Article by Sarah Hoyt in "PJMedia":
As deaths from the Xi Flu mount
in the U.S., the media keeps announcing them as if it’s absolutely the
end of the world. I have no idea what we’ll be up to by the time this
article goes up, but I’d guess probably around 500 or a little under.
And sure, it’s easy to get panicked by that. Five hundred is a lot of dead people.
If
you tell people on social media that yeah, it’s a big number, but not
as much – not by far – as the number of annual flu deaths in the U.S.,
you’re going to get called a monster, asked what if this person were
your spouse, your mother or your child, and told that all these
measures, and destroying our economy, are completely worth it, if we
‘save even one life.’
But the problem is that you can’t save that one life. Not forever.
If
we were an immortal species, which only dies under unusual
circumstances, say when we drop from buildings, or when we contract a
flu that crossed the species barrier because someone in Wuhan, China,
needed him (or her) some yummy bat soup, then the “if it saves just one
death” part would be completely justified.
As it is, though, we all die, sooner or later. At most, death-like taxes this year might be postponed.
And given the average age of the people dying of the Xi-Flu, the truth is that if they don’t die of this, they will die of the next epidemic cold or flu (btw, did you know China now seems to have an outbreak of a new bird flu?) that comes near them.
It’s terrible, but it is also part of the human condition.
The
truth is that while the media tries to stampede us with constant
harping on the percentage of people who die of China virus, we in fact
do not know what it is and have reason to suspect it’s markedly lower.
Why? Well, because we don’t know the total number of people who are
infected with the virus, particularly since it’s possible the virus was
in the U.S. in early December; it was in China and recognized by mid-November. (Note the first confirmed
case was almost certainly not patient zero. And there was chatter about
a weird virus in China from October on.) Also, given what we know from
various studies, like the one linked above, or the one in Iceland, most
people who get infected show no symptoms or very mild symptoms.
Given
those two conditions, we can’t tell how many people in the population
have the virus. Right now we’re only testing for active cases (not
antibodies) and we’re only testing those people who show symptoms strong
enough to go to the doctor (you need a doctor's note to get a test.)
Which won’t include the potentially vast number of very mild or
no-symptoms cases.
Keep that
in mind when you hear the scary, scary numbers, which, as of early
morning March 23, 2020, are 34,754 active cases (i.e. people who were
sick enough to get a note from their doctor and be tested for the China
Virus) and 471 deaths, which is around (it’s early and I refuse to do
math) 1.5% mortality. But again, this is from people sick enough to look
for help, not from the—estimating from the Diamond Princess, because a
controlled experiment—80% of people who simply shrug this off.
Now
both the number of active cases and the number of deaths are going to
go up, as more tests become available. And knowing our media, they’ll
report being infected as a death sentence. Which it is not. The highest
mortality rate is in the 80+ age range, with significant comorbidities
and even that isn’t precisely 100%. In fact, it’s around 10%. Horrible
of course, but not a death sentence.
But,
you’ll say, what if it were your grandmother? Isn’t it justified to put
everyone under lockdown and extreme emergency measures and destroy the
economy to save your grandmother?
My
personal grandmother, if she were still alive, and they told me I’d
need to kill all of you in batch lots to keep her alive – and get to
have tea with her – one more day? Let’s just say I’d prefer not to be
tempted.
However, that doesn’t make it a good idea.
Why not?
Because
by sacrificing our wealth, we’re sacrificing our ability to care for
other grandmothers in the future. Absent in the barrage the media is
blasting at people is that part of the reason for the triage – known as
letting people die – in Italy is the lack of money for the medical
system. Now, part of this is because it’s government-run, part is
because the Italian economy has been sinking for several years.
Which
means that by destroying the economy we’re condemning a lot of grandmas
to death. (And that’s without taking into account how poverty increases
illness.)
But let’s say –
for the sake of argument – we take the left’s idea that it’s worth
putting everyone on lockdown to avoid one death.
Well, guys, we’re in trouble now.
Because the number of people who die in the U.S. every year from the strangest things is through the roof.
First of all let’s get the annual flu deaths from an average flu year in the U.S., from a site at random.
If
you take the number of deaths year-wise, you will find a vast variation
with a low of 3,349 deaths during the flu season of 1986-87 to a high
of 48,614 in 2003-04.
222,000 Positively Tested for Flu and 22,000 deaths
Which
is probably also a low estimate on how many people had it, because at
least for me, the normal answer to calling my doctor and telling them I
have the flu is “You probably do. Don’t come in.”
Now,
with those numbers putting the COVID-Sars-Wuhan flu in perspective,
let’s look at other ways to die that don’t seem to make our media run
around with their hair on fire:
There are 60 people per year killed by an animal in the U.S. Yes,
I know those are rookie numbers, but it’s obvious that we must from now
on destroy every animal in our near vicinity. Bonus, we’ll make
Alexandria Occasional-Cortex happy by not eating cow.
For instance, we’re told that 100,000 people a year die of air pollution in the
U.S. (which probably means that the Chinese, the Indians, and the
people in the place where I grew up, including myself, are already dead,
since air quality is and was markedly worse in most of the world).
Obviously
this means no one is ever to go without a filtered mask, not even in
the privacy of their own homes. Neighbors and children are encouraged to
denounce those who refuse to do this. No exceptions. If it saves only
one life, it’s worth it, much less 100 thousand lives. How do you dare
oppose it, you monster?
And let’s not forget that in 2005-2014 there were an average of 3,536 fatal unintentional drownings (non-boating related) annually in the United States.
Unlike
Cov-Sar-China virus, this scourge falls disproportionately on those
under 14, who have their entire lives ahead of them and are of economic
importance for the future, at least if you expect anyone to pay for the
panic insanity of 2020.
That
means they must be saved. Fortunately, the fix is relatively minor. All
levels of government must ensure that all Americans wear a lifejacket
at all times, even in bed, because the ground could open under your
house and drop you into a long-forgotten underground river. If it saves
even one life! You’ll sleep with filter-mask and lifejacket on and like
it.
Also, since some percentage of these deaths are in the bathtub, these appliances shall now be ripped from every home.
Apparently 3655 people died from fires in the U.S. in 2018.
Weirdly the site insists the leading cause of house fires is smoking,
not greenies deciding you can’t take dried and dead wood out of
forests. That was a surprise! Also, not global warming. Another
surprise.
Anyway, even if
you don’t smoke, you can get fires started by using fire for cooking.
Or by using electricity – one of our supposed surge-prevention strips
caught fire last week and we were lucky it didn’t burn the house down –
so the only possible approach to preventing all those potential fire
deaths is that you’re not henceforth allowed to use fire or any
electricity in the home. Who knew North Korea was a trendsetter and
even they didn’t go far enough?
At this point, you’re asking how you’re going to cook, but don’t worry, because you’re not. In
the US, 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000
die from foodborne diseases every year, according to the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. And food poisoning is actually
getting worse.
So, it
turns out that you mugs can’t actually be trusted to cook your own food
and eat without killing yourselves. From now on food will be
distributed by government dieticians who will first sanitize it by
spraying it with disinfectant.
Apparently, more than 27,000 falls led to death in 2014, out of 800,000 falls that led to injury. Like the China virus, this cruel harbinger of doom falls disproportionately on the old and the enfeebled.
From
now on EVERY American must wear a complex apparatus composed of
stabilizing and catching rods and buffers in case they trip. They will
be followed by another American carrying pillows, in case they can’t
avoid the fall, so they can cushion it.
Yes,
that means Americans will do nothing but follow each other carrying
pillows. But hey, if it saves even one life, who are you to say it’s not
worth it? What if it were your mother, you unfeeling savage?
The alternative is making everyone crawl on their belly so they can’t fall, of course.
So
you see, in the interest of saving even one life, you will now have to
crawl on your belly wearing a filter mask and a life preserve, and be
handed your vegan (all the animals being dead) disinfectant-impregnated
food. (Yes, I do know disinfectant is usually poisonous. But this is a
government program, so that’s what you’ll get.)
And you’ll like it! Because if it saves even one life, it’s totally worth it, right?