Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

In this Discussion

Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.

    Support MFO

  • Donate through PayPal

Any Estimates of What COVID Will Cost the Nation?

I googled around and couldn’t find anything so I thought I would ask this well read group. There is of course a wide range of medical needs from nothing to weeks in the ICU. And then there is lost productivity for those that are sick. (And the value of loss of life) I suppose the medical costs for those that are directly impacted is a subset of the total drop in GDP. Or is it? Medical costs are revenue to some group. In any case - have you seen any estimates or breakdowns?

Comments

  • We are already spending TRILLIONS directly, the money we don't have. Don't add value of loss of life, old people would have died anyway even with normal flu - sh*t happens. Lost productivity - you can see in negative GDP (healthcare will be positive and everything else negative). Medicare insolvency will be earlier than projected, this will be very-very-very bad for this beautiful country. Talk of 2nd stimulus, never ending expense????
  • edited June 2020
    .
  • We are already spending TRILLIONS directly, the money we don't have. Don't add value of loss of life, old people would have died anyway even with normal flu - sh*t happens. Lost productivity - you can see in negative GDP (healthcare will be positive and everything else negative). Medicare insolvency will be earlier than projected, this will be very-very-very bad for this beautiful country. Talk of 2nd stimulus, never ending expense????


    r u high?
  • May be it is fake news - All told, the U.S. government has committed more than $6 trillion to arrest the economic downturn from the pandemic (2.35T spending signed by DT and about 4T by Feds).
  • beebee
    edited June 2020
    Interesting Facts:
    According to CDC data, 81% of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States are people over 65 years old, most with preexisting conditions. If you add in 55-64-year-olds that number jumps to 93%. For those below age 55, preexisting conditions play a significant role, but the death rate is currently around 0.0022%, or one death per 45,000 people in this age range. Below 25 years old the fatality rate of COVID-19 is 0.00008%, or roughly one in 1.25 million, and yet we have shut down all schools and day-care centers, some never to open again! This makes it harder for mothers and fathers to remain employed.
    Not very comforting for us old-sters, but lets remember this as kids head back to school. I wonder about the dynamic of grandparents helping parents with daycare needs though.

    Interesting Graph:
    https://screencast.com/t/KocTmrP99gCx
  • @kings53man

    You stated: " Don't add value of loss of life, old people would have died anyway even with normal flu - sh*t happens."

    I have to presume that this is your view of the current circumstance and that you are not being facetious.

    So, I grew up in a lower middle class family. I observed and learned about being a decent person with a solid base of morals and ethics. I learned about hard work and making a wage at age 9. I surrendered 4 years of my youth to the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era war. I gave my best for 32 years with a corporation, helping it become a better organization. I'm active in supporting our local school system and in particular, the music department. I support local charity organizations with monetary donations. Our household pays taxes to all levels of government. As too many folks don't understand person finance; I've been the "go to" person in our family and among friends. I know the teaching over the years has a positive affect upon many.
    I'll stop with this much personal background.....

    Currently, my understanding of your statements is that I'm an expendable person to family, friends and society; that I'm going to die anyway. Also, that COVID is no more serious than the flu.

    Please clarify your statements to me, as I do not want to assume or misunderstand your positions.

    I await your reply to me and the board.

    Catch
  • Catch22: “ I await your reply to me and the board.”


    image
  • kings53man said:
    ...old people would have died anyway even with normal flu - sh*t happens...

    Flu vs Covid-19:
    So what happens if we compare apples with apples? A 2014 systematic review into influenza looked at infection-fatality rates calculated as deaths as a proportion of infected people estimated from serological testing — the main source of data for our COVID-19 estimate of 0.64% — and found that between 1 and 10 people died per 100,000 influenza infections. This gives an infection-fatality rate of 0.001–0.01%, which is quite a lot lower than even the lowest estimates for COVID-19.
    COVID-19 Is Far More Lethal Than Influenza


    Regarding:
    Any Estimates of What COVID Will Cost the Nation?
    Whatever it will end up costing (in lives & financially), it will be significantly more than it should have ever been.
    No leadership to navigate through this pandemic in a responsible way (from the president, congress, & most governors) & a pandemic that became politicized = disaster clusterf**k.

    As noted in another post:
    Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Invalidate Obamacare
    That's what definitely needed now.
    And to think that the republicans had such grand plans for healthcare in 2017.
    Middle-Schooler Who Wrote G.O.P. Health-Care Bill Claims He Has Not Been Paid

    Covid-19 treatment remdesivir priced at $3,120 for the typical patient


    Public health workers/officials being threatened:
    Amid threats and political pushback, public health officials are leaving their posts

    Irony:
    For many countries:
    Coronavirus death rate falling in hospitals
    "Improvements in treatments, changes in the patient population and seasonal effects could all play a role."


    But are we there yet?

    As noted in another post:
    American Exceptionalism on the Virus

    image



    Testing is getting better. But still not there yet.

    Daily State-by-State Testing Trends, Johns Hopkins

    Our World in Data, Coronavirus Testing



    Contract tracing is sketchy.

    Contact Tracing Has 'Very Bad' Start in NYC


    PPE shortages persist:

    The new gold’: demand for PPE soars again amid shortage as US cases rise


    Costs will inevitably keep going up.


    Death by a Thousand Cuts
  • My reply is satirical and full on contradictions. It is based on the fact that there is NO outrage with so many people dying so how does this matter. White race supporters of DT (GOP doesn't count, they don't speak against him even if he is plain wrong) are so full of hate that they don't care and have politicized the simple act of wearing masks. By the way Pence wore a mask (reluctantly) in Dallas attending Church meeting and he said to that effect - not forcefully. Take care and bee safe.
  • try the /sarc (fake) tag
  • From the Atlantic article posted upstream - “ the Congressional Budget Office anticipates that the American economy will generate $8 trillion less in economic activity over the next decade than it projected just a few months ago, and that a full recovery might not take hold until the 2030s.”
  • cool

    ~$200k payment (average; sliding or weighted; means-tested of course) to each descendant of someone enslaved in this land (line clearly demonstrated), of which there are estimated to be 30-40M, would be $6-8T

  • No idea.

    But the US just outbid many other countries to buy up the next 3 months' global supply of remdesvir, so that right there means gabillions of bucks wasted in paying-up for it.
  • @zenbrew - fantastic post. I am so tired of referencing and directing the non-believers only to be met with "but what about her emails." You can lead a horse to water but it seems they prefer kool aid.
Sign In or Register to comment.