patrick.net

Wuhan Virus is spreading, generating more headlines, greater anxiety and paranoia, and, of course, cancellations and closings. It’s high time to ask a critical question: Could our reaction to the fear of COVID-19 do more harm than the virus itself? ...

A good deal of this panic is the result of the nigh constant and almost exclusively apocalyptic coverage in the news. Just as the left-leaning media like to hype up the number of gun deaths – the majority of which are suicides – but ignore medical mistakes, as if doctors don’t kill far more Americans than firearms, they’re now using Coronavirus as a way to target President Trump. See how terribly he’s handling this deadly pandemic? Do you really want to vote this guy back into office for a second term? It’s selective outrage: The media choose to highlight the issues that further the leftist agenda. ...

Coronavirus is not flu, no matter how many times the two are compared. The reproduction number is about twice as high for COVID-19, meaning that the average sick person is expected to infect twice as many people as they would with influenza. That aside, while the Coronavirus is believed to have a much deadlier potential than the seasonal flu, that doesn’t change the fact that COVID-19 has claimed — according to the CDC as of March 16 — 6,606 lives globally, with 41 of those being in the United States.

The flu season is still in full swing, and the CDC doesn’t like to give exact numbers because not all cases are known, but so far America has lost between 22,000 and 55,000 to influenza since October of last year. Coronavirus has a lot of catching up to do if it’s going to live up to the hype that it’s more dangerous than seasonal flu...

When the dust settles, how many people will be left without a job, a ride, or even a home? When it’s all said and done, the 2019-2020 Coronavirus death toll will almost certainly be just a drop in the bucket compared to boring old influenza. This won’t make the books as one of the greatest plagues in history, but the economic collapse caused by our panic just might.