As of today (May 11, 2020), 80,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
In 2018, 80,000 Americans died of the flu. It was a bad flu year.
You can watch this on YouTube too.
It's fascinating how we look at death.
The Infection Fatality Rate of COVID-19 is about 10 times worse than influenza.
Therefore, if we didn't shelter in place, perhaps we would have lost 10x more Americans than the 2018 flu season, which would mean about 1 million deaths.
I've been called callous. But imagine if:
We treated ...
As of today (May 11, 2020), 80,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
In 2018, 80,000 Americans died of the flu. It was a bad flu year.
You can watch this on YouTube too.
It's fascinating how we look at death.
The Infection Fatality Rate of COVID-19 is about 10 times worse than influenza.
Therefore, if we didn't shelter in place, perhaps we would have lost 10x more Americans than the 2018 flu season, which would mean about 1 million deaths.
I've been called callous. But imagine if:
- We treated airline flights like rocket launches - and took 7 hours to go through all the safety checks.
- We set a 10 MPH speed limit nationwide.
- We mandated a nonstop shelter in place to stop the 5 million deaths from communicable diseases.
Such draconian measures would save thousands of lives. But would you be in favor of them?
Not all lives are equal
If a US soldier is KIA, his family gets $100,000
When the US military accidentally killed an Afghan boy, they gave his father $1,000 as compensation.
It easy to make deaths look meaningful and meaningless
Cite 9/11 and you'll get people emotional quite quickly.
Cite a big number to put things in perspective. For example, 5 million people die from communicable diseases every year:
- Lower respiratory infections: 3 million
- Diarrhoeal infections 1.5 million
- Tuberculosis: 1 million
That's 4.5 Sept 11th happening every day of every year.
It's not either open the economy or close the economy
There's the Swedish way, which allows some opening:
- Schools are open since kids are at low risk.
- People are encouraged to shelter in place.
- The old are asked to stay home.
More info
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