Letter: 98-percent survival rate is not an extinction-level event
To the editor,
–In the letter from Jeff Sherman, he writes about how he left the hospital with so much fanfare from the staff and then proceeds to tell us that this is an extinction-level event. He proves his threat to be wrong in most every sentence prior to that final claim. Was it bad? I assume so since he was in the hospital. Did he enjoy it? I assume not. Are people dying from COVID? Without a doubt.
I did just a quick Duck Duck Go search, and I found the Worldometers.info site with live COVID data. On there is says that worldwide there have been 82,025,143 cases of COVID at the time of this writing. There have been 1,788,566 deaths as of the same time. Doing some quick math that comes out to a 2.18-percent death rate. That is a survival rate of 97.82-percent. Of course, this only includes the number of cases reporting positive tests and from what I have seen a lot of people have had symptoms similar to COVID but never got tested so I think it is safe to assume there are more cases that are not reported therefore bringing the death percentage down. We also know from reports that many people that died from car accidents, or falling off a ladder, or whatever cause, were then tested and if positive were reported as dying from COVID. Therefore bringing the death numbers up.
But let’s just take the numbers as reported. The same site currently reports that there are 22,193,296 active cases. Of those 22,087,565 are seeing mild conditions and 105,731 are serious or critical. That comes out to 0.4-percent, so less than one half of a percent.
Now, how many people are losing or have lost their job? How many of those people will probably lose their home? Some of those people will do the unthinkable and take their own lives rather than try to recover from the economic struggle that is sure to come. Economies have been destroyed. Industries are being threatened out of existence. Main street is being completely decimated by Amazon and other online retailers. Restaurants are going out of business and more will follow. That will affect the food supply business which will affect the farmers and so on and so on.
Is this an extinction-level event? No, it is not. Not for people anyway. Is it an extinction-level event for economies, families, and livelihoods, I fear it is. Is it an extinction of the freedoms that this country stands for? I fear that it is. Is this an extinction-level event of reasonable discourse in this country? I fear that it is.
I want to say that I am sorry for the people that have lost loved ones from this virus. I am in no way claiming that there is nothing here at all. The virus is real. However, I think the hyperbole needs to be calmed down so that people can make decisions based on actual threats. This virus is not the real threat here, the willful surrender of our right to chose the risk we accept is. Jeff, I am glad you are out and recovering. I wish you well.
Gary Brown
Paso Robles
Editor’s note: Letters to the editor are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Paso Robles Daily News or its staff. We welcome letters from local residents regarding relevant local topics. To submit one, click here.
