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Originally Posted by haertig

I never said that. I said the people who attended were there by their own choice. And I acknowledged that the majority of the high risk population has been vaccinated (so they are at low risk of being infected by the event attendees). Is it "reasonable" for you to put words in my mouth that I never said?

Sadly, the probability is that the vast majority of the people present were not immunized and going by the images of the crowds, very few were wearing masks. As for the high risk population? Given that B.1.1.7 is fast becoming the dominant COVID-19 infection in the USA and that it is more infectious especially for the younger demographic, the COVID-19 is a disease of old folks is no longer true, the 20-49 year old group is now driving the infections. The only consolation is that they are less likely to die than the older demographics.

Originally Posted by haertig

??? I don't understand that. Must be some kind of inside joke that I am not privy too. No matter. I'll just accept it as the mocking insult/put-down it was probably intended as, and move on. I'm sure a sharp-eyed moderator will delete it.

The phrase pull the other one, it's got bells generally means that someone is joking or, less likely, intentionally deceiving.

Originally Posted by haertig

Honestly, from reading your other posts, you appear to be a sharp guy. So it baffles me that you failed to understand what I said. Both above (talking about spreading things after an event) and here, talking about the flu. I said that NOW covid is similar to the flu. Not over all its history. I was talking about right now, current times, after the higher risk population has mostly been vaccinated.



You could not have missed that, here are my exact words:

"At this point in time, where we are with the vaccinations, I view covid as being no worse than the seasonal flu."

"At this time" ... "where we are with the vaccinations" ... you simply cannot have missed that. The only other way to interpret what you just said is to attribute it to willful misconstruing my words. Is that part of you being "reasonable"?

Sadly, the numbers for April 7th, 2021 says the USA had 2564 deaths from COVID-19, an uptick from the 7 day average of 992. Still even using the 992 7 day average and calling 30,000 the average number of flu deaths over that last 20 years, that says at the current rate, a single month will have as many deaths as a year of flu deaths.

To me, a disease this is still killing that many people per day is not on the same level as the flu. I will agree that perhaps in another 6 months or so when everyone who has had the opportunity to get vaccinated and takes advantage of that opportunity, COVID-19 will drop to the same level as flu. Sadly, that is not the current status.

Originally Posted by haertig

Interesting numbers. And factual as far as I know (I didn't research them for correctness). What is also interesting is that deaths from other causes - heart attacks, cancer, diabetes, etc, - all FELL during this same time period. A time period where people were staying in their homes, delaying medical treatment. Covid must have some healing properties too, huh?

For me, the main difference between Canada and the USA was that the various levels of the Canadian government did not try to downplay the seriousness of COVID-19 and both the government and people were more willing to put up with lockdowns and closures without rising up to their hind legs screaming that their rights were being abridged. Yes, there are COVIDiots in Canada but for the most part, they are a small minority that most people laugh at.

Originally Posted by haertig

Yes. I agree. You are wasting your time. You would waste less of it if you addressed what I actually said, not what you falsely twisted it into me saying.

My opinion (with that and a toonie, you can grab a Starbucks coffee (takeout only )) is that you were being very premature in proclaiming that the pandemic is a matter of historical interest only and totally wrong in trying to claim that governments had nothing to do with controlling the spread of the disease.

Of course we then have the EU which seems to be determined to place bureaucracy above saving lives. Stupid things like Pfizer having to inform the Belgian government for every package of vaccine to be exported and then having to wait until the Belgian government informs the European Commission and wait even longer until the European Commission says it's okay to do the export.