You Can’t Burn Down Your House Because You Found Some Spiders

Why are we still hiding indoors from the coronavirus like it’s the boogeyman?

About a month ago, my local area shut down. Essential services and businesses only. Unemployment claims skyrocketing. Mental health deteriorating. The suicide rates are increasing as are the rates of domestic violence. “It will be worth it,” we were told, to stop the spread of a deadly new plague.

“Two weeks,” we were also told, is how long this nasty infection can incubate before people become symptomatic and start dropping like flies. They told us we have to “flatten the curve” before we can go back to work and life as usual. That was more than two weeks ago. Based on the number provided by the health department in my state on April 17th:

There are 2,805 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 23 deaths in a state of over 3 million. Obviously, the media wants to paint these 23 deaths as nothing but catastrophic. That’s the total since the first case was confirmed about 6 weeks ago. 23 people in about six weeks.

With all this extra free time, many of us are realizing more and more that something isn’t adding up. Something about this whole situation stinks and it stinks bad. I won’t pretend to know what stinks or to what extent but when you start to scrutinize the situation, it’s hard to deny that something is seriously wrong with all of this.

The Number Dump

There’s no doubt there are certain places that have been hit hard. An informal survey on Facebook revealed that I know several people who know someone who died either from coronavirus or complications from coronavirus. But hang on a second.

My home state has 2,805 confirmed cases and 23 deaths. That means that 2,782 people have recovered from it. That means that about 99.2% of the people that have gotten it has recovered. According to the state health department data, 244 people have required hospitalization. That’s about 8.6% of confirmed cases which means that 92.4% of the people that test positive are okay to go home, stay in bed and drink plenty of fluids. Just to tie up the number dump, 23 deaths equals approximately .0006% of the state's total population.

That’s right folks. A fraction of a fraction of the state’s population has passed away and we’re all hiding inside with our hazmat suits on when three weeks ago we were lead to believe that the “bring out your dead” guy from Monty Python would be the only person with any job security. But keep in mind that these numbers are based on confirmed cases. It’s extremely likely that way more people have carried the virus and didn’t get symptomatic and if they did, they just dealt with it and got better without ever getting tested. If that’s the case then it’s far more likely that the mortality rate rests at less than a half of a percentile of those who have the virus.

And what about those that have underlying conditions? If a person already has kidney failure and the coronavirus finishes them off, it seems as though it’s chalked up to a COVID death when these people were on borrowed time anyway thanks to modern medicine. At the risk of sounding heartless, they had a good run! If COVID-19 hits a nursing home and takes the lives of 8 people who were on their last leg anyway, that’s not a reason for the rest of us to flush our lives down the toilet. But I have to ask, honestly, why does it seem heartless to talk casually about old people meeting their imminent end but it’s totally fine to talk casually about people losing their livelihood, their homes and the ability to feed their families?

What Curve?

I would say that the curve has been flattened but there is no curve. Infections aren’t a curve. The flu and common colds spread like wildfire, it’s part of life. We take some Nyquil at night, some Sudafed during the day, we get through it and move on. The curve for corona deaths doesn’t exist in my home state, how about yours? And yet, we remain in quarantine.

Infections aren’t a curve.

I have no idea why places like China, Italy and New York City are hit so hard by this but they appear to be the exception rather than the rule. The rule, based on nationwide numbers in the U.S. is that the reaction to this virus is far worse than the virus itself.

The Solution is Way Worse Than the Problem

Let’s say that you had some pain in your knee and the doctor gave you a prescription that would decrease the pain but likely result in complete liver or heart failure. Would you take it? Of course you wouldn’t, that would be insane. But that’s basically what we have done with the coronavirus. The solution can’t be worse than the problem. If you have a few spiders nesting in your pantry, you wouldn’t burn the entire house to the ground. Even if you had people living in the house that were severely allergic to spiders. But, again, that is basically the one size fits all approach that we’ve had to Covid-19.

This is one of my ongoing complaints about humanity. The irrational rush to make rash decisions because of anxiety and panic over the “what if” scenarios is no way for us to function. History is riddled with these instances where small problems could have been squashed if people would have chilled out. The great depression started with certain events but arguably fell into a full-fledged crisis because people panicked and blitzed the banks.

But what troubles me the most about this is some of the overt discouragement towards honest scrutiny, questioning and scepticism. People are letting their angry emoji’s loose when others stop to ask why the sky isn’t actually falling. What troubles me, even more, is when those of us who are asking tough questions are painted in an immoral light.

Apparently, to some, it’s immoral to question the government mandates and question what is given to us at face value because “people might die.” News flash kids. People will die. Every damn day. None of us gets out of here alive but we can’t give way to outrage mobs who fail to grasp reality. The “lives are more important than money or the economy narrative” is part of the obtuse black and white thinking that has become all too pervasive these days but it’s not the first time.

History is peppered with examples of horrible things happening after the perceived heretics were burned at the stakes. My home state has an official tattle tale hotline. The COVID Gestapo might get you if you leave your home. If there is one history lesson that human beings refuse to learn it’s the lesson that you can’t control other people and horrible things often end up happening when you try.

The “lives are more important than money or the economy narrative” is part of the obtuse black and white thinking that has become all too pervasive these days.

I don’t believe it’s about saving lives, I believe it’s about power and control. Because almost everything literally is about power and control. If we really cared about people we would allow them to make up their own minds and make their own decisions about the risks that they want to take. If you are afraid of getting sick I wouldn’t drag you into public if all the restrictions were suddenly lifted so don’t make me stay at home because you don’t want to get sick.

You are allowed to stay at home, indoors and isolated as much as you want to be as you deem fit for your individual circumstances and I wouldn’t be angry at you for it. Stay home. Put tissue boxes on your feet or live in a hefty bag full of hand sanitizer. I don’t care. You have the right to be as cautious as you want to be and I have the right to live my life freely instead of cowering in fear over the boogeyman.

If you are afraid of getting sick I wouldn’t drag you into public if all the restrictions were suddenly lifted so don’t make me stay at home because you don’t want to get sick.

“I don’t want to get sick and I don’t want my loved ones to get sick,” I don’t want that either. I really don’t. But we seriously can’t, CAN NOT, expect people to burn their lives down because you’re afraid of something. If you want to burn your own house down because of a few spiders, that’s your business, but don’t expect me to burn down mine. Stay home, quarantine yourself for as long as you want. That’s your right. I choose to live. That is my right.