80,000 COVID vs. 80,000 Flu Deaths

As of today (May 11, 2020), 80,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.In 2018, 80,000 Americans died of the flu. It was a bad flu year.You can watch this on YouTube too.It's fascinating how we look at death.The Infection Fatality Rate of COVID-19 is about 10 times worse than influenza. Therefore, if we didn't shelter in place, perhaps we would have lost 10x more Americans than the 2018 flu season, which would mean about 1 million deaths.I've been called callous. But imagine if:We treated airline flights like rocket launches - and took 7 hours to go through all the safety checks.We set a 10 MPH speed limit nationwide.We mandated a nonstop shelter in place to stop the 5 million deaths from communicable diseases. Such draconian measures would save thousands of lives. But would you be in favor of them?Not all lives are equalIf a US soldier is KIA, his family gets $100,000When the US military accidentally killed an Afghan boy, they gave his father $1,000 as compensation.It easy to make deaths look meaningful and meaninglessCite 9/11 and you'll get people emotional quite quickly. Cite a big number to put things in perspective. For example, 5 million people die from communicable diseases every year:Lower respiratory infections: 3 millionDiarrhoeal infections 1.5 millionTuberculosis: 1 millionThat's 4.5 Sept 11th happening every day of every year.It's not either open the economy or close the economyThere's the Swedish way, which allows some opening:Schools are open since kids are at low risk.People are encouraged to shelter in place.The old are asked to stay home.More infoYou can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always ftapon. Follow me on:http://facebook.com/ftaponhttp://twitter.com/ftaponhttp://youtube.com/user/ftaponhttp://pinterest.com/ftaponhttp://tumblr.com/ftaponMy Patrons sponsored this show!Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron at http://Patreon.com/FTaponRewards start at just $2/month!If you prefer to do a one-time contribution, you can send it to my PayPal at [email protected] you prefer giving me Bitcoin, then please send BTC to my tip jar: 3EiSBC2bv2bYtYEXAKTkgqZohjF27DGjnV Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe