Stop the COVID-19 Insanity Now

By Eitan Adut —— Bio and Archives--April 9, 2020, 40 comments

It is the gross overreaction of certain government and business leaders to the Wuhan coronavirus of 2020, otherwise known as COVID-19, that is the danger to the United States, not the virus itself. The abundance of data show that the virus is similar in danger to the seasonal flu, and the longer governments persist in their overreaction, the more severe damage they will do to the economy and the lives that depend on it.

Number of people who will die of COVID-19 illness will be a small fraction of those who die of the flu every season

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that from October 1, 2019 to March 28, 2020, approximately 24,000-63,000 have died of the flu out of 246,842 confirmed cases. That’s a confirmed case fatality rate (CCFR) of roughly 10% to 25%. As of April 8, there have been 14,831 reported fatalities among 435,553 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States. That is a CCFR of about 3.4%—which is at most 34% of the CCFR of the flu. However, because most people with non-life threatening symptoms don’t present themselves to health facilities to be tested or counted for statistics, the CCFR for both illnesses vastly overestimate the actual chance of dying if infected: the infection fatality rate (IFR). To calculate the IFR, the number of fatalities is divided by the estimated number of people infected.

So how can we know what the IFR is for contracting COVID-19? If people who manifest similar symptoms are both hospitalized and tested for COVID-19 as they would be for the flu, then we can make a rough comparison between them. It is estimated by the CDC that about 39 to 55 million people have contracted the flu during the 2019-2020 season. If we divide the flu fatalities stated previously, by the estimated number of infections, it would mean a flu IFR that is at most 0.16%.

Left[ists] are already calling for using this opportunity to nationalize industries, socialize medicine, explode the debt, universalize the welfare state, and to violate constitutional rights........

A state-by-state examination of the graphs of COVID-19 confirmed cases and fatalities indicates no correlation between the imposition of business shutdowns and either the growth rate of infection or the growth rate of fatalities. On the other hand, it is well documented that economic decline leads to a decline in health and life expectancy.  That makes sense.  Wealth is dependent on productivity. 

Higher productivity creates a greater abundance of goods and services on which our health depends, which makes them more affordable: the basic resources we need, the quality of our medical care, the quality of our place of residence, greater freedom to engage in professions that are less hazardous or stressful, and time-off for relaxation and self-improvement. 

Sudden economic decline, particularly business failure, bankruptcy, and unemployment are also significant contributors to death by suicide.  Ultimately, our health depends on our ability to keep doing, without interference, what each one of us does best...................To Read More....