Opus 2020-318: Not on Your Life

Much of the current virus fear is driven by ignorance.  The ignorance is avoidable but it requires a bit of thinking and public school graduates are not known for their thinking skills.  They are also weak in math and logic.  This makes them easy marks for the frauds of the news and government.

People are afraid because they are ignorant of history.  They think that the current virus is a big killer.  They can only think this if they were asleep in history when they talked about all of the plagues down through history.  If you look at the Black Death of the 14th century you get estimates of the death rate running from 30% to 60%.  The reason the range in the estimates is so large is that at the peak of the plague so many people were dying that no one could keep records.  It was the most they could do to dispose of the bodies.  Entire villages died.  Compare that with the current panic over less than 1% of the population dying.  

What increases the fear is the way in which information is made available.  I was looking at a CDC site that gave some statistics.  It listed the death rate in the United States at 867.8 deaths per 100,000 population.  Then it said the total of deaths was 2,839, 205.  Something about that just didn’t look right so I did a little multiplying and dividing and realized that they had left a zero off.  The deaths were really per 1,000,000 population.  If you are a budding reporter or researcher and know how to use a calculator but have no concept of what the answer should be you can scare the wits out of people.  When I see things like that it makes me wonder what other details they have wrong.

I am aware that the number of deaths is up.  When you read that you need to factor in the blatant lies that are involved.  Keep in mind that the CDC admitted that at least 30% of the deaths reported were not really Covid related.  If they admit 30% then you know it is much higher.  Are people dying?  Yes.  Is water wet?  Same answer.  It doesn’t mean that I worry about water, unless it is rising or leaking through my roof.  

So put on your big boy pants and get on with life.  There are lots of things out to get you:  Drunk drivers, ice on bridges, weak sidewalls on your tires, jealous husbands, the IRS, the common cold, your ladder, your bathtub.  I think you can add to the list.  None of those, except maybe the jealous husband, keep us from going about our daily business.  Could I die and be labeled a Covid statistic this week?  Sure.  Does that change a thing I am saying?  Not on your life, or not on my death.

homo unius libri