Coronavirus – the Double Standard

For some of us, the word “statistics”, brings back memories of our college days, when we were forcefully required to deal with this occult science – one which I, sooner than later, found to be a rather valuable tool used in collecting, organizing, analyzing and interpreting data in rather meaningful quantitative forms. Matter of fact, I venture to say, statistics are intimately entwined in our lives as a means of evaluating the past, the present, and forecasting the future.

Given its obvious usefulness, I personally have remained an avid practitioner of this applied science throughout my life while exploiting its infinite value, albeit as intend today, putting it to good use relative to its common-sense practicality when analyzing this Coronavirus /COVID-19 pandemic.

The moment I started my analysis, I came across some rather revealing occurrences. The first lesson I learned was that the average worldwide mortality rate is compiled in what is known as ‘crude death rate’, typically interpreted as the number of deaths per 1000 inhabitants in a population. In 2020, the CIA estimates the U.S. crude death rate will be 8.3 per 1000, a tad higher than the world global rate of 7.7 per 1000. Translated into real numbers, we conclude that the yearly worldwide death toll today is of approximately some 60+ million people, of which 2+ million pertain to the U.S.

Next, I learned that the leading causes of death in the U.S. were Heart Disease, closely followed by Cancer and Accidents. These 3 causes alone account for approximately 1.4 million or 68.1% of deaths in the nation every year. Compare this number to the number of Coronavirus / COVID-19 deaths reported thus far as of Monday, April 13th, of 23,462 here in the United States.

When I first wrote this piece, I set out to do a comparative analysis of the Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic relative to other mortality statistics, only to find some revealing and much unexpected results. Considering the fact that the worldwide Coronavirus fatalities reported thus far of 119,091 and 23,462 in the U.S. happened during a short-span within the last four months, to wit, between January and April of this year, and, for the sake of parity, comparing “pears with pears and apples with apples,” in my comparative model, I made an allowance which presumes, hopefully not, there will be an equal number of deaths in the remaining 3 quarters of 2020. That is, for comparative purposes, I am projecting a death toll from the Coronavirus Pandemic of approximately 350,000+ people worldwide, and 70,000+ here in the U.S., throughout the rest of 2020.

Were this the case and if I am right, mind you, the number of Coronavirus deaths would be equivalent to a rather low 0.6% of the total yearly worldwide deaths of 60+ million, and for the U.S., the projected 70,000 would be equivalent to 3.5%. To tell you the truth, I was utterly surprised and at the same time thrilled to find how low these percentages were relatively low compared to the state of disruption ensuing from the pandemic.

I was further amazed by the fact that this U.S. Coronavirus 3.5% compared much lower to other causes of death in the nation such as Heart Disease with 31.1%, Cancer with 28.8%, Accidents with 8.2%, Respiratory Diseases with 7.7%, Strokes with 7.0%, Alzheimer with 5.8% and Diabetes with 4.0%. In the same comparison table, I couldn’t help but notice that my Coronavirus projected deaths were comparable only to deaths caused by Influenza, Nephritis, and Suicides.

My next comparison was to the number of people that have been killed in wars throughout history, which historians have it as high, ranging up to 1 billion people. Add another 60.9 million killed by human Genocides, and it will give you a death toll averaging 500,000 people every year over a span of 2,166 years since 146 BC. We can then conclude that mankind’s wars and genocides have been approximately 28.5% higher than the projected worldwide deaths resulting from the Coronavirus. Here again, the projected number of Coronavirus deaths is considerably lower than people dying in man-made wars and genocides.

In my comparison tour, I purposely left for last, the one statistic closest to my heart and that is a comparative analysis of deaths caused by Communism as compared to the Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic. While the number of deaths attributed to Communism varies greatly, according to one the most trusted sources on the subject, R. J. Rummel, in his book Death by Government (1994), there were approximately 110 million people killed by Communist democide from 1900 to 1987 – the term “democide” defined by Rummel as ‘the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command.”

So, in essence, you can say the Communists have killed an average of 1.2 million people per year in 87 years. So, if I take all these comparative statistics into consideration, I can’t help but come to some rather obvious conclusions, the first one being a refreshing realization that the number of deaths resulting from this Coronavirus pandemic is not anywhere nearly as high as we have made them out to be – that is, as compared to the magnanimous state of preparedness and disruption of our lives, such as that we have been experiencing. In my humble opinion, the death threat has been somewhat gently over-stated.

My next observation deals with the rather overt double-standard afflicting mankind relative to our state of collective hysteria that has resulted from the Coronavirus pandemic as compared to the avertible deaths that result year-in and year-out from man-made wars and genocides. Before I go on, however, let me just clarify something before you pass judgment on me prematurely. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, underestimating the deadly threat posed by the Coronavirus pandemic. But I am, on the other hand, questioning our collective madness in hedging the virus as compared to our copacetic approval to kill each other in wars and genocides.

In summary my dear friends, I do acclaim, approve and applaud the way the world, as a whole, has quickly reacted to the threats posed by this pandemic attack, more so, the way that our president, Donald Trump, and his administration have swiftly handled the crisis, possibly avoiding many more deaths in the nation. By the same token, I disparage, disapprove and condemn mankind’s blatant double-standard, which has us, on the one hand, joining in together to defend the species against a common enemy, and, on the other hand, continue with our untroubled approval to kill each other through our wars and genocides. May God save us and may save the United States of America.