Let me start by saying that I apologize for the delay in getting this post to you all! I had some evening work to do, and then there were some other things I needed to do after my work was done for the evening. Better late than never, I guess!
Even now, nobody in my family has gotten any coronavirus symptoms. I’ve said this before and I will say it again–I am really wondering whether we’ve had this before without realizing and we have immunity built up, or whether we had coronavirus and were asymptomatic, or what. All of us in my household at this point (myself, my brother, and my parents) personally know multiple people who’ve fallen ill from the coronavirus, and all of us know of people (friends of friends, at minimum) who have died from the coronavirus.
Speaking of deaths, it appears that deaths have flatlined, but they have flatlined at a horrible rate. Each day in the last week (maybe longer), New York’s Governor Cuomo has reported somewhere between 600 and 800 deaths per day. One death is a death too many, but 600-800 deaths per day is just an incomprehensible level of tragedy and grief. I sincerely hope that these numbers go down quickly, and go down soon. I also hope that whenever we do reopen my city, my state, my country, that we don’t do so in a way that results in our ending up with this level of loss of life again, because honestly, it’s too much loss.
On the topic of death (and sorry if this is too much talk of death for some people), I do want to address something that President Trump suggested: that the number of deaths due to the coronavirus in New York City is inflated.[1] The issue at-hand is that New York City recently reported an additional 3,700 or so “probable” deaths from the coronavirus (surging the number of deaths from the coronavirus in New York City past 10,000). These probable deaths are cases where the coronavirus or something similar to the coronavirus is listed on the death certificate as the cause of death, but the dead person never officially got tested for the coronavirus.[2] These are deaths that could probably be attributed to the coronavirus, hence probable deaths.
I know today wasn’t the most fun or hopeful of posts, but I hope my readers are doing okay, and that you all are staying healthy!
Blind Injustice 
Phew! I have to admit I was getting a little nervous Brendan. I’m so glad that you and your family continue to stay well. From what I’ve heard I think it’s entirely possible that you and your family could have already had this but remained symptom free. As far as the death count goes, I think the arguing and accusations are ridiculous. I read another article with interviews with coroners from across the country asserting that cases are being underreported because morgues aren’t being given test kits.No matter what the exact number winds up being, there won’t be any doubt when this is over that this will be the deadliest pandemic in history.
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Sorry about that! I didn’t mean to make you all nervous. It was just a really busy evening. Hopefully, there won’t be any other Thursday evenings for the near future when I’m leaving my readers wondering. The busy times can also explain why it took me nearly two days to respond.
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That’s okay. I understand. I always tend to think the worst.
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Thanks for the update Brendan. There are a lot of people who are asymptomatic as you suggest here. I hope that is correct for you and your family. It is reasonable to add probable cases and deaths to the count and other countries are also doing this. There are not enough test kits available but excluding probables is more misleading, in my opinion, than including them.
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You’re welcome. I’m hoping that I’m either asymptomatic or else I had it before and didn’t realize it. I agree that we need more testing. We need to know who has it, who had it, and who might be at risk for getting it.
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Thanks for the update. I do get a lot of information from watching Gov. Cuomo’s press conferences and since my state is working with others in the Northeast to prepare the public for stages of reopening the economy I appreciate his candor. Hope you stay well.
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No problem. Yes, there are something like seven states working together on things, so it’s good to be aware of what’s going on in the other six.
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there have been many deaths attributed to something other than corona…..but i can almost guarantee that they were brought about much faster by the infection exacerbating the underlying health issue. Example, my next door neighbor had diabetes and congestive heart failure before she contracted the virus. she died in three days before she could be admitted to the hospital. her death certificate says number one cause of death was CHF, then Diabetes was 2 and corona was 3. It could easily be many others are in the same boat statistically
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Goodness me…sorry for your loss, Suze. I know others for whom what you described (in terms of the death not being attributed to corona, but that death was brought about much faster by it) would be relevant, so I think you’re onto something.
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Hello Brendan. Like everyone else I am very happy you and your family are safe. Thank you for the update. Sadly it looks like this virus is even more infectious than was thought. Keep being well. Hugs.
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Yeah, I’m glad as well. Hopefully it stays that way. I just hope we don’t open up before we are truly ready…I’m not sure I could bear another period of endless sirens (day and night), like what I was experiencing a week or two ago.
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Thank you as always for the update. My only friend who has died was a New Yorker, that I know … it is truly an unbelievable grief, and couldn’t TRump just publicly grieve?
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No problem.
In New York, many (Most?) of us know personally at least one person, if not multiple people, who’ve gotten seriously ill or died from this. Maybe some of the protesters would feel differently if they have lived through what we’ve lived through in New York.
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