To the Editor:
Saturday’s COVID-19 update says there have been 6,709 deaths in Florida to date and 461,379 positive tests of which 26,017 have been hospitalized. Very upsetting news to all of us! But, what does it mean? If 6,709 residents of Florida out of 22,000,000 residents have died that represents .03% or 3 people out of every 10,000. If you compare deaths to positive tests, even though not all residents have been tested, 6,709 out of 461,379 represents 1.45% of those tested positive have died.
We have nothing to compare to these statistics for flu, heart disease, stroke, auto accidents or any other death rates during the same time frame. So, once again, can’t someone tell us how all of this compares to our daily risks of getting into a car, walking on the street, having a heart attack or stroke?
It would be very helpful to stop simply reporting all the bad news about COVID-19 and report more of the successes in survival of the disease and new treatments or how it all compares to other risks. There seems to be a common thread of just reporting the bad news and not informing the public of our actual risks!
The reporting agencies have made many mistakes along the way so why not make these important comparisons for the general public to truly understand what we are facing, especially when you consider the age of most Villagers.
In the end, should we believe the bare statistics and react just to the fact they are increasing without consideration to the new numbers of tests conducted or the success in treatments from our hospitals of reducing the average COVID-19 stay? I do not know – but does anyone? Or, are they just guessing too?
Robert Nyce
Village of El Cortez
