Rev. Christopher Myers
The coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic has produced many questions and controversies, including how it is impacting people.
How dangerous is the virus? What should be our response?
Here are some things to know and share.
1) How dangerous is the coronavirus?
Nobody knows for sure. The virus only emerged a few months ago, so doctors are only now getting experience with it.
Some have compared Covid-19 to the flu, which is a well-understood and predictable disease.
It appears that Covid-19 is much more infectious than the flu. A person with the flu will infect an average of 1.3 other people, but a person with Covid-19 will infect an average of between two and 3.11 additional people. Covid-19 thus has the chance to spread much more rapidly.
Covid-19 is also much deadlier than the flu. In the United States, the death rate for the flu is usually around 0.1%. The death rate for Covid-19 is not yet well understood, but it appears to be between 1.4% and 2.3%—making it between fourteen and twenty-three times more deadly than the flu.
While it is true that—at present—more people are killed by the flu than by Covid-19, governments and health authorities are working to keep the latter from becoming as common as the flu.
There are around 27,000,000 cases of flu each year in the U.S., resulting in around 36,000 deaths. If Covid-19 became as common as the flu (and, remember, it’s actually more infectious than the flu), there would be around 500,000 deaths.
This is what authorities are trying to prevent.
Current Center for Disease Control guidelines for how to protect yourself are online here.
2) Is everyone equally at risk?
No. Covid-19 hits certain people much harder than others. People younger than sixty are much less likely to die because of the disease, though they can still catch and spread it.
They may even have it but not feel sick and yet spread it to others. In fact, a recent study suggests that more than eighty percent of current cases were spread by people who did not know they had the virus.
People older than sixty are much more likely to die, and the risk increases with each decade of age.
People with other underlying conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease also have increased risk of dying.
Current Center for Disease Control guidelines for how to protect yourself are online here.
3) What should I do if I’m not sure whether I’m getting sick?
Err on the side of caution. With many diseases, people are most infectious just before they start feeling sick and just after they start having symptoms. Therefore, if you think you might be getting sick, you may be at the point where you have the greatest chance of infecting another person.
Even if you do not feel sick, you may be able to spread the virus to others, so it is important to follow safety practices even if you currently feel fine.
This applies especially if you have contact with older people or those with health conditions that put them at greater risk of dying from Covid-19.
Remember: We are not just protecting ourselves; we are protecting those around us.
If we don’t have the virus, we can’t give it to others. Even if we’re young and healthy, we’re protecting the more vulnerable. That is a physical work of mercy, and it’s an act of love for others. As Jesus taught us, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).
Views: 0
