The world has surpassed 5 million Covid deaths. How has this number caused so much disruption and concern?

So we should wait until it’s around 50% or something to be worried?

In today’s world, when someone wants to make something into a narrative, they will use whatever gives the best support for that narrative. If you say “5 million people have died!!” it sounds horrible. If you say “Only 0.07% of people die from this disease” it doesn’t sound so bad.

It’s not the 5 million that’s (necessarily, primarily) worrisome, it’s (been) the highly likely possibility that that number could have been ten or hundredfold bigger, that’s (fortunately) kept people in the important positions responsible and (pro-)active.
And luckily also a major part of the world’s population.

@Mimishu1995 I’m not saying that at all. I’m just wondering how 0.07% can cause such panic. What is the mechanism? Any thoughts?

@2davidc8 It’s still 5 millions people. 5. MILLIONS! This is humans we are talking about, not some overpopulated pests that need to be controlled.

And also like @rebbel said, it could get worse.

5 million human beings dead of a disease in less than 2 years. Any way you want to represent that number, it is still horrible.

@2davidc8: “I’m not saying that at all. I’m just wondering how 0.07% can cause such panic. What is the mechanism? Any thoughts?”

You are questioning the need for the panic due to the fact that “only” 0.07% of the world’s population has died from Covid. Yet, that very panic is the reason why it’s “only” 0.07%. You might want to rethink the question.

It’s almost like asking why there are lifeguards at public pools and beaches since drowning rates are so low at these places.

it’s the distribution. 5 million people that die in 5 million traffic accidents, that is considered normal because it happens randomly all over the globe.

5 million people dying from the same virus in a year isn’t random, and it catches attention.

There is a lot of money to be made and a lot of power to be gained by stoking the flames of panic. Drug companies, unions, politicians, and many others are profiting immensely from this pandemic. Push the narrative that if you get Covid, you die. Push the narrative that if you don’t do as your told, you’re killing children. Hell we still don’t know how many of those 5 million died with covid vs. died of covid. If you want to control the population, keep them scared and believing you are their only hope. Figures lie and liars figure, use the most terrifying numbers to increase the panic. Maybe all this is warranted, maybe not. We’ll never really know. Winston Churchill stated “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” You can make changes to a society during a crisis that you’d never get through in normal times. Make the crisis worse and make it last longer to make more massive changes.

@Jaxk maybe that’s what’s happening in the US. But what about countries like India, where the Delta strand was found and basically saw a massacre after that? What about countries like my country, which is unable to produce vaccines and has to beg negotiate with other countries for vaccines? People are really dying here!

The US isn’t the only country on this planet, and not everyone can afford to produce propaganda to make people more panicked than they should be.

@Jaxk Are you scared?

@Mimishu1995 – I can’t speak to Vietnam as I don’t have the data or personal experience. However,the rules to control a population remain true. From reading your past comments, I gleen that the government already has significant control over what you see and hear. I don’t see how they would not exert that control.

@rebbel – No.

@Jaxk “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” You can make changes to a society during a crisis that you’d never get through in normal times.

9/11 and the rise of the security state being a perfect example of that.

To answer the question, COVID has proven to be more deadly and more long-lasting than any widespread disease in recent American history, so there’s a reason it’s gotten more attention (in various forms). Not saying that justifies all of the response, but that is why.

When all this started, I remember the news were saying fatality rates would be about 4%.
I scoffed at that, because it just seemed they pulled that number out of their asses. It was just too horrific to take seriously.

@Demosthenes: “9/11 and the rise of the security state being a perfect example of that.”

Perfect example. It’s odd how those who feel that wearing a mask = tyranny happen to be the same people who had no problem handing over actual rights and spending trillion$ on bombing people because something like 0.0000004 of the world’s population was killed 9/11/2001.

@Jaxk That’s nice to hear.
What makes you think that others, or I, are/were scared?
I had no idea, before I asked, if you were scared.
How do/did you know about other people’s feelings, at the time (if they were scared, yes or no)?

Not trying to be an asshole here, I sincerely want to understand.

@Mimishu1995 My heart goes out to you. There was a report on the local (US) news last week about vaccinating the animals in the local zoo. Granted, it is a different type of COVID vaccine, but surely this shouldn’t be the first priority.

@rebbel – “How do/did you know about other people’s feelings, at the time?”
Simple, I talk with them.

<—-Not scared.

@Jaxk Ah, okay, gotcha.
Like I did too.
What I found, in the people that I talked to, about the virus, and the pandemic, was that some were scared, but the majority rather was alerted, and going to be careful.
I’m not in America, but in Europe, the Netherlands (could make a difference, I suppose).
But I guess we can both agree that we both aren’t really running a bureau of statistics.
So it’s hard to say, without data, whether the majority of the world population was scared, ignorant, alerted, or being ostrich about it.

I haven’t read the answers above.

The number of hospitalizations and deaths would be much much higher if we were doing nothing to control the virus.

Early on you were more likely to die than today. When you get sick matters! Also, just look at when cases are out of control, hospitals are overrun and other health needs are set aside and delayed. We just had it going on here in Orlando. No elective surgeries, emergencies being rerouted to other hospitals.
Wake up!

Averages don’t tell the whole story. Parts of the world controlled COVID well. Look at when COVID is exploding in a specific area and what that is like.

Damn. I seriously dislike most people and I think 5 million people is a hell of a lot, and definitely enough to take pause at. Ya’ll some cynical mother fuckers.

Answer: Because humans, especially in peacetime, and especially, modern comfortable humans, don’t have much experience with the deaths of many younger people around them, and get especially preoccupied with human deaths near them, the possibility of their own death, etc.

(The main irony to me is about the relative lack of attention given to the apparent threat from the human-caused Worldwide Extinction Crisis and Climate Change crisis, which threaten to kill perhaps all humans.)

But also, the points made by others above about how COVID is not through killing people, and that it’s in spite of our best efforts, are very well-taken. Also the impact is not just deaths it causes but others who die from side-effects of the impact on health care systems, and the people with lasting or permanent effects of the disease who are still alive, and the other impacts on everyone of the response to the disease, etc. Reducing it to the percent fraction of total world humans so far, is a very reductive statistic to look at.

Here are some quick relative statistics from other well-known historical human death events, which might be interesting to compare:

Black Plague (1347 – 1351) deaths: estimated 25,000,000 – 50,000,000 (~30–60% of European population)

The Seven Years War (1748 – 1756) deaths: estimated over 850,000 (~0.73% of European population)

US Civil War (1861 – 1865) deaths: about 750,000 (2.5% US population)

World War I deaths: 20,000,000 (1.12% world population), (and 21,000,000 wounded) (United States deaths: 418,500 (~0.4%))

Flu (H1N1) pandemic of 1918 deaths: at least 50,000,000. (2.7% world population)

World War II deaths: about 70,000,000 to 85,000,000 (3.0 to 3.7%), (US deaths 419,400, 0.32%)

9/11 deaths: 2,977 – some people maintain “the world changed forever”, we need security theater, etc

“WaR on tErRoR” deaths: estimated 897,000 to 929,000

Bird flu (H5N1 2003–2007) deaths: 349 (declared a pandemic by US CDC)

Swine flu ((H1N1) 2009–2010 pandemic) deaths: estimated 284,000 (18,449 lab-confirmed) News media was also saying the world changed forever about this.

@Zaku With swine flu 2009 the media (and many people) were hysterical initially, but then it fairly quickly died down when it was observed to be taking a typical flu seasonal pattern, had lower death rate than feared, and we developed the vaccine for it.

I thought the swine flu hysteria was totally overplayed, even though it does seem to be more deadly than our typical flus, especially in children. Some people were completely irrational, I’m not sure if they were listening to different news than me, or I just don’t panic as easily.

Covid is way more serious and more relentless.

Schools still close for big outbreaks of flu. It’s not just COVID.

@JLeslie Yes, I was annoyed enough to remember and still be annoyed by them pushing the “world changed forever” line again. And I even caught Swine Flu… it sucked, but I didn’t much fear for my life.

I remain concerned about COVID, particularly the possibility of further variants.

@Jaxk I agree that my government isn’t being totally honest. But they are actually putting effort into making the situation less serious than it might be. They put out news and propaganda telling people how great the country is doing and what people should do to keep themselves safe. They even stopped reporting on death cases months ago. I only know about how serious things really are by looking through Google and not the TV.

When the pandemic started in 2020, people were so panicked they pushed out so many fake news about dead people no one knew what to believe. The government had to crack down on social media to stop people from getting panicked.

Making the situation more serious than it is would actually do more harm than good for the government. If people were panicked, they would think the government did a horrible job, and they would lose trust in the government. Soon you would have a ton of conspiracy theorists and rebels everywhere all wanting to burn the government to the ground. And do you think the government would like that?

Twice that many die every single year of starvation, and barely get noticed.

The covid pandemic affects a much wider range of people, and the efforts to curb the spread has caused economic failures in every country.

I find it so interesting that Conservatives pull the fear card out at any mention of vaccination or masking, logical ways to control the pandemic, but are quite happy to run around being afraid of immigrant rapists and criminals, Blacks, gay marrieds, and women who want reproductive freedom. I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice but I for one am tired of being called a coward.

@YARNLADY ”…the efforts to curb the spread has caused economic failures in every country.”

The pandemic caused the economic downturn, not the efforts to curb the spread. If we had decided to pretend like everything is just fine, plenty of people would have stayed home, taken their kids out of school, stopped travel, vacations, and other discretionary purchases, etc. without the government telling them to.

It’s the people trying to prolong the pandemic that are hurting the economy the most.

The concern and the disruption didn’t arise from the number 5 million. The number of casualties wasn’t known and the worry was that without drastic action the number of dying might have exceeded the resources available to deal with them. This could have resulted in very ugly and unacceptable scenes at our hospitals and care homes.

The “suffering” of wearing a mask or having to social distance doesn’t really compare with the suffering of being unable to breathe.

Also with the unacceptable scenes at hospitals and care homes are the pile ups of bodies at morgues, funeral homes and cemeteries. No more room at the Inn, so to speak.

Because some human beings around the world are compassionate enough to feel sorry for that 0.07 percent that to you the OP is nothing.

Also, the specific cause of death. Some humans around the world may feel they don’t want to die of the same. Especially if they can do something to prevent it.

@product I’m not questioning the need for panic. I’m asking what has led to the panic?

Oh, and I believe that the 5 million Covid deaths figure is too low. The actual figure is probably much higher, because I think that the deaths in places like Russia, North Korea, and remote parts of the world are not counted.

@2davidc8 you don’t feel anything when people die?

@2davidc8: “I’m not questioning the need for panic. I’m asking what has led to the panic?”

What I’m suggesting is that what you might be interpreting as “panic” might actually be nothing but measures to keep a virus from doing far more damage. Having a lifeguard at a public pool isn’t a result of panic. It’s a reasonable response to a legitimate risk that comes when people and water mix.

I’m sure there are people who are irrationally concerned about Covid (I know some). But for the most part, people seem to be taking reasonable measures to keep themselves and their neighbors from drowning.

And yes – there is plenty to critique about the response of institutions and who has shouldered the majority of risk, etc. But if a virus emerges that is quite contagious and has a habit of taking out a non-trivial amount of people, it’s probably reasonable for people to be take measures (or “panic”) to try to eliminate/reduce the problem.

Also, @2davidc8 – maybe you could elaborate on your concern about this “panic”. What are you referring to specifically? Are you seeing literal panic attacks by large amounts of people in your country? Are we talking about hyperventilation? Or is this more a description of public/institution actions that you are labeling as “panic”?

@Mimishu1995 It’s not that. I’m looking at 5M Covid deaths relative to other causes of death. I think that more than 5M worldwide die from alcohol-related causes. Why isn’t there the same degree of concern over that?
@product Maybe panic is too strong of a word. I mean that Covid, masks, vaccinations, etc. is in the news ALL the time, including now, of course, Fluther! Sorry, I had to bring it up, didn’t I?

@2davidc8: “I mean that Covid, masks, vaccinations, etc. is in the news ALL the time”

Now I understand what you’re asking. What you’re really asking is:

Why does corporate media talk about Covid all the time?

This is a very different question, and one that has an answer that is quite uncontroversial. I don’t consume corporate media, but I will take your word for it that a large percentage of time is spent trying to scare or dramatize Covid into a narrative that will get people to watch more corporate media. The sole purpose of these companies is to make money. And Covid might have proven to be a good, safe topic to match certain demographics with advertisers.

@2davidc8 Covid is contagious! It affects daily life, both interacting with strangers and loved ones. Deaths from alcoholism, heart disease, cancer, we don’t catch those just being near someone. They also build up over time, COVID can means dying in days.

We do take action for other causes of death. Colonoscopies, HPV vaccination, blood tests. Susan Komen practically has all women thinking they are going to catch cancer she was so effective in getting breast cancer into the media on a fairly constant basis, and definitely as a topic women were talking about.

COVID deaths would easily be much much higher if we were doing nothing to curb the case spread. Part of curbing is keeping the information in front of people.

Media partly is trying to help, and mostly cares about ratings and money. Fear and anger are additive to a lot of people from what I can tell.

I just read: Still, 62 percent of vaccinated adults said news of the variant had prompted them to continue masking in public places, and 61 percent said they avoided large gatherings because of the variant.

By contrast, 37 percent of unvaccinated adults said the variant had prompted them to wear masks, and 40 percent said they steered clear of crowds.

Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1275815

Is that hysterics? Or, just letting you know indeed stay away from the unmasked in stores, they likely are sloppy about COVID in every way.

@2davidc8 I think I understand what you are really talking about too. Your question isn’t really “why are people panicked when only %0.07 of the population die of Covid”, but more like “why are people panicked over Covid but not over something else which also claims as much live?’

Now that is a better question that is worth discussing. I can’t comment on the media because people in the US seem to believe Covid is blown out of proportion, while I’m experiencing the exact opposite where I live. But I think we can all agree that Covid is a new thing. Scientists are barely making sense of the virus until now, and we are expected to see new strands of the virus in unpredictable time. Even vaccines aren’t guarantee to 100% prevent you from catching it. A lot about Covid is still unknown, and there are still so many things people don’t agree on. And when people are dying from a virus that is so mysterious and still being researched on by scientists, of course they will be worried.

Now let’s go back to your example of alcohol. We know everything thay we need to know about it. We know how it kills, we know how to prevent it from killing, we know drinking too much is bad… There is no mystery surrounding it, and people just don’t disagree about it as much as Covid. So when people die, we know why they die, and we know how to prevent another death. When you know how to prevent something from happening, it is much less scary.

It also has a lot to do with the speed of the death too. Death by alcohol doesn’t result in people dying en mass in a span of 2 years like Covid. If Covid is given as much time to kill as alcohol, it could certainly win.

And I also agree with a lot of people here. “Panic” is a rather strong word. It’s more like concerned and alerted. I think that is what most rational people are feeling now.

Thanks to everybody for contributing to the discussion.

You have to keep in mind that if no vaccines or precautions were taken that the number would’ve been way larger, and not only would covid numbers be a problem but also people who would’ve died because there was no room in the hospitals. A lot more nurses and doctors would’ve died too. Hospitals would’ve shut down resulting in more deaths. We see what the covid death numbers are but how many people died because they were afraid to go to the hospitals or because they were full, they couldn’t go. How many surgeries were postpone till it was too late? How many cancer screenings were canceled for months and resulted in the treatment being too late. We only see what is on the surface. Not what was the full result of what happened.

Then, of course, we still don’t know what are the full effects of catching covid. It is a pretty hideous disease that does internal damage. So how many of those recovered will have lifetime ailments? We still don’t know the answer to that. If the world didn’t react as quickly as it did, I feel we would’ve been looking at a much larger number and would’ve lost a great deal of medical personnel and first responders.

Also over a hundred years ago, we had pandemics but people took it seriously and did what they could to protect themselves and their loved ones. For some reason, we are suffering from another kind of global epidemic. The kind that affects the mind. Where people think they have a superhuman body that can beat anything and they don’t care if their friends or family members are vulnerable.

People use to do what was necessary without the Government having to step in and force them to do what was right for themselves and society. They just did it.
I did look up the worlds hidden possible toll and I could only find one for this past February. It was at half a million.
Also keep in mind, in some 3 world nations people were dying and just buried. They were not being tested or examined to determine if it was covid related. I wonder what that number was.