Polio / Vietnam / 911 / Covid-19
I wrote: “A significant number of people will die from Covid-19”
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My Friend Wrote:
“ I guess if you are one then it is very significant but not quite sure what significant means here. When I think of significant I am thinking a large number. I saw where the death rate in Florida was lower now than a couple months ago. I saw a number of 1.5% vs over 4% before. Still bad but seems to be getting better.”
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Significant to me means a lot of people who died both worldwide and in the USA. I think 138,000 deaths over 4 months in the USA is significant and large. And we have only just begun. Whether that number will be large enough to be significant to you is an open question. Do you have a number in mind?”
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Those of us in our 70’s have been through four memorable significant dangerous events in our lifetime.
Polio 1952 - Americans Killed 3,000
911 3,000
Vietnam War - Americans Killed Over Twenty Years 58,000
Covid-16 - Americans killed March through July 15, 2020 - Four months 138,000
Polio, the Vietnam War, and 911 are long over for the USA. Some of us thought the number who died was significant.
I remember polio well because our next door neighbor died and her brother was in a full body cast for a year. Their home was quarantined and he went to school via a telephone. If you as a small child were not close to someone who had polio you probably don’t remember it. But we can all remember getting vaccinated for it. A good article about it and the many years it took to develop a workable vaccine. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/10/16/162670836/wiping-out-polio-how-the-u-s-snuffed-out-a-killer
“Only” 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam. I thought that was a significant number. We lost 13 our our High School folks - that we know about - probably more that we don’t know about. http://empehiheroes.blogspot.com/
911. A terrorist attack that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001. We all remember that quite well. We fought and are fighting a very long war caused by it.
We have only just begun with Covid-19. And of course the number is already much larger than our Polio or Vietnam or 911 trauma.
It is of course virtually impossible to forecast the likely total deaths from Covid-19. Officially about 1 percent of our population has had it, with 138,000 deaths. Many more people have likely had it with minimal symptoms.
And it will likely be much higher. Whether it will become a significant number to you remains an open question.
I think we as a nation thought that the 3,000 who died in 911 was significant.
What would a significant number be to you?
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