My hometown paper (the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) contains reports on a number of deaths recently, including the following:
Tre Cunningham, a 20-year-old Black college honor student, three-sport star in HS sports, well liked and respected...etc.
And then there's the daily compilation of the CV-19 deaths over the most recent 3-day period: 7 deaths with ages ranging from 75-95, ALL residing in long-term care facilities. Indeed, the average age of ALL Cv-19 related deaths in our region is 82 years old.
I submit the thought for your consideration that all lives do not matter equally. From many indications, the death of Mr. Cunningham (killed in a motorcycle accident of his own making, but that's beside my point) appears to have been a tragedy, not only to him and his family, but to the others whom he might have touched in a positive way throughout another 50 years or so on the planet. As for the elderly decedents, the philosophical standard for life is, you pretty much get three score and ten (70 years), and everything else is a bonus. [I write this as a 70 year old man]. The death of an 82-year-old, no matter how sweet or beloved, is not a tragedy for society. It is just a data point.
My point is that, THE ONLY NEWS-WORTHY CV-19 DEATHS ARE THE HEALTHY PEOPLE UNDER 60 YEARS OLD. Throwing these numbers of deaths around as though the death of a 20 year old and the death of an 80 year old are equally important is a great disservice to the reading public.
And I suspect the skewed reporting of CV-19 is yet another manifestation of the Leftist campaign to maintain the impression that we are all going to hell in a hand basket, and need to make a change at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.
A read of a metric a few months ago - cited by that Berenson guy, I think - that measured deaths in terms of years of life lost. That is to say, the Census Bureau calculates a life expectancy for people at various ages, and if a 60 year old with a life expectancy of another 23 years dies, the value is 23 years of life lost. Mr. Cunningham, mentioned above - 50 years lost, and so on. Would that the Media would start reporting deaths rationally in a way that reflects the loss to society...which in the case of 82 year old geezers is not much.
I'm perfectly willing to panic, but the actual data from CV-19 doesn't warrant it.
Tre Cunningham, a 20-year-old Black college honor student, three-sport star in HS sports, well liked and respected...etc.
And then there's the daily compilation of the CV-19 deaths over the most recent 3-day period: 7 deaths with ages ranging from 75-95, ALL residing in long-term care facilities. Indeed, the average age of ALL Cv-19 related deaths in our region is 82 years old.
I submit the thought for your consideration that all lives do not matter equally. From many indications, the death of Mr. Cunningham (killed in a motorcycle accident of his own making, but that's beside my point) appears to have been a tragedy, not only to him and his family, but to the others whom he might have touched in a positive way throughout another 50 years or so on the planet. As for the elderly decedents, the philosophical standard for life is, you pretty much get three score and ten (70 years), and everything else is a bonus. [I write this as a 70 year old man]. The death of an 82-year-old, no matter how sweet or beloved, is not a tragedy for society. It is just a data point.
My point is that, THE ONLY NEWS-WORTHY CV-19 DEATHS ARE THE HEALTHY PEOPLE UNDER 60 YEARS OLD. Throwing these numbers of deaths around as though the death of a 20 year old and the death of an 80 year old are equally important is a great disservice to the reading public.
And I suspect the skewed reporting of CV-19 is yet another manifestation of the Leftist campaign to maintain the impression that we are all going to hell in a hand basket, and need to make a change at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.
A read of a metric a few months ago - cited by that Berenson guy, I think - that measured deaths in terms of years of life lost. That is to say, the Census Bureau calculates a life expectancy for people at various ages, and if a 60 year old with a life expectancy of another 23 years dies, the value is 23 years of life lost. Mr. Cunningham, mentioned above - 50 years lost, and so on. Would that the Media would start reporting deaths rationally in a way that reflects the loss to society...which in the case of 82 year old geezers is not much.
I'm perfectly willing to panic, but the actual data from CV-19 doesn't warrant it.
