The Covid Pandemic continues

To the Editor,

There is no debate that we are experiencing a moderate decline in new Covid-19 infections, but the crisis is far from over. Many experts fear that with the cold weather and more in-door time approaching quickly, Covid will once again spiral out of control. Let’s put the Covid carnage to date into some perspective. More Americans have now died from Covid than from the terrible flu epidemic of 1918-1919. Here is another remarkably novel way to look at the devastation wrought by Covid. A stunning new statistic estimates that US life expectancy has been slashed by more than nine million years, that is, Covid deaths, times years of life lost. Equally stunning and disturbing, is that Black and Hispanic Americans are losing twice as many years per capita compared to White Americans. 

What is so incredibly frustrating and heartbreaking is that we all know the remedy to stop the epidemic in this country. It’s as simple as a vaccine jab to the arm. Yet, we still have some eighty million adults unvaccinated. No need to address once again their myriad reasons for refusing the vaccine. Let’s just say that virtually all of these reasons, except perhaps for the very rare legitimate religious objection, are bogus. The rationale of almost all who now refuse to be vaccinated is based on ignorance, willful or non-deliberate, and the blatant denial of a science-based reality. 

It can now be said, with almost total affirmation, that human beings are not always rational. We are driven by emotional impulses and unconscious biases that can, at times, for some people, totally overwhelm the logical workings of their brain. The anti-vaxxers powerfully affirm the words of the philosopher who said: “Most people never cease to exercise their right to disbelieve something that is so obvious, or to believe something that is ridiculous.” In 2021, we have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt the validity of this statement.

Ken Derow
Swarthmore