Knowledge is Power

This pandemic has a lot of people afraid. I don’t mean those wearing masks, that right now might be common sense. I’m speaking of those who are so afraid of getting sick, they fear leaving their homes or allowing visitors for any reason. The best way to fight fear is not with the media, it’s with knowledge.

I want to put things in perspective for you. This is a respiratory flu. If you have breathing issues, i.e. asthma, any type of lung disease, and even diabetes, then you are at most risk. Second are those 65 and older. Use caution. Wear a mask when you go out, don’t go in large gatherings, wash your hands well. That will help keep your risk down.

Now, for the rest, I want to lay out some information out for you. The total number of positive Covid cases in the United States as of Saturday was 4.69 million. The total number of deaths was at 156,000. There are also 328 million people living in the united states. Let’s run those figures:

US: 4,690,000 cases ÷ 328,000,000 population = 0.14; 156,000 deaths ÷ 4,690,000 cases = 0.33;

Florida: 480,000 cases ÷ 21,480,000 population = 0.22; 7,021 deaths ÷ 480,000 cases = 0.14;

Jacksonville: 21,322 cases ÷ 903,889 population = 0.23; 157 deaths ÷ 21,322 cases = 0.007.

Basically, less than 1.5% of people have tested positive in the United States. And of those who have tested positive, approximately 3.3% have died. (If you want to take it further, of the population, only 0.0004 or less than a ½ percent have died from Covid.) You have more chance of getting or dying from cancer than you do Covid. (According to cancer.org, 1.7 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2019; over 600,000 died from it. I’d rather take my chances with Covid. And if you want to see more figures, go to the CDC website for flu figures. Here’s the link if you’d like to see more: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm)

Florida’s death rate per cases is 1.4%, and Jacksonville is below 1%. (If my figures are incorrect, please let me know. I am by far not a math wiz.) And as you can see when you look at the rest of the figures, Jacksonville’s virus rate is higher than the US average, yet our death rate is very low. Shows you the great medical we have here!

I’m not giving you these figures to make you angry or make some sort of political statement. In fact, if you get nasty with your remarks like some have when I’ve mentioned these figures, I won’t accept your comments. Like a highly intelligent sixteen—year-old told me, “this is about a disease, not politics,” so don’t make is such.

I hope this information helps alleviate some of the fear for those out there who have allowed this virus to isolate you. It’s okay to go out, just take some protective measures.

No matter how you feel about this pandemic. Be cautious. If you are ill, stay home. Don’t allow strangers into your house if you do not know where they have been. But in the end, remember, God is in control, and knowledge is power.