Greetings and Salutations;
Time has progressed since the first bunch of cases of this pandemic showed up in America. As the news shows us, it is not improving. For example, as of today, Tennessee has over 61,000 confirmed cases, and several hundred deaths. The latter is an important number, and is the subject of this essay…
When this infection started to spread through the country, it appeared that it was mainly a respiratory issue. This is bad enough, but, was something that could be dealt with. Well, since then, more data has been gathered about covid-19 and its myriad effects on the body. It truly is a “novel” virus, as it has much broader effects than originally thought. It attacks not only the lungs, but all major organs in the body, including the brain, leaving long-term damage.
I still see people refusing to wear masks to cut back on spreading the infection, because they claim it is “nothing more than a bad flu”, or is a Democratic Hoax, or “They will not have their freedoms infringed by the government!” They also minimize the danger of the infections by saying “Well, on 1% of the people that get it, die”. I just found an excellent explanation of what that means, and how it really affects all of us. So, I am quoting it here:
“How can a disease with 1% mortality shut down the United States?
There are two problems with this question.
It neglects the law of large numbers; and
It assumes that one of two things happen: you die or you’re 100% fine.
The US has a population of 328,200,000. If one percent of the population dies, that’s 3,282,000 people dead.
Three million people dead would monkey wrench the economy no matter what. That more than doubles the number of annual deaths all at once.
The second bit is people keep talking about deaths. Deaths, deaths, deaths. Only one percent die! Just one percent! One is a small number! No big deal, right?
What about the people who survive?
For every one person who dies:
- 19 more require hospitalization.
- 18 of those will have permanent heart damage for the rest of their lives.
- 10 will have permanent lung damage.
- 3 will have strokes.
- 2 will have neurological damage that leads to chronic weakness and loss of coordination.
- 2 will have neurological damage that leads to loss of cognitive function..
So now all of a sudden, that “but it’s only 1% fatal!” becomes:
- 3,282,000 people dead.
- 62,358,000 hospitalized.
- 59,076,000 people with permanent heart damage.
- 32,820,000 people with permanent lung damage.
- 9,846,000 people with strokes.
- 6,564,000 people with muscle weakness.
- 6,564,000 people with loss of cognitive function
That’s the thing that the folks who keep going on about “only 1% dead, what’s the big deal?” don’t get. The choice is not “ruin the economy to save 1%.” If we reopen the economy, it will be destroyed anyway. The US economy cannot survive everyone getting COVID-19.
The proceeding analysis is courtesy of Franklin Veaux
This pandemic does have the capabilities of destroying societies. While we should not panic, by any means…we should not blow it off either. Many governors, urged by #3 have re-opened their states…as if the virus is gone. It is not. So, the result has been that America is showing such a spike in infections that many countries in the world have banned travel from the worst hit states…and even then, in most cases, Americans are required to quarantine for 14+ days when arriving.
A big issue here is the response of the Federal Government. the “leadership” there has gone from denial, to mocking, to lies about it, to discounting it, to arbitrarily deciding it is over. They do not seem to understand that the virus does not care what they think. It will do what it is here to do…and unless serious changes are made than huge numbers of Americans will die, or be disabled by it. The reality is that American have reacted with such ignorance and pig-headedness to the issues of this virus, that, instead of a single mountain peak, and a tapering off, OUR infection curve looks like this:
Unless we change the path we are on very soon, this country will be no more. How do we do this? it is not really complicated.
- Wear a face mask when near other people. Recent studies have shown that the simple fact of wearing a mask can cut the likelihood of infecting others by 75%. And remember…no matter what the current administration says, wearing a mask is NOT a political statement.
- Wash your hands well…remember that 20 second rule? That is a minimum time. In addition, practice the simple hygiene our Parents likely taught us as children.
- Avoid proximity with strangers…and anyone you DO know that might be exposed and a carrier. Yes, this DOES mean we cannot have big parties in our back yard. It does mean we might have to avoid eating out, or even small dinners with friends.
- Minimize trips out to shop, and when shopping do not hang out for hours in the store, looking at stuff. Get what you need and get out.
These are not complicated, and, considering the alternative is increasing the chances that a person you love will suffer the effects of the virus listed above…is it really an infringement on your rights to ask you to follow these rules for a while? This situation will not last forever, unless we are stupid, and ensure that it can. While THIS ARTICLE is a worst case scenario, it is also NOT so off the wall that it cannot happen. Be Mindful and caring of our fellow citizens, and ourselves, and we can make it through this…
God Help Us All!
Bee Man Dave