Who?

It's definitely a lot worse than the flu, but with all the things scientists and doctors are working on and the nation wide quarantine I think the 2020 US death total might be in the range of a bad flu year. I think doing nothing might have lead to a million or more Covid deaths this year in our country.

Well today apparently he admitted he was wrong and offered to go to the front lines to help. Just amazes me that people can be so stubborn in their views, especially someone like him who should be following the science.
Yesterday NY lost 680 people to this alone. Comparing it to the flu was never logical, but that should have been clear in Wuhan, then Italy, then weeks ago in NYC. People get their points of view fixed and can't admit mistakes until they are shamed into it. Even today he apologized for being "part of the chorus that got it wrong". There was almost no chorus among medical professionals, he was all but on an island, still can't admit the gravity of his mistake. He is a big voice (however bizarre that might be) and people listen to him.

Quote:

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Comparing it to the flu was never logical

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When yearly flu deaths are between 20,000 and 50,000 it actually was logical when he said this.

We'll see where it plays out.

oragator said:

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Well today apparently he admitted he was wrong and offered to go to the front lines to help. Just amazes me that people can be so stubborn in their views, especially someone like him who should be following the science.
Yesterday NY lost 680 people to this alone. Comparing it to the flu was never logical, but that should have been clear in Wuhan, then Italy, then weeks ago in NYC. People get their points of view fixed and can't admit mistakes until they are shamed into it. Even today he apologized for being "part of the chorus that got it wrong". There was almost no chorus among medical professionals, he was all but on an island, still can't admit the gravity of his mistake. He is a big voice (however bizarre that might be) and people listen to him.

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Didn't know he was still around. He should have stick to giving crappy sex advice on MTV.

annie88 said:

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Quote:

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Comparing it to the flu was never logical

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When yearly flu deaths are between 20,000 and 50,000 it actually was logical when he said this.

We'll see where it plays out.

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Even with stay-at-home order in majority of the most densely populated states, the death toll is now at now greater than 1000/day. It is not difficult to see how this plays out if the virus is left to spread freely.

Dr. Drew was wrong!? Damn, that throws a wrench in every shared Facebook video from the people who are still convinced this is some left-wing ploy!

Though now that Dr. Drew has said he was wrong, I'm sure those same people will be pointing out that he's just some media personality and never should be trusted.

As he said in his apology, numbers aren't where the comparison should be (though he got that wrong too, he claimed a death rate of .02 percent at one point). Based on every scientific observation this is far more dangerous than the flu. It has a higher death rate by many multiples, a higher transmission rate, and an exponentially higher hospitalization rate.

The flu comparison is like saying an F3 tornado is the same as a summer rain shower because no one died, when often the reason they didn't die was the early warning and precautions that were taken based on those warnings - tv alerts, storm sirens etc that had people getting to storm shelters or safe places in their houses. The warnings and precautions will be the reason the numbers stay low, if they do. Not because it's similar to flu, it's a dangerous comparison that minimizes the risk.

Jmo.

Observer said:

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annie88 said:

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Quote:

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Comparing it to the flu was never logical

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When yearly flu deaths are between 20,000 and 50,000 it actually was logical when he said this.

We'll see where it plays out.

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Even with stay-at-home order in majority of the most densely populated states, the death toll is now at now greater than 1000/day. It is not difficult to see how this plays out if the virus is left to spread freely.

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Yep.

I can't wait until this is over and the whole "this is the flu" crowd cites the final numbers and disregards the measures they are currently railing against as "ridiculous"....

Sid Farkas said:

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America was fundamentally unprepared for this. The FDA and CDC cant even keep a consistent detailed story for more than a week before recalibrating

I cant see blaming Dr Drew or anyone really about making wrong predictions. We're in uncharted territory. We'll be better at it next time

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He was the only medical voice that had an audience that was saying what he was saying.

He was alone.

Lotsa people on a certain network were wrong and downplayed this thing or labeled it as an election year hoax or ploy as long as possible.

PJYoung said:

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Sid Farkas said:

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America was fundamentally unprepared for this. The FDA and CDC cant even keep a consistent detailed story for more than a week before recalibrating

I cant see blaming Dr Drew or anyone really about making wrong predictions. We're in uncharted territory. We'll be better at it next time

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He was the only medical voice that had an audience that was saying what he was saying.

He was alone.

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Yeah, when you have that kind of audience and your stance is going to be "it's no big deal", then you have a larger responsibility to actually be right.

Ditto for a guy like Clay Travis. Obviously not a medical doctor, but he used his platform to spew crap that he had no clue on.

People shouldn't forget how much people like this cater to the demo they know supports them. Tell your people what you know they want to hear.

annie88 said:

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Quote:

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Comparing it to the flu was never logical

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When yearly flu deaths are between 20,000 and 50,000 it actually was logical when he said this.

We'll see where it plays out.

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When all the experts were saying it is not like the flu, it is absolutely not logical to say this. Saying "I don't know" is less harmful than saying something that was even false when he said it.

As someone who plays a doctor on TV, he should have repeated what more qualified people said, directed people to the experts or not said anything.

"No one knew it could be this bad" is 100% false. He should have known better.

this is horrible

suggest you edit

Thomas Ford 91 said:

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Really, if you rely on Dr. Drew for any advice without being an actual patient we'd all be better off if C19 kills you.

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You are literally the most insane person on a board full of insane people. Congrats. Hope all your doomsaying turns out the same as your Trump/Russia predictions.

Thomas Ford 91 said:

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Really, if you rely on Dr. Drew for any advice without being an actual patient we'd all be better off if C19 kills you.

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Well, looks like someone had there HateRaid today. Yikes! Little strong, don't you think?

and yet you wish them to be afflicted by a horrible disease

what's wrong with you

Proposition Joe said:

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Ditto for a guy like Clay Travis. Obviously not a medical doctor, but he used his platform to spew crap that he had no clue on.

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Sounds like you're describing this guy as well.....

Lots of people were wrong early but by mid march or earlier there was plenty of information for a doctor to know better

So some of you are saying you wouldnt have been equally freaked out if you had real time dashboards, daily press briefings, and 24/7 news coverage during the roughly 15 week peak of 2017-2018 flu season?

In the U.S.
49 million est. Infections
959,000 hospitalizations
80,000 deaths

Go back to January 2018 news coverage. Although much more sparse. Midway through flu season CDC and infectious disease experts were talking about the 1918 Spanish Flu in reference to the current season. ERs were overflowing. Many had not seen it that bad in their careers. They were really worried because it was so bad and we were only half way through it.

I realize we dont have a vaccine or theraflu for Covid 19. This is new and highly contagious. But live feeding 900k hospitalizations and 80k deaths would have been pretty dang scary over a 4 month period of time.

When people were comparing it to flu they were talking about a really bad season we just had a couple years ago.

I get that we have closed down huge parts of our economy just in hopes that we get somewhere close to the death numbers of a peak flu season, but flu season is a pretty lethal killer here and overseas. We just dont get it dashboarded for us and track it in real time.

It seems one of the realizations that caught them by surprise at a certain point with COVID was all the asymptomatic carriers. All the people walking around spreading it who didn't know they were infected.

That allowed COVID to be significantly more contagious than a flu and thus capable of a much higher spike in patient flow on healthcare systems, and then add on top of that the lack of a vaccine, which meant the medical staff were at higher risk of getting infected themselves...that Has been my own Cliff Notes take on why the 'just like the flu' hope was crushed.

Why do the Politics board people keep winding up here?