positive test but Covid was probably not the primary cause of death. However, there will be even more added since the vast majority of deaths still only count people who died in hospitals/care facilities.

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You don’t know this for sure. You’re speculating

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There will be a number subtracted where there was a positive test but Covid was probably not the primary cause of death. However, there will be even more added since the vast majority of deaths still only count people who died in hospitals/care facilities.

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You don’t know this for sure. You’re speculating

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How then can you explain away all of those excess deaths since:

1. They correlate so precisely to the exact locations and weeks where there were explosions of Covid cases?

2. The same excess deaths have not been found where there were extreme shutdowns without high amounts Covid cases?

I'm certainly not saying that ALL of the excess of deaths are Covid. That makes no sense.


However, it also makes no sense that many of them are not Covid since they are only occurring in hot spots for large outbreaks at the exact time people were being told to stay at home and treat it.

I'm also not saying there is some shocking number of these deaths but simply that they will certainly outnumber the likewise small number that need to subtracted.



I will certainly be open to any explanation for why a decent amount of these excess deaths are likely not due to Covid even though they only occur in Covid hot spots and show no correlation to shutdown measures.

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I’m just saying that you should wait and see before speculating and trying to pass it off as a certainty.

There’s a large number of suicides and people who aren’t getting treatment for issues because they are scared of catching covid.

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I agree that there were certainly people afraid to go to the hospital, especially in places like NYC considering the disaster areas hospitals were for some weeks. (However, that brings up a different point since the phenomena of so many excess deaths due to not seeking care has only seemed to happen in the hardest hit Covid areas regardless of how strict the shutdowns were.)



To me, "speculation" would be fixing a percentage like 40% or 60% or 80% of the excess deaths are Covid without lots more research.


However, to say that nearly 100% (like the worst fearmongers may) OR completely ignoring it like it's only 0% (as people just trying to win some political talking point are doing) is just plain ridiculous.


My point was simply that, considering the high number of unattributed excess deaths (over 5k just in NYC) in some places, even taking the absolute lowest reasonable estimate will still add more than the errors that should be subtracted.

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‘A Year’s Worth of Suicide Attempts in the Last Four Weeks’: California Doctor Calls for End to Lockdown

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“We’ve never seen numbers like this, in such a short period of time,” Dr. Mike deBoisblanc, head of trauma at John Muir Medical Center, told local station ABC7. “I mean, we’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.” He added that he thinks “it’s time” to end the state shutdown.

“I think, originally, this was put in place to flatten the curve and to make sure hospitals have the resources to take care of COVID patients,” he explained. “We have the current resources to do that and our other community health is suffering.”

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It's so nice for businesses to be open again.
I was able to go to my gym and workout and shop a couple of good stores in the same shopping center for new gym shoes and a new cloth shower curtain liner this morning.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! God bless our military veterans and their loved ones... and all o' y'all too!