My family is cuckoo too. I just spoke with my mom last night.
mom: Oh this whole covid thing is being totally overblown. Such a big deal about nothing.
me: What? It is a huge deal. We have over 80k deaths in the usa. And that's with this crazy amount of lockdowns and precautions being taken.
mom: Oh that's not that bad, it's no worse than the flu.
me: WTF are you talking about? That's in addition to the flu, and regardless that would be an extremely bad flu year anyway. I don't ever remember a flu season that high in my entire life. I can't find all the statistics, but that exceeds the annual flu death toll for at least the last 10 years. And that's not even an entire season, just since mid March.
mom: pfff, they are inflating the numbers! Everyone that tests positive and then dies is being counted as a covid case!
me: That MAY be true for some cases, but overall they are vastly under counting the deaths in total. Every place that has had an outbreak has a large amount of unexplained total deaths not attributed to covid. When this is all over we are going to look back at the statistics and you are going to see a huge spike of death that coincides with the covid outbreaks that is going to eventually be attributed to covid in retrospect as it's the only explanation.
I'm sure she was back on facebook within minutes to reconfirm her beliefs.
I am absolutely not saying " it is a big thing about nothing" but just to let you know
The CDD estimates (! nobody cared enough for tests or protective measures?) 6100 death in the US during the flu season 2017/18.
And to clarify: flu season in the US is over for now, as flu season is from December through February. Unfortunately Covid19 night not be done yet.
I think you meant 61,000 deaths, and I believe that was the highest in my life time. Which is a lot less than the 85,000 current covid deaths, especially since this is almost certainly an undercount, has occurred in a shorter time span than the flu season, occurred despite unprecedented lockdowns and restrictions, and isn't even close to being over with yet (even if it is seasonal like influenza, which we don't know that). This thing isn't the black death or anything, but it's far from just the flu and I think my tone with my mother was appropriate. She should be taking it a lot more seriously than she is, especially since she is in her upper 60's, has diabetes, is overweight, and has a host of other medical issues. My dad is in the same boat but slightly older and with even more medical issues.
My mother's in a similar situation: mid-60s, increasing health issues. Luckily my dad, though slightly older, is in better health. However, both of them are in total denial at this point. An update:
They have decided this is a complete and utter scam and that everyone should return to life as normal. As such, they've decided to re-start renting part of their house out on AirBnB (face palm). They have already had several clients, including at least two groups from NYC (double face palm). They aren't the least bit concerned since, ya know, this is all a trick by the government to get us to take a vaccine. They have newfound "clarity" on:
- The count: ALL hospitals are massively and intentionally inflating COVID case and death numbers. They know this because (I'm not making this up) a friend of their met some guy whose wife recently died in a hospital, the hospital allegedly listed her cause of death as COVID, but wouldn't give this guy a copy of the death certificate. Therefore, based on this loose third-hand story, all hospitals in the entire country are inflating the count. Because that's how these things work.
- Masks: wearing these is completely unnecessary, under any circumstances. Anyone foolish enough to wear one, even into a crowded grocery store, is to be a target of derision. Only people dumb enough to have been tricked by the government would bother to wear a mask.
- Schools: can't figure out why any school would still be closed. Any school with a careful re-opening plan or taking any measures of precaution is clearly run by idiots who've bought into this COVID scare hook line and sinker.
- Testing: there's no reason to test anyone, ever. The tests are run by the government, and you can't trust them. This includes ALL government: federal, state or local (run by Democrats OR Republicans). They're all out to get you.
- Lockdown: people in this country are tired of this, therefore it is over. "You just can't keep people at home." We should just go back to normal, with crowds of people in restaurants/bars/sporting events, etc. The "economy" needs this.
- Overseas: you can't trust anything any other country reports about Coronavirus. They saw a video of some random Italian politician ranting about how there are NO cases of COVID in Italy, therefore the Italians made the entire thing up. There are no cases in the Italian hospitals at all; the entire thing was a hoax designed for some unknown dark purpose. Because, ya know, we saw a video of one loudmouth raving about it. Ergo, it is true.
Sigh. And wow. This is Holocaust-denier level shit. I don't even know where to begin. It's clear now they are completely, utterly, and irretrievably off the deep end, with no hope of saving them. I'm concerned for their health, but they can't even see the slightest reason to be concerned. At least now I can stop wasting mental energy hoping they might see the truth. Only thing I can do now is pray and hope for them.