952

New Covid wave has begun and masks should be worn again, scientists warn (www.independent.co.uk)

submitted 1 year ago by CollisionResistance@lemm.ee to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

875 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Chriskmee@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure every virus has killed people, from the cold, to flu, and of course covid. It feels like now the death rate for the latest variants of covid are pretty comparable to the flu, the virus has lost a lot of its killing power over time.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Death rates aren't a feeling. I want some hard numbers.

I feel like we just don't care if we live or die anymore.

[-] Chriskmee@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I know I've read reports about the latest variants being much less deadly. I did see one study recently which for patients presenting to hospital covid was a few percentage points more likely to result in death compared to hospitalized flu patients. There were a lot more covid patients though.

Found it:

death rates among people hospitalized for COVID-19 were 17% to 21% in 2020 vs 6% in this study, while death rates for those hospitalized for influenza were 3.8% in 2020 vs 3.7% in this study

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803749

So there is some data backing up the feelings I've gotten from everything I've been hearing and seeing.

[-] glingorfel@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure how severe an effect this would have on the numbers, but the death rate would non-negligibly go down after millions of the most vulnerable people died in the first wave. As well, the newer variants get more contagious and bypass immune responses more easily, and we're taking way fewer precautions as a society. so 6% is a lower percent but still an incredibly high number

[-] Chriskmee@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

I saw it as an evolutionary benefit to be less deadly. The way I'm seeing this, the virus's purpose in life is to spread, so a higher infection and contagious rate with less death rate is ideal from an evolution standpoint.