Common
Sense During a Panic
- or -
The cattle
are spooked and ready to stampede.
I stated, very
early in the 2020 campaign season, that the only way for Democrats to have ANY
chance at all of winning the White House would be to have the economy collapse.
At that point, I predicted they (Democrats) would be working to make that
happen. After all, for Socialists, the ends justify the means.
Then Wuhan
hit and became the Democrats’ golden opportunity. Their comrades in the media
have created a national panic which has walloped the stock market, caused
closures of large-gathering events, initiated travel bans and caused runs (no
pun intended) on toilet paper.
EVERY
conversation I’ve had over the past few days has centered around Wuhan and it
seems that there is no end in sight.
So……
I thought I’d
take a moment to talk some sense and bring some perspective. I read a report
about a conference call from Nancy Messonnier (Director of CDC’s National
Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases) to reporters. You can read
the article here: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/11/cdc-official-we-do-not-expect-most-people-to-develop-serious-illness/.
But I’ll point out a few, very important, takeaways:
According
to Messonnier:
1. Health experts do not
expect most people to develop serious illness
2. There are two different
risk pools for this virus
a. Those who are exposed and
get sick
b. Those who are exposed and
get very sick or die from this virus
3. Who is most at risk of
developing serious illness?
a. According to reports out
of China, of about 70,000 infected, 80% were mildly sick and recovered. Fifteen
to twenty percent became seriously ill.
b. The highest risk is with
patients 80 years
According
to Messonnier, ““This is a time for people to prepare for
what they might need to do but not a time for people to clear out the shelves. And
I really want to focus on the United States and the families at highest risk
because in the setting where it’s really clear that it is older Americans who
are at the highest risk right now, we want to make sure that they’re taking
every precaution to prepare themselves so that if there is more widespread
transmission, they can stick close to home.”
Sound, reasoned, advice.
The BBC reported on the demographics of the
virus (mortality rates) (https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51674743) which broadened
the scope to include all age groups (their sample was the first 44,000 cases, was
based on the CDC statistics, which seems to be consistent with the later,
larger, sample).
Both the
CDC and WHO have set the mortality rate at around 3.4%; but, as we can plainly
see, with decreasing age (assuming normal overall health), the mortality rate
drops drastically to below one percent.
But, what neither the CDC nor WHO can
include in their findings is the number of UNreported cases; those cases where
someone was exposed, infected, then did not seek medical attention or get
tested. It stands to reason that if 80% of reported cases are mild, then there
MUST be MANY, MANY more cases of VERY mild cases where the infected party did
not bother to make notification. Undoubtedly, if these cases WERE reported and
included in the official numbers, the overall mortality rate would likely drop
to one percent or lower (which would put the mortality rate about the same as
measles).
So, is it
time to panic? In a word: no.
Is it time
to exercise precautions normal to a flu season? Of course.
The panic
that is now happening is a contrivance of Liberals desperately acting to crash
our economy, in order to take the White House. Period.
But…..mark
my words: this will ultimately fail. Why? Simple:
This is
America. We are strong and we are resilient. When this manufactured crisis is
over, our economy will come roaring back and, likely, be even stronger than it
was before the virus hit.
And, in all
likelihood, that roaring economy will be roaring as we approach election day.
