COVID is a serious illness, it should have and continues to
require serious responses on the part of individuals and governments.
However, please keep things in perspective: the “Age-adjusted
death rate per 100,000 people” in 2020 rose over 15% to 828.7 versus 715.2 in
2019. The same statistic in 2000 was 872.0, then touted as a “record low.”
WE ARE STILL FIVE PERCENT BELOW THE RECORD LOW OF 2000.
I have been a broken record in saying that there are a lot
of people in the US who are alive today due to the wonderful health care system
that we enjoy. I am one. My grandfather died at age 50 from a condition that
sounded very much like my hypercardiomyopathy (HCM). The diagnosis was never
made, if it had, they could not have done anything about it anyway because
open-heart surgery had not been invented in the 1920’s. Years ago, when people
got sick, they died. Now, our lives have been prolonged (and the quality
improved for many) by our doctors.
Think about that when you are confronted with critics of the
system.
Well, that trajectory of improved longevity was interrupted
by the virus. Yet we see headlines on the Internet daily using inflammatory descriptions:
“[deaths] at a monstrous scale” (The Economist). The CDC isn’t sure
whether it will be safe for us to get together with family for Christmas.
Question: how about football games?
On the other hand, the news is misleading in other ways: a
paper in Australia reported that the deaths from the vaccine exceed deaths from
COVID in Australia this year. Read the article, that means there were two
deaths from the vaccine and one death from COVID. Oh, BTW, when we are talking
about that monstrous scale of carnage, in Australia that means 915 deaths since
the beginning of the pandemic. In a country of 25 million.
Meanwhile, the economy that was perking along at a record
pace two years ago has been seriously harmed by a President who, to be fair,
does not issue mean tweets. Right now, there is a real food shortage and
inflation is nearing the rate of the Jimmy Carter days. Remember those? Obama
was right, we should never underestimate the ability of Joe Biden to mess
things up.
I’ll let someone else determine why all the hype, but it
makes you suspicious, doesn’t it?
