[AR] Re: ... Coronavirus

  • From: Rand Simberg <simberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 10:53:15 -0700

You're not factoring in demographics. What kind of passengers are on a cruise ship? We have no idea how many in South Korea or Germany were infected, and never even knew it. It's quite possible that half of the UK currently is, or was.

On 3/26/20 10:49 AM, Stefan Dobrev wrote:


    *Od: *"Rand Simberg" <simberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
    *Komu: *"arocket" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
    *Odoslané: *štvrtok, 26. marec 2020 16:26:43
    *Predmet: *[AR] Re: ... Coronavirus

...

     It would appear that the death rate from this bug is much less
    than one percent in a country with the facilities and drugs to
    treat it. It's likely about one in a thousand. This will become
    quickly apparent once large-scale testing occurs.

Ehm, take a look at the death rates at countries like South Korea and Germany, both of which are doing a very aggressive testing (i.e. the infection rate is not a large multiple of the detected cases).

It started low-ish in both of them, but creeps upwards (in S. Korea > 1.4% now, Germany at 0.5% but rising) - the delay between infection and the actual deaths is 2-3-4+ weeks, which skews the statistics quite a lot when the infections are rising sharp.

Diamond Princess is another case in point, where all disembarking passengers were tested. 712 infected, 10 deaths, 15 still (after many weeks) in intensive care, for a death rate of 1.4%, possibly rising further.

0.1% is a wishful thinking ... sadly, quite prevalent

Stefan




    On 3/26/20 6:09 AM, Jake Anderson (Redacted sender jake for DMARC)
    wrote:

        Ok I'll do it your way.
        Total value of the US stock market is 34 trillion.
        If one death is caused by a $10Million loss (citation needed)
        then at a fairly conservative 1million American deaths nets
        you 10 trillion in paper losses before you have equality.
        I mean this doesn't really seem plausible given the dow(used
        as a proxy for total market) has grown by ~25% in one year
        several times without spontaneously creating life, it doesn't
        seem all that plausible it going down by the same amount would
        lead to near a million deaths. It also seems like a million
        dead people would show up in the news.

        Further to that looking at data for death rates, 2002 had the
        dow shrink by 16% (after 3 consecutive -ve years, near 50%
        reduction) but had a lower death rate (8.5 per 100,000) than
        1999 where it again had a 25% growth (8.9)
        2008 had a 33% reduction in the dow, also correlated with the
        lowest death rate since the 50s of 8.1

        So I'm going to say the assertion that the stock market has
        any significant relation to deaths is wrong.

        https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/death-rate
        https://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart

        Indeed I haven't actually done the maths on it but it looks at
        first impressions that bear markets correlate with a reduction
        (or more rapid reduction) in the death rate. I won't swear to
        that, just how the graphs look to my eye.
        (S&P500 is similar to the dow, dow was just the first I grabbed)

        Am I thinking better now?


        On 26/3/20 9:19 pm, David Summers wrote:

            OK, well you're upset and not thinking very well. I hope
            you and yours get better soon, and wish you the best.

            Let's game this out. Currently, poor people are running
            out of food. Maybe they can stretch it for a few months.
            Corona virus will be here for 18 months even in the case
            of magic level vaccines. I'll point out here that we have
            vaccines for the flu, and we still lose 100,000 per year
            to it in the US alone. None of the poor will survive 18
            months without work. You can say we will just give them
            free food - OK, now you are enslaving the farmers, because
            they have to work for that food and because no one else is
            allowed to work, they can't get anything in return. In
            humans, this will lead to fewer farmers, etc. We cannot
            shut society down for long enough to stop the virus - even
            after 18 months, the virus will still be here.

            Given that, what should we do? That is the question, and
            it has little to do with stock options. Social distancing
            while still working is probably the best scenario. Maybe
            some jobs are now gone forever - bars, dance clubs, cruise
            ships, etc. But others can adapt (much larger spacing in
            restaurants, more isolation of older people, etc.)

            Don't assume that people that think differently than you
            are evil. That will just lead to war, which you won't win.
            (You think Trump is bad? Who do you think is elected after
            the intellectuals keep the working poor and middle class
            out of a job for 18 months? That is exactly how Hitler got
            elected.)

            Thanks!

            -David Summers


            On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 10:42 PM Jake Anderson
            <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
            <mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

                It's complicated because people don't typically enjoy
                being left to die in their fluids over the course of a
                few weeks to protect stock options. Despite assurances
                by those with said stock options that it's really
                better for society this way.

                I understand maths too, I also understand how at these
                levels you can make statistics say pretty much
                anything you want to so it's very important to see who
                is saying them. Further I know enough about the
                science of economics to know that it's half made up
                and a lot of the rest is guesswork. Not the best basis
                for making life and death predictions on IMO.

                If you want a purely rational economic argument then
                nobody over 60 with a net worth less than the likely
                cost of treatment should be treated. When you run out
                of money you die. Also insurance should be suspended
                for people unlikely to recover to preserve the funds
                for young healthy people and the owners of insurance
                companies.

                Why do we even have healthcare for people over 60?
                Their grand kids are typically grown enough not to
                need extended family daycare. Yet these people consume
                the majority of healthcare costs. They are just a
                burden on the economically viable young people.

                That's not the world I want to live in.


                On 26/3/20 6:29 pm, David Summers wrote:

                    You are under no obligation to spend any money to
                    save my life. Society is marginally better off if
                    you save my life spending $100k. Society is worse
                    off if you spend $100m to save my life.

                    Why is this complicated? I am not evil because I
                    understand math. The reality was there before the
                    math, the math merely describes it. Emotive
                    reasoning does not change reality.

                    On Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 9:24 PM Jake Anderson
                    <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                    <mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

                        I guess the equations are different in America
                        than the rest of the world.
                        So much freedom.

                        Should we kill you if I can prove it's good
                        for the economy too?

                        On 26/3/20 6:08 pm, David Summers wrote:

                            Speaking very roughly, for every $1-10 M
                            lost someone dies. They die because we
                            couldn't get the cancer treatment, or the
                            process wasn't as safe as it could be,
                            etc. So by wiping out a trillion dollars,
                            long term you have kill 100k to 1m people
                            unless we dig ourselves out.

                            Money is life people. Technology, even
                            medical technology, doesn't matter without
                            the money to deploy it. And money is not
                            something that can be arbitrarily created
                            or stolen. Theft and printing money
                            destroys it, rather than create it. Basic
                            economics.

                            On Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 8:58 PM Jake
                            Anderson <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                            <mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

                                Sorry dad, trumps stockmarket
                                portfolio is going down so you need to
                                die.

                                On 26/3/20 4:22 pm, roxanna Mason wrote:

                                    Today one week later:
                                    657 infections, 12 deaths, 43
                                    recovered.
                                    Were's the age vs deaths data? If
                                    it's disproportionately the
                                    elderly and health
                                    compromised then maybe its time to
                                    get back to work and let herd
                                    immunity do its job.
                                    
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6


                                    On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 3:23 PM
                                    Henry Spencer
                                    <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                                    <mailto:hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
                                    wrote:

                                        On Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 10:26
                                        AM ken mason
                                        <laserpro1234@xxxxxxxxx
                                        <mailto:laserpro1234@xxxxxxxxx>>
                                        wrote:
                                        >       Observation: One of
                                        the largest population
                                        >       country with the
                                        lowest infection rate is India -
                                        >       Over a billion people
                                        with only 244 infected 5
                                        >       deaths 20 received. Why?

                                        India and Pakistan are now
                                        both on lockdown, desperately
                                        hoping to flatten
                                        the peak enough that their
                                        limited medical resources can
                                        more-or-less
                                        cope.  It hasn't been done
                                        particularly skillfully in
                                        either country, and
                                        they've got big problems with
                                        very large numbers of poor
                                        people who don't
                                        have enough safety margin to
                                        handle being out of work for
                                        weeks, but
                                        they're trying.

                                        Henry








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