We have seen studies from Stanford University on Santa Clara County that indicate that 50 to 85% of the people have already been infected. Similar studies from the University of Southern California showing in Los Angeles County up to 50% of the people have been infected and now in N.Y. there are saying that 20% of the population have been infected. We are seeing the same results repeat themselves even in states where there are lower populations.
These numbers are telling us that the mortality rate of this virus is just about that of the regular flu. Will there be opposition arguing that the studies are not done properly and therefore the results are wrong. Yes, there will always be challenges to statistics on things like this but we are getting to the point of overwhelming evidence. These three separate studies are showing that the numbers that have been projected by Fauchi the CDC and NIH have been completely off the mark. Remember they started with 2 million dead now we are down to 60,000, less than in most bad flu years.
The only thing new in the Governor’s recent address is the addition of a new website telling us that the shutdown is not going to end any time soon. This, in my opinion, is a non-decision and Chicken Little’s way out, meaning he is still listening to the bureaucratic bean counters in the public health medical community. What he has done is to continue to pick winners and losers instead of allowing everyone to open up using common sense in keeping their customers safe. He is not talking about any repercussions for these businesses from a legal standpoint for opening just telling them to stay closed. What he should do is allow these businesses to open and see if they get any traffic. If consumers feel safe they will patronize these establishments and if they are still fearful they will avoid these businesses. This is what is called the free market. Common sense would tell people if they are going to put themselves in jeopardy they will avoid and businesses they are skeptical of entering.
Governor Little has shown us that he is not a real leader but a follower of advisors. The Governors approach to this virus has been wrong from the beginning. The real question has always been are we trying to keep people from dying for are we trying to keep everyone healthy because the CDC has already told us that everyone will eventually get this bug. This virus is not going to go away till we have attained herd immunity and there is no way we can stop it. Dr. Livingston’s suggestion to sequester those who are most vulnerable was the best idea to flatten the curve. We have never had more than 1/3 of our hospital beds used for COVID19 patients. We have only to look at the age and medical condition of those who have died. The data is clear but the governor his advisors have ignored it. 11.3% of Idaho’s population are in their 60’s and 9.8% are in their 70’s so instead of protecting the 20% of the population that are most vulnerable He has closed the entire state. The problems that are yet to come because of this shutdown will cause more deaths and heartache than the virus itself. Bad decisions yield bad results.
We have lots of unanswered questions. We have not heard the governor nor any of the doctors running this circus say one word about the fact that Hydroxychloroquine has been effective in saving people’s lives from this virus. In fact, we don’t even know if they are using the drug in our hospitals and clinics which I find kind of odd. It may be because he and the docs are tuned into CNN instead of looking at the real results. The other thing we don’t know is how many of the 51 dead had medical complications when they were diagnosed with the virus and potentially died of other causes? Wouldn’t that be an interesting piece of information to disseminate if they wanted to ease the public’s fear of this virus? If we don’t have more than 10 cases in 21 of Idaho’s counties why isn’t the governor opening up those counties for business? It’s time we had some answers to these questions.
The economic damage being done by keeping so many businesses shut down is going to be something that we will regret for many years to come. Some people who have put their life’s savings into their businesses will probably lose everything. The U.S. unemployment rate just hit 26% that is 4% higher than during the 2008 housing crisis recession. Home sales are down 15% and you can be sure that credit card bills are not being paid on time but are running up a tab on their debit balances at 18% or more. Oddly enough even Glen Beck mentioned on his show that Idaho should open up with the small amount of cases and deaths they have. He even rattled off some staggering numbers on how this continued shutdown would severely damage our state both in GDP and in unemployment if it went on for several more weeks.
Strong leaders do no let fear rule when it comes to decision making but instead use logic and common sense to deal with matters like the one at hand. Our governor is afraid of making a decision on opening the state because of bad advice from the medical community. In the end, it will not be his decision to open up for business but the people of Idaho’s willingness to lose their fear and go back to their daily lives. Bad advice, in this case, can yield tragic results.
