WHO IS MOST AT RISK?

As I did in the first part of this series of posts, I would like to begin with a thought to consider as we discuss our current “Covid situation”. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost

Much of what I will present here is once again taken from Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. As a reminder Dr. Bhattacharya is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. He also holds a Ph.D. in economics. He is also a director of the Stanford Center on the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. With this background he is well suited to comment on the current situation in which we find ourselves.

I would like to focus now on who is most at risk, and then I will discuss the lockdowns and their affect on all of us.

The first thing we all must be able to agree on is that this virus is not equally dangerous across the board for all of us. This was obvious from the beginning of the pandemic. Unfortunately, this message was not communicated to the public very well if at all. It is also unfortunate that nearly one year later, most folks walking around wearing masks, the value of which relative to communicating or contracting the virus is in question, still believe that COVID is equally dangerous to everyone. We know that as Dr. Bhattacharya notes; “There is a thousand-fold difference between the mortality rate in older people, 70 and up, and the mortality rate in children.” In fact, it is now known that this disease process is less dangerous for young children than the seasonal flu. The statistics bear this out according to Dr. B. who states that this past year more children have died from the seasonal flu than from COVID by a factor of two or three. We also understand that even your blood type can indicate a decreased susceptibility to contracting the virus.

However, for the older population it is much more deadly than the seasonal flu. The mortality rate worldwide for COVID fatalities in the 70 and older population is about 4% or 4 in 100. Whereas the mortality rate for the overall population worldwide is 2 in 1000. Obviously, this is the segment of the population that needs to be guarded against this virus.

With this in mind I will review next time what the lockdowns have actually accomplished, and the effects on the population of these mandates.

I also want to post some data on the vaccines for your consideration.