re: Is Georgia still around? I heard that they'd be a wasteland by now for opening up.

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285k deaths. World population of over 7 billion. You do the math.

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Oh, so this thing is over and there will be no more deaths? How many deaths do you think were prevented because of the so-called tyrannical restrictions put in place across the globe?

Also, are we now believing China's death numbers, or is just being used to make this point?

Bear in mind, I'm not arguing in favor of the adopted policies, but just trying to gain an understanding of how nearly 80,000, and growing, deaths in the US from a newly discovered virus isn't the problem.

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Because it's 0.02% of the US population, and heavily concentrated in a few hotspots.

For the overwhelming majority of this country the virus was never the problem. The response was.

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Maybe so, but with so little known about the virus, it was a difficult decision. Could we have predicted a month ago that rural meat packing plants would become a hot spot? At the time, most laypeople thought it was primarily something that impacted high density urban areas. Would shutting them down, or at the very least implementing more safeguards within them, prevented them from becoming a hot spot? Possibly. NYC was somewhat predictable given what had happened in Italy.

The response has been far from perfect, and I'm in agreement the one-size-fits-all response was probably not that best approach. But I say that with the benefit of hindsight. When a lot of those decisions were made, there was still a LOT we didn't know about it. And we still don't know enough about it to make well informed decisions.

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I'm in agreement the one-size-fits-all response was probably not that best approach. But I say that with the benefit of hindsight.

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You shouldn't have needed hindsight to see how this was going to go. Politicians and the media focused on the worst possible outcomes, in the worst possible places, and beat the drum that this was how it was going to be in all corners of the US. This caused a panic. The panic caused the public to demand their politicians "do something". The politicians "did something", even when that something had absolutely no local reason for doing so because that justification was based on a city on the other side of the country with completely different demographics.

But hey, people felt safe.

This is no different than the emotional, panic based response by people during 9/11 that resulted in the wonderful bill that is the Patriot Act.

People get scared and demand the government "do something". And it does. And it's never worth the cost. Ever. This is no different.

In Atlanta, people have flooded parks in the past couple of weeks. Restaurants in Midtown, VA Highlands, and Buckhead since last weekend have opened in a short-form capacity where there's a new social distancing layout inside, and a slightly more spaced out than normal patio outside.

There have been reports of COVID spikes but in comparison to how many people that have been out and about, it's not as bad as some would think.

I think carefully re-opening with precautionary measures has been good for the city. As a whole, people respect the spacing and understand the extra care behind some of the practices. Folks are happier out of the house, and as far as I've noticed, no one is abusing the privileges on both the proprietor and customer side.

Also, I've been back in the office now for what is currently my 2nd week... now I know cars aren't a true definition of wealth/status etc... but the majority of vehicles in our 90% empty deck are high-end vehicles (Maserati, Porsche, s500 Mercedes, Ranges, etc..). When I say majority, I mean virtually all. The smart money isn't sleeping through this pandemic or taking a break, which makes me think that the turnaround could be within the next 12 months.

There's a difference between individual companies making the decision on taking precautionary measures when they were capable of doing so, and the government closing businesses down by fiat.

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How many deaths do you think were prevented because of the so-called tyrannical restrictions put in place across the globe?

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Zero

Some deaths were delayed, not prevented. Unless they invent some magical virus killing ray gun or something

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As a whole, people respect the spacing and understand the extra care behind some of the practices. Folks are happier out of the house, and as far as I've noticed, no one is abusing the privileges on both the proprietor and customer side.

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I agree. Half the people are still scared sh!tless and it's depressing sometimes to have to continue to hear the false narrative again and again from these people. I know at least in Georgia, half our deaths were from nursing homes. Right now in the 14 day window, it's still looking good as far as infections staying on a downward trend. That could magically change depending on incubation and time to get tests back.

However, it was NEVER the case to shut down the country to keep everyone from getting this. It was never talked about IF people would get this but WHEN. Turns out they were even wrong about that. I think many more people have immunity to this than they ever dreamed of.

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It is just amazing to me how many people have forgotten the original intent of shut-downs. It was to prevent the overwhelming of our medical infrastructure, not to prevent death

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While also ramping up testing and tracing, which has lagged behind. People leave that part out.

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You don't really believe that. No one does.

There is a vast difference between dying because of the Chinese Flu virus and dying with the Chinese Flu virus.

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No, I actually think it's a little higher.

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There is a vast difference between dying because of the Chinese Flu virus and dying with the Chinese Flu virus.

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Semantics, because in the vast majority of those cases the virus accelerated the deceased's death.

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Georgia is reporting ~ 500 new cases per day, bro.

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And?