Dr. Fauci — who runs the world right now, let’s be honest — tries to clarify that 250,000 (or even 100,000) deaths is a worst-case projection — not a certainty. Remember that America has about 330 million people. It’s sobering, regardless. However, has anyone considered the impact of a 25 percent, 35 percent or even 50 percent unemployment rate? To say nothing of the massive ripple effect throughout the world economy? That will kill people too; many more than 100,000 or 250,000. And a Great Depression II (or worse) will break the spirit of millions — for a lot longer than coronavirus lasts. Something to consider, even though I know panic and tears are the order of the day, at the moment.
It’s a difficult time. But we still have choices about how to proceed. Staying hunkered down indefinitely, perhaps for months or even years, might not be the most life-preserving solution. You have to weigh pros and cons, costs and benefits, individually and case-by-case. If you’re looking for an easy out, a sweeping one-size-fits-all Master Plan imposed by the strongman — well, I fear you will be disappointed. And if you fantasize that what we’re doing now will take care of the problem, you might want to rethink your assumptions. Just something to consider.
A reader on Facebook replied:
The first thing that I did when I heard Fauci’s predictions, rather than gasp in horror, was plug the numbers into my calculator. (Notice that the accurate % is actually lower — as America is home to 330,000,000 people, not 325,000,000.), i.e. .000615384615 percent of the population.
You’re talking facts. You’re talking reality. I commend you for it. But many Americans, as you probably realize, don’t seem to want facts any longer. They want us to feel. And do NOTHING else but feel. A feeling person naturally has empathy or compassion toward anybody who dies from a shocking, unexpected illness. But it doesn’t mean that all civilization must come to a halt — potentially forever, because we probably can’t even afford the shutdown we have endured to date. Nobody seems willing to even question it. And there’s not even an obvious, ruthless and corrupt leader driving us over the cliff, like say a Stalin, or a Hitler. It just … Dr. Fauci, who doesn’t necessarily mean any harm. Kind of by default. It’s really pitiful. America has survived every one of its major crises, and still can plausibly survive this one, based on the facts. But if most of us lose our minds, we won’t survive. They’ll say (if the worst happens) that coronavirus killed off America (and the world). But it will have been insanity.
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