You’re forgetting, if we do nothing to “lower the curve” for COVID-19 it may well get to 100 million or more US cases before it subsides.
Regardless, the seasonal flu has not gone away. No, it’s still here. All the COVID-19 cases are additional. Whatever preparedness, supplies, medical facilities, and effect on jobs and the economy seasonal flu has these additional COVID-19 cases are beyond that, in most ways far beyond that. So, instead of thinking of COVID-19 in terms of something ordinary we need to think of it as something extraordinary. We’re looking at a rapid and massive flu epidemic, the likes we haven’t seen since 1918.
Suppose we jumped from last year’s 1282 cases of measles to 100,000 new cases in one month, projected a million cases the next month, and tens of millions the following month. Would we pooh-pooh such a measles epidemic because we have more cases of seasonal flu? Of course not. We would do whatever we could to slow the infection rate and control the spread, especially if we didn’t yet have a measles vaccine, just like we’re doing for COVID-19.
Look at this epidemic in terms of other US epidemics. The 1921-1925 diphtheria epidemic killed 15,500 people - but it took four years to do that. The 1916 polio epidemic didn’t peak until 1955 and killed 3,145 - but it took almost 40 years to do that. Here we have a new illness that has already killed 1,700 in US in the last 3 weeks alone! Good grief!
Oh, what they heck, why should we care if half a million Americans die of COVID-19 this year? After all, 650,000 Americans die from heart disease every year. Why worry?
Sorry for the double post. My finger must have jumped on the touch-pad. Is there a way to delete it?
Why worry?
There should be laughter after the pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now?
Why worry now?
google 1918 spanish flu usb deaths.