WUHAN

Common Sense During a Panic

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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.