COVID Numbers and Priorities

[jimhines]

“I don’t know how to explain to you why you should care about other people.”
-Lauren Morrill

Here in the U.S., we’ve reached the point that 1 in 500 Americans have died of COVID.

Reading the responses to this news has been enlightening. Some people have immediately pointed out that 1 in 500 is only 0.2%. Others responded that 0.2% of the U.S. population is roughly 660,000 dead.

All of which is correct. But while the mathematics are equivalent, they don’t necessarily suggest the same thing.

The 0.2% figure is the chance, all else being equal, of you as an individual dying of COVID. If your focus is on your individual safety, then 0.2% looks like pretty good odds. Of course, everything else isn’t equal. Some states have higher COVID rates than others. Some people have more risk factors. (By the way, one of the biggest risk factors these days is being unvaccinated. I’m just saying…)

The 660,000+ number, on the other hand, is about the damage this virus has done to us as a country. COVID has killed far more Americans than died in World War II. It’s killed more than the entire population of Vermont. From a community standpoint, COVID has been devastating.

And this doesn’t even touch on the roughly 10% of people who contract long COVID, meaning they’ll have long-term health consequences from this disease.

Now, I’m glad that the odds of me personally dying of COVID are relatively low. But when I see people focusing exclusively on that 0.2% figure as a way to attack COVID precautions, well, it makes it very clear who those people really care about, and who they don’t.

Comments

[laurenthemself]

The 'it's only 0.2%' mindset is so upsetting. In Australia it's 'only' 0.0043% (if I did my maths right, which I may well not have), and yet we've got anti-lockdown idiots rallying as though the lockdowns and such weren't what's keeping our numbers down!

[mistressofmuses]

That's such a sobering and upsetting figure to have reached. But you're right: It's far more upsetting to see people acting like "0.2%" is a somehow meaningless, trivial amount.

[tattooofhername]

Sadly, that 0.2% doesn't count the heart attack patients who die in hallways for lack of beds and available nurses because everywhere is full of Covid patients. I don't know that anyone is counting that death toll, but I know it's there.

[thewayne]

I read yesterday that every three days Covid kills another 9/11. I don't know the daily count and whether or not that's accurate, but it's a sobering statement if true.

[wild_patience]

I don't understand such people. One in 500 may not seem like a big deal until that one is someone you love. The GOP is essentially practicing human sacrifice with their "no vaccines," refusal to mask, and absurd abortion laws.