We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
22nd March 2020
This year in the USA we’ve had around 35 million cases of influenza with around 35,000 deaths, for a fatality rate of 0.1%. That’s a pretty typical year, although a couple of years ago we lost 80,000 people one flu season. That was considered to be a bad year, but it barely made the papers. After all, it’s influenza. It happens.
Meanwhile, we’ve had a grand total of 282 deaths from COVID-19 so far and not only has this made the papers, we’ve essentially shut down our society and our economy. This has struck me as odd from the beginning. I’ve had the feeling that I simply must be missing something. So I’ve spent the last few weeks reading all the data I could find on this topic from the World Health Organization, the CDC, and various other data sources. Today I read an outstanding article from Aaron Ginn. I know a lot more about COVID-19 now, but I’m still confused.
Me, too.