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The relevant statistic is ICU availability, and that seems pretty cut and dried. Hospitals report how many of their ICU beds are occupied and how many of those are COVID related. COVID patients who do not need intensive care are segregated and census is taken every day. The hospital I frequent for blood work and imaging has started shifts an hour earlier recently, though they are by no means in crisis. Part of it is that people who have been waiting to have procedures done are just finally going ahead with them and not waiting any longer for the virus to go away.

From what I have read, many people who test positive for COVID and go to the hospital, never have symptoms. Some fake their symptoms after testi8ng positive so they can stay in the hospital because of their fear of COVID -- but they were never sick at all, not even a higher temperature, cough or sneeze. But many may have serious anxiety because of their positive test. At least one nurse discussing this problem mentioned that many of these people are on social welfare whereby the government pays for their hospital stay, sometimes weeks until they test negative.  They do not want to go home to infect their spouse, children, relatives, or neighbors.   of course such people unnecessarily fill up hospitals and mess up the related statistics. overestimating the quantity of people who are really sick.

There is also the problem of hospitals being full and people having to travel to find an open spot, some not finding one. I'm not sure if the reporting happens when someone finally finds an open spot and the hospital handles the reporting or some other way.  

I get that, but I'm only looking at one set of people sharing the same testing protocols and behavior patterns. I'm looking at months of data. What made me take notice early on was when Miami-Dade (which I mistakenly referred to in my text as Hillsborough) had by far the highest rate of vaccinations yet had more daily cases per 100k than my own county which was slow to vaccinate. There are virtually no public health mandates in the state so the majority still carry on as if nothing's going on - that behavior doesn't change but all the statistics do just as if one month we have mask mandates/lockdown and the next we're wide open for business as usual. Hospitals fill and empty, fill and empty, as our behavior never changes. A county with nearly twice the vaccination rate of another county doesn't do any better with the numbers, and that's just one thing that doesn't make sense to me. On paper stats and ICU admissions the virus seems to do what it does independent of our efforts or lack thereof. I'm really starting to wonder if when we do institute some safety protocol and virus activity declines, perhaps it's coincidence because the opposite also has happened.

Yeah Florduh,   There are a number of problems relating to the understandings of what is going on with COVID. Each state has different rules and testing abilities and facilities to handle their cases, their case statistics, and the results in the US from state to state cannot be consistent. There are many opinions concerning logical analysis of the results, often with conflicting opinions.   But here’s my opinion.   Of the great many people tested randomly and who test positive for COVID,  have no symptoms at all. This estimate is thought to be about 30%., and 40% for or the US.. Of these, about 11% come down with a mild case of COVID in the coming two weeks, and about 1.5 % with a more serious case.   For those people who have a COVID test because they have symptoms of some kind, only about 4% test positive for COVID.   https://hartfordhealthcare.org/about-us/news-press/news-detail?articleId=29806&publicid=743#:~:text=The%20South%20Korean%20estimate%20of,%2D19%20are%20asymptomatic.   Also 2-3% of those tested yield a false positive. This is known by those who have a verification test following their positive test. Other pathogens like the papilloma virus also can give a false positive for COVID for the great many people who have it.   Other testing problems and false results are explained below.   https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/letters-health-care-providers/potential-false-positive-results-antigen-tests-rapid-detection-sars-cov-2-letter-clinical-laboratory   Death rates have now dropped for COVID patients when the patient’s immune system is suppressed, by keeping these patient’s immune system from killing them, a type of allergic reaction to COVID which builds up lung fluids that drown them. Deaths for this reason have dropped from 18% to about 4%.   One problem with statistics is that if someone has a terminal disease like terminal cancer, and if in an autopsy they test positive for COVID, .their death will be reported as death from COVID based upon the rules for most states. This is true for all terminal diseases.   The percentage of US hospitalized patients in the US who died from the flu and pneumonia, have been higher than those who died from COVID during this pandemic.   https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/pdf/covidview.pdf   I was in Sweden just a few weeks ago, No masks, social distancing, businesses closings, restaurants and bars stayed open. Most everything is voluntary. Recommended social distancing for restaurants, bars, businesses where people work in close quarters, For certain workers they recommend working from home when possible.   They have the same or fewer problems from COVID as the US, and very few people wear masks or adhere to social distancing. It looks like the US before COVID.  They promote vaccinations the same as in the US, as do nearly all the countries of the world.   Germany, on the other hand has rules similar to what we have here in most states, so it’s not so much fun there. They have made social distancing exceptions for bars and restaurant which is better IMO  But to go into many bars and restaurants you must show your vaccination card.   Here are other opinions concerning false opinions and the seriousness of COVID in the US.   https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/12/04/covid-conspiracy-why-people-dont-believe-deadly-pandemic-misinformation/3803737001/  

A few things could be happening: Variations in time of reporting (e.g. reporting all the weekend cases on Monday, making it look like the caseload tripled overnight). Weather variations (e.g. people spending more time indoors when it's particularly rainy, and more cases showing up a few days later). Or their data collection is just plain sloppy.

Hopefully in my own Harem with 100 virgins. In my harem  the girls do not have to be 9 years old like Mohammad's second wife who he said he never had relations with until she went into puberty. Instead all my girls can be 16 years and older as long as long as they are pretty, sexy, and virgins. The problem for me to achieve this goal is twofold. First, there aren't very many pretty, sexy girls 16 and older who are still virgins. But my second problem is even bigger; I'm not willing to die in a suicide bombing.

I'm not smart enough for this thread.