| | Published May 13th, 2020
| Letters to the editor
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A perspective about pandemic
In response to last week's letter regarding Covid19 and MCC by Ethan Bortman, from how he phrased his letter he's really alarmed by this virus, which has been both demonized and politicised.
Well here are some facts about the virus that he and an enormous amount of folks don't know. Facts that have been known for months and are readily available from Italian death statistics, Scottish death statistics, WHO reports, Worldometer, Bloomberg and our own CDC.
They are:
- Only 4% of any population is actually at risk;
- Children are bulletproof. In Italy of 25,000 deaths, ONLY two were under 19. In fact, in the US, children are 10 times more at risk from pneumonia than Covid 19;
- The mortality rate climbs exponentially with age;
- 75% of all Covid19 fatalities are age 75 and over. In Italy, 83% were over 70.
And lastly,
- 50% of all deaths occur in care homes.
So to put this into perspective, Covid19 is lethal at any age if you have the well documented underlying conditions. Conditions that very, very few kids are born with but are acquired with age and lifestyle. The older you get, the more they're acquired and the more you're at risk. Unfortunately, care home residents being frail, have a life expectancy of only months and will likely succumb to any virus.
Which means that currently, we're committing economic suicide, our kids are out of school, 30 million folks are out of work and terrified they may be evicted. All to save lives, half of whom will likely die in months anyway!!! That's a sobering thought, isn't it?
Sure I'd like to save lives; I'm taking care of my wife now. She has advanced Alzheimer's. But certainly not at the expense of my grand kids future, three of whom should be at Campo right now.
And here's the other point. It's likely there never will be an effective vaccine. So until 70% of the population not at risk, actually contract it, and develop herd immunity, the threat continues indefinitely. And, the CIDRAP just published a report confirming that!!! However, that's not possible, because the CDC needs us to social distance and limit the infection rate! Confused? Wow, really! Joseph Heller will be proud, Catch 22 is back.
Why am I telling you this? Because knowledge is power, and the more that folks understand the costs and risks, the better the decisions. And the first intelligent decision should be to reopen our schools. So when the Governor finally puts our kids first, don't worry. The schools should never have been closed in the first place as that's where herd immunity needs to start. With our bulletproof kids.
And beware of phrases like "we're following the science and saving lives". Wrecking millions of lives to extend the life of someone who, unfortunately, has only months to live, makes no sense. If you're young and healthy you were never at risk from the virus, but your finances will likely be crushed, and you'll be feeling that pain for years and years. Bounce back? Never happened in history and certainly not after a worldwide depression, which all economists agree is happening.
However no matter what age you are, if you have the well documented, underlying health conditions, protect yourself. And, let's collectively try to limit the financial damage of everyone else.
Dave Cummins
Moraga
Editor's Note: While children have a much lower rate of infection, there have been multiple documented cases of children suffering from COVID-19. |
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA