Jackie Taylor | May 20, 2020

 

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I’m over this pandemic; I was never infected with the virus , but I’m done with the restrictions, the rules shoved on me, the fear keeping normal people from living their lives – and as a consequence, me living mine – and I’m done with the cancelations of events that will never be replaced.

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I’m done with people taking advantage of other people for money. I speak of those who are on the inside of developing vaccines for a virus that, according to a conglomeration of information put together by Swiss Policy Research, has a lethality on average of .2 percent, which, according to their study, is in the range of severe influenza – about 20 times lower than originally assumed by the World Health Organization (WHO.)

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And, the vaccine will reportedly cost $1,000 per dose. Criminal when you think about a drug regiment including hydroxychloroquine that doctors in the United States are having success with that costs $13.

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Part of their overview including global hotspots says the risk of death for the general population of school and working age is typically in the range of a daily car ride to work. They continued that the risk was initially overestimated because many people with only mild or no symptoms were not taken into account.

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An interesting graph accompanied some of their article called “Facts about COVID-19” and included numbers of infection rates compared to other viruses: “Source: the World Health Organization, the CDC and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and various studies graphed that the infection rate the average person infects from measles is 12-18, COVID-19 1.5 to 4.5 people (according to data from Wuhan), SARS 2 to 4 people, Swine flu 1.4 to 1.6, and seasonal flu .9 to 2.1 people.

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I had a conversation with my dad the other day; he’s 85 and in the vulnerable population, as is my stepmom. He had fear that Oklahoma was opening up too quickly and going to spread the virus further in the population.

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I have sympathy for his feelings, and I have fear for their health as I love them. But, I also realize that given demographics that are probably close to Linn County, I figure Oklahoma has 25 percent of their population over 65. Given that, I feel that locking down the other 75 percent of the population that most likely still has to work to pay a mortgage was unreasonable.

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The Swiss study stated, “The median or average age of the deceased in most countries (including Italy) is over 80 years and only about 1 percent of the deceased had no serious preconditions. The age and risk profile of deaths thus essentially corresponds to normal mortality.”

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Further, the report stated, “In many countries, up to two thirds of all extra deaths occurred in nursing homes, which do not benefit from a general lockdown. Moreover, in many cases it is not clear whether these people really died from COVID-19 or from extreme stress, fear and loneliness.”

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I think of cases we’ve seen in our area – people having babies and not seeing them for two weeks, people losing loved ones in hospitals without being able to say their last goodbyes. Where does the common sense begin in these cases?

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I look at our own county. The lockdown seemed to create a chasm between those who want the world locked down until there is no hint of a virus and then there are those that realize life goes on whether there is a virus floating out there or not.

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People are willing to destroy other people’s livelihoods, lives, families, etc., so that they can feel safe in this world. None of us are safe – whether we live in our basement with a tin hat on for the duration of our lives or we decide we are living the life God gave us to the fullest and we venture forth.

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To see the full article, check out this week's edition of the Linn County News or check out the online version here

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