THE MEDIA’S FEAR VIRUS IS THE REAL DANGER NOT THE CORONAVIRUS

[This bulletin is for TTPers to copy and send to friends, co-workers, and loved ones who may be in a state of panic over the media’s latest scare story.]

I’d like to suggest considering the latest bulletin on Covid-19 from the New England Journal of Medicine:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387?query=RP

“On the basis of a case definition requiring a diagnosis of pneumonia, the currently reported case fatality rate is approximately 2%.⁴ In another article in the Journal, Guan et al.⁵ report mortality of 1.4% among 1099 patients with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19; these patients had a wide spectrum of disease severity.

 

If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%).”

Almost all deaths attributed to Covid-19 are quite elderly, in their 70s and 80s/90s and/or with compromised immune systems.  There are no deaths reported among the young, i.e., under 15 years old.

Another consideration.  The genetic vector by which the virus infects the body is the ACE2 receptor gene that codes for an enzyme involved in constriction of the lungs.  As in all genes, there are slightly different variations or “polymorphisms.”  Turns out that ethnic Chinese have one producing more of the enzyme than any other ethnic group in the world.

Further, smoking tobacco greatly accelerates the enzyme’s lung constriction.  No people on the planet come close to Chinese men on how much they smoke cigarettes.  Which is one main reason why thousands of Chinese have died and not elsewhere, and many more Chinese men than women.  The same, albeit to a bit lesser degree, applies to South Koreans.

Bottom line is:  If you’re under 70 in good health, not Asian and don’t smoke, avoid being in an infected area and wash your hands if you are, you’re gonna live.  Oh, and for your mental well-being, ignore the media and TV news.

The media is far more dangerous than this latest flu virus.  Its principal product is no longer news but fear-mongering crises.

Franklin Roosevelt’s most famous quote, from his 1933 Inaugural Address, was: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Today that translates to, “We have nothing to fear but the media’s fear-mongering.”  We all need to vaccinate ourselves from the Media Fear Virus.