Half my weekly group has had COVID

[Jd Smith1]

I've been online only for months. It's not as good as in person, but it's far better than nothing.

That's what I hear. Given that the players all work, their kids go to school, and we all go to stores and public places, it seemed pointless to stop gaming. Especially since the bowling leagues, competition shooting, and other hobby events are still going on.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I've been online only for months. It's not as good as in person, but it's far better than nothing.

It's much better than accidentally killing people too.

My DM lives with immunocompromised family, so we started online a few weeks before lockdown. I actually started up a second game, too, which is remarkably regular now that we don't have to drive anywhere. I was suuuuper skeptical about online game play, but it's won me over!

And also I am not risking killing my friend's family.

 

[Umbran]

Gaming in a time of influenza.

It isn't influenza.

In a given year, influenza kills a few tens of thousands of people (say, 20K to 60K or thereabouts) in the US. Covid-19 has killed 248K people so far in the US, and is still rolling strong.

That's what I hear. Given that the players all work, their kids go to school, and we all go to stores and public places, it seemed pointless to stop gaming. Especially since the bowling leagues, competition shooting, and other hobby events are still going on.

And we wonder why we are now picking up a million new cases a week.

 

[Jd Smith1]

It isn't influenza.

In a given year, influenza kills a few tens of thousands of people (say, 20K to 60K or thereabouts) in the US. Covid-19 has killed 248K people so far in the US, and is still rolling strong.

And we wonder why we are now picking up a million new cases a week.

Except that only a fraction of the Covid deaths are actually from COVID. In my burg alone we've had one suicide and numerous cases of long-term cancer billed as COVID deaths. With the Feds handing out money for COVID deaths, COVID deaths will appear. I spent much of my career overseeing governmental statistics, and I know a stat pad when I see one.

The key to a communicable disease is, as FEMA's emergency management courses teach (I had the full range) is to watch the homeless population. They live in the worst possible conditions, and a high percentage have pre-existing conditions. Yet the homeless populations are not significantly impacted by the current pandemic. If COVID was as bad as the media bills, my county would be burying homeless people in trenches. Instead, none of the area hospitals has had a full ICU in 2020.

As to the million cases a week, my sister-in-law signed up to be tested, then missed her appointment, and still received an official letter saying she tested positive. So long as emergency funding is being paid out, the statistics will achieve what it takes to get the funding.

If they charged local governments $20 for each case of COVID or COVID death, the pandemic would end the next day, regardless of what the disease was doing.

Never trust statistics which are tied to funding, or which are quoted by media outlets selling sensation. In all things, follow the money if you seek the truth.

I'm not saying that COVID doesn't exist, of course. But I know you can't hide from a virus, and I know that a loose cotton face mask won't help keep it contained.

In any case, my group is done with the business. It will be clear sailing once Turkey Day is over.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I'm not saying that COVID doesn't exist, of course. But I know you can't hide from a virus, and I know that a loose cotton face mask won't help keep it contained.

In any case, my group is done with the business. It will be clear sailing once Turkey Day is over.

That's why I don't put band-aids on my open wounds or refrigerate my food. How can a band-aid or a refrigerator door keep out germs???

Dude, wear a mask, keep people safe. That's the very least you can do as a member of the human community.

 

[Sacrosanct]

And this is exactly why the US is exponentially worse than every other country, and why my state just went into another lockdown starting today.

Good lord man, it's not just about you. And you have some serious false assumptions about a lot of things. False assumptions that can get others killed.

 

[Morrus]

We don't game in person or go to dojos during a pandemic. Also none of us have COVID. Probably not a coincidence.

I'll add that even if you aren't worried about the virus for yourself, you can still pass it on to vulnerable people.

And I'll also add that anybody using this forum to spread dangerous or false health advice will find their welcome short-lived.

Wear a mask. Social distance. Be safe.

 

[Umbran]

I'll add that even if you aren't worried about the virus for yourself, you can still pass it on to vulnerable people.

Yeah. The basic thought on this can be expressed as, "If you get covid-19, someone else dies."

If you get covid-19, broadly speaking you probably aren't going to the hospital. If you do go to the hospital, you will probably survive.

However, you are also probably going to give it to about 3 people - more if you are taking basically no precautions. Those three each give it to three more, and so on. At four generations of this, 81 people or more can trace their infections back to you. And, statistically, someone out of those 81 is probably going to die.

The statistics of this are about as relentless as gravity. The only question to answer is, knowing that, what do you do? Just ignore it because you don't know the people who die, or at least work to avoid spreading this stuff around?

 

[Umbran]

Except that only a fraction of the Covid deaths are actually from COVID.

I am sorry, but this is sophistry promulgated by people who don't know how to read medical reports, and desperately want to dismiss what's going on. Saying this is roughly like saying, "People don't die from smoking - they die from lung cancer."

Let us take an example to demonstrate - diabetes. Today, with modern medicine, a person can live many happy, productive, fulfilling decades, and weather many other health problems, while having diabetes.

However, Covid-19 and diabetes do not interact well at all. If a diabetic gets covid-19, chances are too high that, while in hospital for the covid-19, their diabetes will become massively uncontrolled, beyond the ability of doctors to manage, and they will crash and die. And the report on the death will list the fact that they had covid-19, and that they had a diabetic crash. Because doctors need to record everything that went on.

But, if they hadn't had covid, they'd have lived decades. Ergo, the covid is the real cause of death. Because diabetes would not have killed them today otherwise.

If you die in the middle of the road, one could say that you died of blunt force trauma to the head and internal bleeding. But that would be misleading, because the full story is that you got hit by a drunk driver.

Don't accept the misleading view.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I've always though of it like HIV or AIDS. It's not the virus that necessarily always kills you. It's what the virus does to your body that allows everything else to kill you