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Comment by postalrat | Hacker News Reader

People dying is normal. An event like 9/11 isn't.

People dying of "old age" is normal. Just wait until the UK strain (which seems to affect the young more[1]) makes its presence known this side of the Atlantic.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-31/faster-sp...

"Excess deaths" measures the deviation from "normal." When that gets up into thousands per day, overtaking causes like cancer and heart disease, it's not "normal."

About 655k die every year from heart disease. Covid hasn't reached half that number in the same time.

Covid has been terrible but you shouldn't cherry pick stats to tell a story that isn't true.

Masks sell easier to people with limited self control than salads.

Cherrypicking? I was referring to the daily death rate. If it had been 2k/day all year, which has been fairly common in recent weeks, then about 700k would have died. But that would be ridiculous, because the virus took a long time to reach the saturation level we're at today. The stat you picked is quite incomparable.

People dying prematurely from a preventable pandemic is not normal and should never be considered so.

You've been oversold if you think the pandemic was completely preventable.

Many deaths are preventable but eventually you die.

500k "preventable" deaths every single year in the USA from smoking. Many others could be "prevented" by eating healthier food or getting more exercise.

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