COVID: Clarifying numbers, impact
As one who signed the Open Letter from medical professionals, I am compelled to respond to a Letter to the Editor entitled “COVID: Doctors, see these stats.” The letter is a clear example of the extent of misunderstanding surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
The letter writer, citing data from the CDC, incorrectly reads the table of data to say deaths from influenza, in children 0-17 years, are “908” compared to COVID-19 deaths of “400.”
In reviewing the CDC table of data, it becomes clear the writer mistakenly takes the “908” number from the column titled “Pneumonia Deaths.” The column titled “Influenza Deaths” reports “187” deaths. He makes the same mistake in his numbers for people 65 and older.
But, bickering back and forth about individual rows and columns of numbers or different age groups or diverse groups of diagnoses misses the overarching reality that since Jan. 1, 2020, COVID-19 has, in the United States alone, killed more than 633,000 people as documented in the CDC data table cited by the letter writer.
COVID-19 victims have flooded our hospitals beyond capacity, and Governor Little has now called in the National Guard to assist in the Idaho health care system’s struggle against COVID-19. With all of this in mind, the devastating impact of COVID-19 cannot be rationally denied.
RUSSELL BLAKELEY, MD
Hayden