Going on Record (and it ain't vinyl)

As I am writing this we are in the middle of our latest "end of the world" scenario. The disease Covid-19 (or officially the SARS-CoV-2 virus) is destroying our world.

My issue is, most of the destruction is being caused by the overreaction to the disease. There are about 7.7 Billion people alive at this moment on Earth. There are currently under 300,000 cases confirmed of Covid-19 world-wide. That number won't even calculate as a percentage without severe scientific notation (here it is for those of you interested - 3.896103896103896e-5) Even if this gets 100 times worse and we have 3,000,000 million cases it is STILL too small to show up on a calculator ( just drop the -5 to -4 in the scientific notation number - 3.896103896103896e-4‬). If it gets 1,000 time worse that will make it show up on a calculator. It will be 3.89% of the population. So 4% of the population would be infected IF this gets 1,000 times worse (and I will admit, it could). However, based on what the WHO and CDC is reporting, 80% of cases are to be compared with a cold. It can be a bad cold or a mild cold, but a cold. So that leaves us with well under 1% that needs/requests medical care (0.77% for those of you keeping score) Out of that number an even smaller percentage will face death.

Let me get something out here, I am not making light of the fact people are dying, or even getting sick. I am trying to put this in perspective. There are few things that we all share as humans. One of those is death. Around 60 Million humans die annually. Sadly a lot of those are preventable. My wife died of a statistically insignificant disease. Do you think the disease was insignificant to her, or me, or any of her family? NO, of course not. I am just trying for perspective by using mathematics and statistics.

Speaking of statistics, here are some causes of death around the world (these are worldwide numbers - FYI, heart disease is number 1 by a long shot, and cancers - combined - are number 2)

53,000 people die from exposure - extreme heat or cold
120,000 die by fire
126,000 hepatitis
500,000 malnutrition of some type (either a lack of specific nutrients or starvation)
295,000 people drown (these are annual figures folks!)
619,000 die from malaria (a disease we have a treatment for and know how to stop)
793,000 by suicide (all are horrible, but this is profoundly sad to me)
950,000 HIV/AIDS
1,180,000 Tuberculosis (which we have a vaccine for and treatments for)
1,240,000 vehicular injury (crash or being struck by a car)

This are just examples. Now for the "biggie": Influenza - the seasonal flu.
Flu kills 50 to 100 million EVERY YEAR!

My point is, we have tragically lost @12,000 humans to Covid-19. There is no argument that the number will grow, maybe by a lot. However statistically this disease, so far, is insignificant.

Why does it matter, you ask? At least here in the USA, a quasi-free country, we have given up our freedom of movement, of association, and other civil liberties. Our economy is being wrecked (if not already) by panicked people making irrational decisions. Entire industries are being ransacked, maybe never to recover. All over 12,000 deaths and a promise of more.

To quote a very bright old white guy: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin

Or to quote a pretty sharp old white woman: "If we gave up our freedom as the price of security, we would no longer be the great nation that we are." Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

This is me going on record that I think the reaction and actions to this disease are ridiculously overblown. (we shall see in a year when the blog reminds me of this post, if not sooner)

Even more Questions

You may get this more if you read (or re-read) these older posts: "A Serious One" from 4/6/08 "Alphabet diseases" from 11/13/07 and "Questions" from 1/20/08 I am still trying to get answers to the Questions asked in the post above. I have not found any that are worthy of printing. I have come up with more questions: How does one handle seeing the continual decline of their spouse and not being able to do a thing about it? How do you take the inability of your 53 year old wife to get out of bed, or in and out of the shower unaided? How do you answer questions that beg not to be asked, like: will I see Bailey (our daughter, a rising senior)graduate; will Hannah (our granddaughter - almost 3) remember me; or will I see Landon (or grandson - 6 months) walk? How do you comfort your bride of 35+ years when she looks at you with tears streaming down her face? Most of all, how do you offer support and help when you are so damn mad at the world and the situa...

Late Night (early morning?) Thoughts

I was laying there trying to go to sleep last night (without much success, as I have a toothache), and my mind was wandering. I don't know about your mind, but when mine wanders....whoa! (just look at some earlier posts) So, I was thinking about George Washington (what...you don't think about our founding fathers when you are lying there trying to go to sleep?) and how he was called "the Father of our Country". I further thought that there is not a "Mother of our Country" (unless Martha gets it by default, but I don't think so). Then I started thinking about "family" or relationship nicknames. This is to be a participatory blog. I want you all to write back with the ones you think of that I missed. Here are the ones I thought of (I was up quite a while with my tooth!): Father of our Country, the Founding Fathers, Uncle Sam, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, Mother of all battles (or bombs), a priest is called - Father, a Mother Superior runs a conv...

Simple Pleasures

I am writing this on the morning of a departure. My wife and I are heading back home after the better part of a week in Florida. I had a business reason for coming, and with family here - she joined me. It is wonderful to see a daughter that we do not see nearly enough and to visit with a Mother/Mother-in-law as well. Yesterday between the day to day activities that must be done, I spent a large amount of time sitting in a lounge chair in a marvelous screened-in "porch" area of my Mother-in-Law's house. It was in the mid-70s to upper 70's while I was sitting, but with a fantastic cooling breeze most of the time, and a ceiling fan to fill in the lulls. The sky was a tropical blue with cottony clouds that cruised by with the lazy drift of a tube on a river. I was able to start and finish a novel yesterday by killing off the majority of it sitting in this splendor . I just wrote a comment on my sister's blog. This post is somewhat in response to myself for that com...

JUST SOME POSTS

Search This Blog