11-02-2020, 06:08 PM
(10-29-2020, 03:54 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: By the way -- COVID-19 is a genuine crisis event. In eight months we have more deaths from it than the total combat deaths of the Union side in the Civil War (which took four years, even if with a much smaller population); we are approaching the total combat death toll of American armed forces in World War II. Some Americans are responding to COVID-19 as if it were a genuine Crisis necessitating major changes in life, and some are failing to do so... and failing to do so could cause mass death.
750,000 people died in the U.S. civil war, at a time when the population was 9% of what it is today. This is the equivalent of over 8 million deaths today. There were 400,000 U.S. deaths in WW2, at a time when the population was 40% of what it is today. This is the equivalent of 1 million deaths today.
Meanwhile, there were around 700,000 U.S. deaths due to the Spanish Flu, at a time when the population was less than 30% of what it is today. That is the equivalent of perhaps 2.4 million deaths today. And this wasn't even during a crisis.
The idea that the core of the Crisis is going to be the coronavirus is silly. There aren't anywhere near enough deaths, and we're going to have a vaccine within a few months in all probability. Then it will take 6 months to vaccinate the population, during which time new vaccines will come out and they will also be used to vaccinate people. With substantial herd immunity, the U.S. and the rest of the first world will move on.
This is just a small part of the crisis. Much worse things are going to happen.