Compared to what? by Heather Mac Donald | The New Criterion

Compared to what? That should be the question that every fear-mongering news story on the coronavirus has to start with. So far, the United States has seen forty-one deaths from the infection. Twenty-two of those deaths occurred in one poorly run nursing home outside of Seattle, the Life Care Center. Another nine deaths occurred in the rest of Washington state, leaving ten deaths (four in California, two in Florida, and one in each of Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey, and South Dakota) spread throughout the rest of the approximately 329 million residents of the United States. This represents roughly .000012 percent of the U.S. population.

via newcriterion.com

Heather MacDonald is one of the most intelligent social critics out there, which is why I find this piece so puzzling. The issue, as Heather acknowledges, is the exponential growth of the disease, not its current state. If it grows quickly enough, our emergency rooms, hospitals, etc., will be overwhelmed, and that means lots of people will die. Yes, mostly older people, but that includes some of us older people, presumably. In any event, I fear we’ll get to see who is right about this, and soon. If two weeks from now, all we have is a challenging but manageable uptick in the demand for medical services, you’ll all know I was wrong, and I earnestly hope I am.