OPINION

By Ed Seaman

Since April 5, I’ve been tracking daily deaths due to COVID-19 on the Centers for Disease Control website (https://covidtracking.com/data/us-daily). Simultaneously, I’ve been tracking death projections on the COVID-19 page of the Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation (https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america). I’ve watched the uncertain swirl of the pandemic quickly turn into the perfect political playing field, and I have subsequently watched reporting on the pandemic crumble into predominantly one-sided fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).

Why not counter-balance the drama-laced FUD with widely available good news? By staying safely in the predominant narrative, you are actively contributing to the breakdown of American society.

In March, the Imperial College of London said to expect up to 2.2 million Americans to die from COVID-19. Travel was being restricted, lockdowns were imminent, and it began with a goal to “flatten the curve.” Subsequently, we continue to have riots and political rallies that some ominously said were going to create a spike in infections and deaths.

The spike in deaths never happened. From April 15-30, the average daily death count was 1,940. From June 30 to July 14, the average daily death rate was 599. But we aren’t seeing much news about lower death rates anymore. Now media is fixated on infections, which in broad context is almost irrelevant.

I did the math (https://www.census.gov/popclock/). As of July 15, the United States had a population of about 329,956,600. If we believe the July death projections from the CDC, we should expect 224,089 deaths by Nov 1. The percentage of the population that may die is no more than 0.000679. This is about 1/16^th of 1 percent. Note that almost half of this tiny fraction is comprised of seniors and the immune-compromised.

Most infections occur indoors in close quarters. Rates are amplified by air recirculated via heating and air conditioning. Logically, densely populated areas are getting the worst of it. In Santa Barbara, most cases are in prisons and work crews living in close indoor quarters.

Government and prestige-seeking experts tell us that we need more adult ICUs. Based on known facts, we have plenty of ICUs because most of the country won’t need them.

Some less ambitious doctors than the ones selected for TV refer to peer-reviewed results of oral hydroxychloroquine medication. It is highly effective. Other large studies prove its safety (https://www.newsweek.com/key-defeating-covid-19-already-exists-we-need-start-using-it-opinion-1519535).

We know that COVID-19 doesn’t affect kids like adults. You don’t need a child-development degree to know that kids need to be around kids to be healthy and to develop emotionally and socially. Further, parents need school-age children engaging with other children not only for the kids, but for the emotional and social health of the parents.

During the 2007-09 recession, the job market spiked suicide rates, claiming the lives of 10,00 more people than prior to the downturn (https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-coronavirus-usa-cost/). What will the government-inflicted downturn of 2020 do? Look for increases in murders, violence, suicides, alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, anxiety and more. Many small businesses are being forced into economic suicide for the greater good… of whom? Certainly not me, my sequestered elderly mom, my kids or my small businesses. The lockdown is taking down more lives than COVID-19 ever will. The facts point to a plan that focuses resources on seniors and the immune-compromised and releases the rest of society to their productive lives.

Elected leadership clearly needs critical thinking assistance. Their personal power, money and prestige are far more important than you, me, our businesses, our parents and our children. Powerful people are tearing society apart so they can rebuild it to better serve themselves and those who think like them. This is being justified on a wafer-thin foundation of 1/16^th of 1 percent of the national population, narrowly constrained and demographically understood. Why aren’t you editors calling them to account?

In the old days, editors and their intrepid reporters were watchdogs, broadly bringing all relevant sides of a topic to light. Why not do this today? If you don’t do better, our liberty will die under the crush of political exploitation at a level that we’ve never seen in America before, because we the people will have been narrowly informed… and broadly deceived.

Ed Seaman is a resident of the Santa Ynez Valley