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Comment by piva00 | Hacker News Reader

Only 12%? More than 1/10 of your population dies, literally more than a decimation by its old meaning, saying that this is not such a disaster is incredibly unempathetic. Or you have a very warped view of what consists a disaster...

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No, In Sweden 1144 out of every million people have died [0], which equates to 1 out of every 874 people.

Does 1 out of 874 people dead, mostly elderly and/or with comorbidities, sound bad?

Picture a room with 874 people. That's a lot of people. Ask 1 person to leave. Is that a disaster for society?

[0] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

I think the answer to that is: “Are you the one person?”

That's a personal disaster, but not a disaster for society.

Yes it is. Once hospitals fill and no longer function you are living in a society without healthcare.

And, at least in my country, that's not the fault of the virus, but politicians who didn't invest in healthcare not even remotely enough. Here we were hit hard by virus, however we never had more than 10k people hospitalized. If we, as a country of 7 million have a problem with this weak virus, what would happen if it were couple times stronger.

People should be outraged with how healthcare failed, but media and politics are reporting about the virus like it's a plague, just so they can cover their asses.

And the person is already on the way out.

12% of the population? No, surely what's meant is an increase of 12% to the usual number of deaths per year.

You are confusing "12% more than the prior 5 year average" with "12% of the overall population".

Nevertheless, I agree it's a catastrophe.

I think you misread the comment your replying to. He said the difference between average deaths per year and 2020 deaths per year was 12%. Likely this will balance out with a lower death rate in the next year, as the old and weak who would have died in 2021 sadly left this world already a year early.

He's not saying 12% of the population, he's saying 12% more then the running 5 year average.

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