Living Here

How serious would it be if one became infected with the Coronavirus?
The seriousness of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is related to one’s age. For the young, the seriousness is more about spreading the Coronavirus to other people than getting it themselves; whereas, for older adults, the major, more serious concern, is getting the Coronavirus, and quite possibly dying from it. To put numbers on this, if one is under, 26 and gets the Coronavirus, then the probability of dying from it is fairly low, being about 6 in 10,000, whereas; if one is 75 or more, then the chances are 1 in 10.

The seriousness of the Coronavirus follows the normal age-related death of the life expectancy charts, but if one gets the virus then one’s chances of dying are about four times greater than one’s normal chances of dying during the year from all causes.

For example: If one is 75 years old, then one’s normal chances of dying during a current year are 2.5%, but if one at age 75 gets the coronavirus, then one’s chances of dying increase four times to a 10% chance.   If one is 26, or under, and gets the virus, then one’s probability of dying is only about 6 in 10,000 or 0.06%. The age-related pattern explains why 80% of the virus deaths (like normal deaths) occur in people over 65 years old. One’s virus concerns should be for both oneself and for others, and the precautions one should take should vary with one’s age, and with the ages of those with whom one has or might have contact.

There are also other known, and possibly unknown, secondary effects to be concerned about in contracting Covid19 disease. Some of the known secondary effects with a virus infection include; quarantine and the effects of quarantine, the closing of businesses, loss of jobs, wages, and income as well as the loss of social and personal interaction that is needed to maintain one’s relationships and one’s trust that binds us together as families, communities and as a nation. For oneself, there may also be lingering, or even delayed effects of a virus infection, like that of the Chicken Pox virus which many times causes “Shingles” later in life.

Wearing a mask inside, like wearing a seat belt in a car saves lives. How many lives the wearing of face masks will save is unknown, but we do know that the wearing of seat belts saves about 15,000 lives every year and that wearing a face mask can likely save many times that number. At one time, across the entire country, seat belt wearing in cars was opposed by much of the population. Let’s go with wearing masks as we did with seat belts.

‘Tis The Season

Decorations Lake Geneva

Winter greenery and lights are going up for the approaching holidays.

 

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