Covid-19 toll (April 28, 2020): 58,313
U.S. Vietnam War deaths: 58,209
Meanwhile, as some impatient GOP governors begin to reopen their states, “Georgia is projected to see its number of daily Covid-19 deaths nearly double by early August,” according to a researcher cited by the CDC.
The threat posed by Covid-19 “might be more serious than what people have been thinking,” the researcher said. “I want to make sure that people understand the facts and the science.”
Read story here.
And the Hong Kong flu of 1968 and 1969 killed 100,000 Americans and did not bring the nation to a stop, and bring about 20 million unemployed and a potential depression that could rival the Great Depression, or have a greater unemployment rate.
Medical experts projected that without social distancing and other measures, U.S. deaths from Covid-19 would exceed 2 million. Besides saving lives, these restrictions are designed to “flatten the curve” so the health care system isn’t overwhelmed. Would you like to be desperately ill, at risk of dying, and abandoned because no medical facility can take you? That is why we are locked down, to prevent that horrible scenario. There’s a reason why this outbreak is different from others: We have no immunity to it, it’s highly contagious, and it’s unusually deadly. It now seems that, in addition to coping with a flood of very sick patients and a frightening death toll, American society is facing another challenge of an altogether different sort: A political push to sacrifice lives for the sake of the economy, supported by a propaganda campaign that is spreading falsehoods and disinformation about Covid-19. Ascertaining the true facts that should guide our policy responses is not a game for unqualified amateurs. Let the experts who know what they’re doing figure this out. You can’t. And be careful about who you believe, because there are now a lot of lies and falsehoods being circulated by people whose agenda isn’t about saving lives.