As of today, 13th March 2020, there are 1832 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and 41 deaths due to the virus. Throughout the world, over 4600 people have died due to COVID-19, the new name of Coronavirus. The virus is especially vicious among the elderly and patients with underlying medical issues. Among my age group, 60-69, the mortality rate is around 3.4%. It goes up to around 7% among 70-79 and rises to around 14% at 80+ years old. To say this isn’t a serious illness would be ignoring facts.
From the beginning of COVID-19, the illness has been front and center everywhere on news sources, easily making up a good 30% of the programming. This week, Cancellations began, first the ACC tournament, followed by the NBA and NHL seasons and a Gran Prix race and postponement of the Master’s tournament. Our Governor of North Carolina came on and recommended banning meeting of groups of more than 100 people due to COVID-19 concerns in our state.
A few months before the onset of COVID-19, local news contained a nightly update of flu cases. As of 7th March 2020, there have been over 36,000,000 illnesses, more than 370,000 hospitalizations, and over 22,000 deaths in the U.S.. These are low side estimates according to the CDC (high side estimate is 55,000 dead). News on the flu has basically disappeared from television scenes, although it’s still out there. At the peak of flu season, schools had many kids missing school because of illness. Schools weren’t closed, businesses remained open, concerts went on and ball games continued.
So, what is the difference? Why is one a passing mention and the other is treated as the world wide disaster? The flu happens every year. There’s a vaccine yearly for it, although with varying effectiveness. People choose whether to take the vaccine or not. In other words, barely worth a mention in the media.
COVID-19, on the other hand, is new, unless you’re a cattle rancher, and can be molded as necessary into a crisis condition. The media can whip the people into a frenzy, and make a profit on it according to the way the handle the information. As an example, in my state of North Carolina, over the last ten days or so, we went from two people infected to five, to eight then 15 yesterday. A local news station, during their broadcast reported that one person was confirmed and the rest were presumptive. I’m not sure if that part of the story was intentional or accidental. The lead-in to the story was, of course, 15 people now with Coronavirus. The numbers are being manipulated.
Presumptive positive seems to be a buzzword, as does social distancing, defined as keeping six feet between you and everyone else in a group. Fear of contamination is being used to shut down events. Businesses will be next. Schools and Colleges are already closing until further notice. There are already rumors of mandatory self-quarantine.
The Progressives, experts in Alinsky policies of never letting a crisis go to waste, started swinging the hammer of COVID-19 against Trump and the Republicans from the very first of the situation. They complain about Trump taking too long to close the border when, for the last three years, they were screaming for Open Borders! The Democrat candidates for President blamed him for the entire crisis, while offering nothing in response except socialized medicine.
So, here we are. New York is turning the city of New Rochelle into a internment zone, surrounded by NY National Guard,confiscating private property to accept patients with Coronavirus. California Governor Newsom signed an order to commandeer hotels and motels for the acceptance of the sick.
Fear does strange things. I had to go to the grocery store today. I needed some trash bags and toilet paper was on the same aisle. Not a single roll of toilet paper was there.Now, COVID-19 is a respiratory illness rarely being accompanied by intestinal distress. So, why the run (pun intended) on toilet paper. During all this turmoil, rights are being trampled and Congress is in session unsupervised! The media and Progressives have us watching by a disease!
marjarhead1 