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CAN WE AUDIOPHILES DO OUR PART?

So we're all tired of hearing about nothing but Covid-19 (or, as I term it, the C-Plague). What can we do, as audiophiles, to help with all this.
I was amazed, and delighted, when I went to the Cardas website to see that they are doing their part. Go to their website and you'll see their director, Angela Cardas, wearing a mask. If you click on the Cardas Nautilus logo in the upper left corner, you'll see pictures of people there in the factory making masks with sewing machines. I called the company to congratulate them, and spoke with a woman named Darla, who said it was their way, during this economic slump, to keep their employees working and also their way of trying to "do our part."
I'm not writing all this to advertise Cardas products. They are a very good company, but trust your ears, not anything I write, when it comes to buying their products. They do get credit, however, for helping me come to a realization that pushed me in the right direction. I called a woman I am friends with, who is 85 years old and is a good seamstress, to suggest she start making masks. She already was--and is. By phone she has organized several other women to do the same, and right now they are needing more material and elastic. I managed to gather about 50 pounds of material and am starting to gather elastic while also getting more material. But I don't sew. I can't help out with that. Any ideas as to what we--all of us who are good with our ears and focused with our budgets--can do to help out in other ways?

I realize this is an odd topic to bring to an audio forum, but it was a very socially responsible audio company that got me to thinking about it, and frankly I believe I should be socially responsible enough to do what I can to get other people to thinking about it. While also being open to other people's ideas about ways someone like me who is "just an audiophile" can help.

Thank you, in advance, for any and all ideas on this.



baumli
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,218 posts
 
Some people actually think they have a constitutional right to infect others.  Thank goodness for thinking and caring people like Snarbut.

If you are going to compare mortality rates, compare them to similar countries.  Sweden is at 12.4% and every country that borders Sweden in under 5%.  Draw your own conclusion.
heaudio123
689 posts
 
The 62,000 is an estimate. That is NOT the number listed as Flu on the death certificate. The CDC does look at peumonia deaths above the typical average and does attribute them to flu when making their estimates for deaths. The country is in lock down and that 62,000 number was blown through in not much more than a month. Not being properly informed is not your friend.

One thing is consistent between the 1918 flu in this one .... people's behaviors, good and bad.  That does not mean all lock down measures make sense. Some of them really do not, protest those, but overall, this is not just some seasonal flu.

While flu deaths in children are reported to CDC, flu deaths in adults are not nationally notifiable. In order to monitor influenza related deaths in all age groups, CDC tracks pneumonia and influenza (P&I)-attributed deaths through the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Mortality Reporting System. This system tracks the proportion of death certificates processed that list pneumonia or influenza as the underlying or contributing cause of death. This system provides an overall indication of whether flu-associated deaths are elevated, but does not provide an exact number of how many people died from flu.


2017-8 flu season 62,000 died and 25,000,000 were hospitalized. Now one of the results of flu in elderly is of course pneumonia and when they die of pneumonia that is how it was listed. With this wuhan crap they take anything even remotely exacerbated by wuhan and claim it to be a wuhan death. Never do they say it is from people with other serious life ending on their own problems in combination with wuhan with an average age of 75.

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
The difference in mortality rates between Sweden and adjoining countries can be explained by “irregularities“ or differences in reporting. Criteria and protocols vary widely among countries and in the US among states. Most countries in the top ten have mortality rates comparable to Sweden. Case closed. At least Sweden seems to be transparent in acknowledging their problem.
heaudio123
689 posts
 
Sweden and the Netherlands are similar. Denmark and Norway are obviously much better better. Differences in reporting are not going to compensate for the significant differences.

The US, though, is currently much better than many European countries, but the US is much earlier into it's recovery, and has been pointed out, the US is geographically much more like all of Europe, than just any one country.  With Spanish Flu, the US never had a 3rd wave like many countries did ... because their 2nd wave never ended so a 3rd could begin. The 2nd wave was 5-6 months long as it moved through the country.
heaudio123
689 posts
 
This is not a political statement, but an attempt to look factually on what has happened and what is happening.

I believe the only thing that would have reduced the total number of cases in the U.S. would have been to restrict foreign travel extensively much earlier. I don't remember a whole lot of support for that from any side.  In conjunction with that, 2 other things would have had to happen, inter-state travel would have had to be greatly reduced (good luck doing that constitutionally), and the cities and states would have had to shut down much earlier. Remember the mayor of NY was promoting people to get out and enjoy life and go to restaurants in almost mid-March, and Biden was holding large rallies. NY state was not shut down till March 22. By then it was too late, too many infected in NY, and those people had spread it around the country and vice-versa.

I am not saying the federal response post mid-March response has been coherent, but, I don't think the outcome, overall, would have been much different with a different government as there was no willpower early enough on either side to do what was needed.

Singapore is a great example of how hard this is to control once it is out in the wild. Single city-state, significant contract tracing, and isolation measures, but like Sweden, never shut down. It worked great for them, initially, until everyone returned from abroad and the system could no longer keep up. High population density now works against them, and they have now 26,000 cases, though they claim very few deaths, which seems suspect, though they really did not start till mid-late April.
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