March 28, 2020
Perspective on corona panic
By Robert T. Smith
Nobody is saying the Wuhan flu should not be taken seriously, but some sense of perspective is needed.
For the 2017–2018 flu season, an estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CNN, September 27, 2018). This was a bad recent flu season that was even mitigated to some extent by the flu vaccine.
All age groups across the entire country died, from infants to the aged. The daily body count was not breathlessly reported or graphically depicted on the media 24/7, and nobody fought over toilet paper or the last package of ground beef in the local Walmart. Were these people's lives not as significant as those who are now expiring due to the Wuhan flu? Did their families not feel the same grief as they buried their children, sisters, mothers, grandparents?
Based on information from China, the death rate by age group for the Wuhan flu is as follows (Business Insider, February 27, 2020):
Less than 0.5% up to the age of 49,
1.3% for those in their 50s,
3.6% for those in their 60s,
8% for those in their 70s, and
14.8% for those 80 and up.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/03/perspective_on_corona_panic.html
