Analyzing the Corona Crisis: Uncovering Overlooked Aspects

Analyzing the Corona Crisis: Uncovering Overlooked Aspects

An Analysis of the Corona Crisis

Introduction

The following is a discussion based on my observations and analysis of the current Corona crisis. I am not a medical professional or an epidemiologist, but I have spent a considerable amount of time studying how information dissemination influences public policy. My aim is not to claim absolute accuracy, but to raise some points that may have been overlooked in the government and media's handling of the crisis.

Reported Statistics

Recently, El País in Madrid, a newspaper often compared to the New York Times, published an article titled “Young, Healthy and in the ICU: the Risk is There." The article narrated the story of a seemingly healthy 37-year-old Spanish policeman who succumbed to the virus. The journalist then cited statistics from the British medical journal The Lancet on the mortality patterns related to the Coronavirus in Italy. The data indicated that the median age of the deceased was 81, with more than two-thirds having pre-existing conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or a history of smoking. The deaths of people under 50 were rare, with no known deaths of anyone under 30.

Interpreting the Data

Assuming the accuracy of the information, we can draw some preliminary conclusions. The first is that the El País article's title and anecdote about the young policeman suggest that young and healthy individuals are at significant risk of dying from the Coronavirus, a notion not supported by the Italian statistics. Secondly, the data suggests that infection doesn't pose a serious health risk to most people under 60. Lastly, it seems that the most effective approach would be to focus on isolating and treating people aged 60 to 100, while also providing care for the relatively few under 60 who become seriously symptomatic.

Unanswered Questions

What the statistics don't reveal is the number of hospital spaces required to keep the under-60 mortality statistics as low as they currently are. If the number of hospital spaces required to treat these people is extremely high, then this could cancel out much of what I have said up until now. If anyone has any statistics on this, I would appreciate seeing them.

Policy Considerations

Assuming that the use of hospital spaces by those under 60 is not excessively high, it begs the question of why the effort to combat the virus seems directed at curbing its spread in the population as a whole rather than focusing on treating those clearly most at risk of dying from the disease. Does it make sense to halt an entire society, with the enormous and unforeseen long-term economic and social consequences, when most of the working population could continue to go about their business without any real risk of mortality?

Media Influence

Media portrayal of the Coronavirus and its subsequent influence on public policy raises some questions. For instance, why are we constantly being told about the gross numbers of infections? Why are we focusing so much on young and middle-aged athletes and celebrities who have tested positive for the virus, leveraging their supposed danger as a reason to propagate society-wide policies?

Policy Making

The fear that something bad might happen to me, my family, or a relatively small group of people is no way to make policy for national communities. Governments and large industries constantly calculate how much loss or shortening of human life they must concede as inevitable to achieve larger and more socially enveloping goals. It's curious that at a time when our leaders are using martial language to garner citizen support in the “war” against the Coronavirus, the rational considerations on the disposability of life they regularly employ and accept as normal are suddenly suspended.

Bottom Line

We can and should debate the true magnitude of what we are going through and whether it merits the radical suspension of our economic and social order. From my perspective, the best course would be to focus energies on those most likely to suffer and die, while leaving those who, according to the Italian statistics, appear to be largely free of this danger to continue to row the ship of state in this terrible time of devastation and worry.

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Some articles will contain credit or partial credit to other authors even if we do not repost the article and are only inspired by the original content.

Some articles will contain credit or partial credit to other authors even if we do not repost the article and are only inspired by the original content.