If COVID-19 were a Broadway Play, it would now be considered a flop. The producers (the World Health Organization) had great expectations (fears), and at first it lived up to expectations, but it simply wasn’t the killer of previous pandemics.
Researchers in Southern California have found that the number of infections was many times higher than the number of confirmed cases, such that the actual death rate per infection was about the same as the annual flu (USC-Los Angeles County study).
The real losers in this debacle were the grammar school children. They have needlessly lost an important year. The California Department of Health reports that in the age group 5-17, there were 13 deaths out of 362,176 cases. That is a death rate per confirmed case of 0.0036%. So, the ratio to infections might be an order of magnitude lower yet.
Our health officials at the federal level have greatly failed us, and it is time to ignore them and get back to normalcy. How about it, governors?
R. RiethmillerPagosa Springs
