I do think media coverage has been sensationalist and alarmist, @TatinG . Media stories had people so scared here that they weren’t going to the hospital for non virus accidents and illnesses that were very serious. Stories never seem to highlight the statistically average victim-a nursing home resident in his 80s with substantial comorbidity, often including dementia. I am certain they are instead scouring the nation searching for a beautiful blonde teenager with COVID they can feature in the next story.
Be happy you don’t live in Illinois…which was already experiencing significant financial problems prior to covid-19. Our governor released the 5-stage plan to normalcy, here is stage 5:
If this plan had been applied to HIV, Illinois would have been in Stage 4 for 20+ years. I do realize HIV isn’t a perfect analogy.
Perhaps Illinois will be the first state to pave the bankruptcy path.
@roycroftmom, here are the statistics for Maine, the state with the the oldest per capita population in the country:
Cumulative Confirmed COVID-19 Cases by Age (Maine)
AGE PERCENTAGE
<20 2.4%
20s 11.1%
30s 10.9%
40s 14.6%
50s 19.6%
60s 16.5%
70s 13.0%
80s 12.0%
My age range has the highest percentage of cases. So yes, I’m nervous. It’s not just 85-year-olds.
Why are folks surprised at the age of folks shown on the news. This happened even before Covid, right? Or is that only here? Is it a rural thing?
Everyone gets a listing for having died. Those who pay for it get an obituary - any age. Those who pass away before their time for many different reasons often get their own separate story.
Regardless, I’ve seen several older folks shown on the news as well as the younger ones. Personally, I’m glad someone is remembering their lives. After my mom/dad passed away (the last couple of years), I’ve started reading every obituary in our newspaper. I can’t tell you why other than it gives me a sense of offering them some respect. It’s interesting seeing what different people have done throughout their lives.
Yes, @MaineLonghorn , many young people get COVID, but few are hospitalized and even fewer die. The articles are generally about deaths, not the teens who had a sore throat and were fine. More than half of fatal NJ victims were in nursing homes; the average fatality age in Mass was 82. If the articles are focused on the deceased, they could be far more representative.
@roycroftmom, as one of my Facebook friends shared, I don’t buy the “At least you didn’t die” argument. And as I mentioned, people in their 50s are the HIGHEST percentage affected in Maine. I don’t consider myself young, but I’m not old. They are finding that people are going to probably suffer long-term consequences from this illness. I think this aspect should be emphasized more.
Thank you! I offered the 30 plus 20 percent and he said that was more than fair and in fact said he wanted to lower the 20 percent on larger orders which I declined 
so I think that’s good.
It’s nearly all produce and dairy, as I can mail order the rest and/or already have it, e.g. a case of pasta we’d ordered in January.
Btw I’m not surprised that for you, a hopeful volunteer (and thank you!!), it seemed worse to be paid a pittance than to do it for free. Apparently that’s a well known phenomenon which I first read about in one of Dan Ariely’s books.
Sixty percent of the deaths in New Jersey are under 80, so, just doing some back of the envelope math, and NO. the average victim is not “in his eighties”.
In MA deaths by age group:
0-19 0
20-29 3
30-39 11
40-49 37
50-59 148
60-69 424
70-79 950
80+ 2639
Average age of death is 82
Source: MA Department of Public Health Covid 19 Dashboard for May 5
My issue with the media has been on full display this week - the meat “shortage”. Stop inciting people to go hoard meat that they don’t need. My local stores have had no issues with meat. The media has been going on and on about shortages and guess what? People with carts of meat during my last shopping trip. Cashier said it just annoys the staff to see such greed and that the stores don’t react quickly enough in setting limits,
On the topic of age of victims. As someone who was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer decades before the usual age, without any health or genetic issues, with a chance of such a thing happening at well under 1% - I worry for everyone.
And I think people give lip service when they talk about how “tragic” these deaths are - it is so different when you actually know a victim. Not so easy to put economy above life. I get it - we do need to reopen. I just think the lives of the elderly deserve as much respect as any other life.
Yesterday’s NY Times reported most NJ victims were in nursing homes. Today’s Times has an article that N.Y. and NJ appear to be undercounting their COVID deaths by thousands.
Sears AC guy just left. We have a warranty that expires this month, so had to do the check now (we always need Freon or whatever it is they use these days).
He did have a mask, and wore it the entire time. No gloves though, and he touched the door handles and stair railing at least. As soon as he left I used 409 on all of those areas. I hope it was enough.
Yes. But there are hundreds of confirmed cases at that pork processing plant, ALL asymptomatic. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/04/us/triumph-foods-outbreak-missouri/index.html
That’s not what is making people nervous. It’s the deaths and serious illness that makes people nervous. And I do think that there is a tendency of the media and some officials to not focus on those numbers on an age basis for fear that it will have people make bad choices, which I do understand.
There are also people out there whose thinking this has weirdly skewed. This includes those protesting masks ( come on!) and then people I see on a FB Group that we’re upset that UPMC in Pittsburgh announced that they were returning to more normal operations because they have only a tiny percentage of COVID patients and it may not be proving as deadly as they had feared. The hospital emphasized it was fully prepared to gear back up when necessary. I don’t get their being “ so mad and upset” about this as several people posted.
H (restaurant manager) reports there are some hiccups (shortages) in the supply chain. Carry out bags. Beef. He is a bit concerned about continuing availability of plastic carry out containers. Time will tell.
I did my weekly grocery store run around 6:30 last night. Turns out dinner time on Cinco de Mayo is a good time to grocery shop. No wait at Trader Joe’s. Very few people in Jewel. The staff at both stores were extra friendly & trying to banter with masks on.
I am cross-posting this because I think it’s very important to be aware of the numerous treatment studies underway. I think treatment, combined with much better data on risk factors, is the way forward in the near term.
This one is on ivermectin, an oral antiparasitic that is cheap and available worldwide. It included >700 treated patients and >700 controls.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3580524
There are multiple trials underway, with a new one at U Kentucky https://www.lanereport.com/125385/2020/05/uk-launches-clinical-trial-to-evaluate-new-treatments-for-covid-19/, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04374019?term=ivermectin&cond=COVID&draw=2&rank=7
Maine Longhorn, it is clear that SOME survivors will have long-term consequences of varying degrees of severity, but it still appears that the great majority of cases are mild. It is too early to tell what percentage of people who were hospitalized for COVID-19 will have lasting effects. It seems highly unlikely that people who recover at home with mild symptoms – or go about their business with no symptoms – are going to see severe consequences going forward. No one knows, of course, but no need to assume the worst either.
That being said, obviously there are many people other than the very elderly and seriously ill who are dying from this, and of course we shouldn’t be writing off the elderly or those with pre-existing conditions either. Sure, some of the victims may have had comorbidities with diseases that would have shortly ended their lives anyway (or even died with COVID rather than of it), but many
others could have lived full lives for many more years-decades, even.
That doesn’t mean it is callous to think that appropriate measures might differ based on the populations affected most severely. If the serious cases and deaths overwhelmingly come from certain groups, it may be possible to lessen restrictions for some while maintaining protections for those most at risk.
In PA the hospitalization rates are:
https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Cases.aspx
Age - %
0-29 2%
30-49 5%
50-64 10%
65-79 20%
80+ 19%
Since that doesn’t add up anywhere near to 100%, I’m assuming the % means those with a positive test in that age range.
25-49 is the age range with the most cases in our state and that one does say it might not add up to 100% due to rounding. One out of 20 of those would be hospitalized. One out of 10 and one out of 5 once one goes up in range.
Of course, many are asymptomatic or don’t get tested for whatever reason, but those are still odds I’m not willing to take. I read about too much that can go wrong - lasting effects for the heart, lungs, kidneys, and clotting system - even among mild cases to be willing to be a guinea pig at this point.
I’ve also had a low odds, “how did you get that???,” brain tumor and just recently had side effects from the Shingles vaccine that some get, some don’t, reminding me that there’s no particular reason I won’t draw the short stick in a random trial. It’s seemingly random for too many cases.
YMMV
Perhaps that is who they are testing more of? (At least that’s how it is in my county.) As a result, I focus more on local deaths, hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
fwiw: zero deaths so far under age 25 in our county, pop 3.5M.
Adding to PA data from the same site:
2029 of the 3012 deaths they have listed were in nursing homes or similar. That’s roughly 67% (meaning 33% weren’t).
They don’t list an average age that I see.
And it’s way too early to know how many have lasting effects or how long those effects last. For myself, that’s my biggest concern. I live with lasting effects from the brain tumor (and aging in general). I don’t want to add any more, esp if they are avoidable.
Creekland, I am not sure how to interpret those numbers. I expect you are right, but it doesn’t seem likely that less than 20% of COVID patients over 80 would be hospitalized-as a precautionary measure at least, around here those over 80 are almost always hospitalized unless truly asymptomatic, as their age alone makes them so fragile.