As of March 15th, the US has recorded its 85th death from the Coronavirus since the introduction on our shores in January! Of those 22 were at a single nursing home in the Seattle area. It is still a bit sketchy how one nursing home did not protect their residents from this flu, one has to wonder what would have happened with any flue virus coming into the facility.
Let’s check out the facts so far for both the Coronavirus & Influenza (normal seasonal flu):
- The (seasonal) flu remains a higher threat to U.S. public health than the new coronavirus.
- This flu season alone has sickened at least 19 million across the U.S. and led to 10,000 deaths and 180,000 hospitalizations. The 2018-2019 US deaths from influenza was approximately 34,200
- Coronavirus stats to date:
- 340 Million US occupants – 4,660 Tests positive for Covid19, 60 deaths with 10’s of thousands suspected to be “infected”
- Current death rate @ .000012 in the United States
- Worldwide Deaths @ approximately 5,500 with 7+ Billion people
- Profile of Deaths – For example, in Italy 89% of the deaths are in individuals are over the age of seventy.
- Among those infected with the virus, older adults with preexisting heart conditions or hypertension face a sharply higher risk, according to preliminary statistics, including from a study covering more than 72,000 patients in China. Men at a rate of 3-2 are more likely to be victims among this class as it is theorized that they smoke at a much higher rate in China.
What should we do right now? Relax. If you have people at risk in your family or inner circle, take care to keep distance and practice good hygiene. Protect those at high risk by helping them stay somewhat isolated until an effective vaccine is released. Let’s not shut down society and torch industries in the mean time. BTW, the same type of practices to protect those at risk should be employed for the seasonal flu as well.
Let’s look at comparable states and deaths in the US, just trying to keep this in context:
- 38,800 traffic fatalities in the United States in 2019, the National Safety Council estimates. That represents an average of over one hundred traffic deaths every day; if the press cataloged these in as much painstaking detail as they have deaths from coronavirus, highways nationwide would be as empty as store shelves are right now.
- 70,000 Opiod overdose Deaths per year
- 129 suicides per day in the US
Protect loved ones, wash your hands, sanitize your devices when around others and use common sense when it is not so common at the moment. Let’s not shut down society!
