A section from today’s newspaper:
“… The arrival of the coronavirus has rapidly raised anxiety levels among New Yorkers, many of whom spend their days in close quarters in office and residential buildings, on crowded sidewalks and in packed subway cars.”
Sounds pretty scary, no? Time to buy your Hazmat suit? Interesting, buried in the paper later on was this small sentence, “It is hard to accurately assess the lethality of a new virus.
On Friday, government scientists estimated that the figure could be below 1 percent, roughly the rate occurring in a severe flu season.”
So too buried in the midst of another paragraph is this statement, “The overwhelming majority of people would experience only mild symptoms.” The facts seemingly indicate that the Coronavirus is most probably no worse or no better than the common flu. Let’s take a closer look within the minuscule number of less than 1% mortality rate. Who are these fatalities?
The calmer non-tabloid new sites (FYI- the NYT is the most prominent tabloid) have pointed out time and time again: “…more than 80% are elderly over 60 years old, and more than 75% had underlying diseases present such as cardiovascular and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and, in some cases, tumor.”
I am not a mathematician, however, if the overwhelming majority of those who died are over 60 and within that over 60 range, 75% of them had had underlying diseases present such as cardiovascular and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and, in some cases, tumor. You don’t have to be Albert Einstein to figure out that if the virus has a less than 1% mortality rate, and within that less than 1%, 80% are elderly, and within that 80% – 75% had underlying diseases present such as cardiovascular and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and, in some cases, tumor – then the Coronavirus hardly represents a reenactment of the Bubonic Plague.
If you are more or less healthy, you have nothing to worry about. Certainly there is no reason to dump your life’s saving and start hoarding facemasks! And certainly there is no reason to panic.
What should we do? We should wash our hands better. We should get rid of our dirty tissues.
What we shouldn’t do:
- The C.D.C. and infectious disease specialists do not recommend face masks if you’re healthy.
- Panic
- Lose bitachon in Hashem!
The world will go on. With Hashem’s help by Pesach the headlines will be filled with more nonsense with one singular goal in mind, “Keep clicking on our website so that we can take your money.” As opposed to giving people a sense of calm and a realistic view that this is nothing but a flu, the evil and pernicious tabloids provoke fear and anxiety among the people.
This is not the way of a Jew. A Jew knows that Hashem always does what is for the best, period.
Abide by the advice of only someone who is a qualified expert in the field of contagious diseases. Which of course disqualifies 99% of the media- whose motto is, “The more you click the greater the risk”.
Yesterday, I took a walk in Central Park in Manhattan. After being foolish enough to read the media reports, I expected to find the park full of faces covered with masks with most of the park empty after all, the canonical NY Times said, Still, the arrival of the coronavirus has rapidly raised anxiety levels among New Yorkers. What was the reality in the park? The park was packed. I passed hundreds of New Yorkers’ of every color and stripe. There was not one mask. I looked at their faces. They were all eating lunch, socializing, smiling and enjoying Hashem’s world. There was no trace of anxiety and no trace of Coronavirus.
Trust in Hashem. Take the proper precautions as prescribed by competent experts in the field of contagious diseases. And enjoy life.
Life is good.
