While I don’t consider myself to be a professional historian, I am well aware of how things used to be; and am quite happy that I don’t live in the dark ages.

You’re projecting attributes onto me that I don’t have. The media does overreact to any juicy story because that’s how they make money.... I don’t. Actually, I’m rather skeptical of most media reports; as the first reports are usually simply factually wrong. Also, most reporters have a very limited scientific background, if any at all.

All I posted was factual numbers from reliable sources... and these numbers can be cross-checked with other sources. You seem to be assuming that I’m taking a political position; with that post I am not. I am only taking a factual, scientific position: this is how many people have died from this virus, and this is how many have died from these other causes.

No opinion was offered in my public comment on what that means.

However, I will offer one here:
COVID-19, like car crashes, wars, and other endemic diseases like influenza all deserve to be “on the radar”... just like an iceberg deserves to be on a ship’s radar. It shouldn’t be ignored, nor should it be panicked about. When you see the iceberg on the radar scope, you just steer around it. When you’re going thru the North Atlantic, there’s gonna be a lot of talk on the bridge about icebergs... that doesn’t mean they’re panicking or being a bunch of pansies, it means they’re taking due precautions to not make a Titanic mistake (pun intended).

Saying “This virus isn't even a blip on the radar” is, in my opinion, not giving it the respect it is due as a killer disease.

P.s. 99.998% survival rate is not an accurate number. In the US it’s about 97.1% (I.e, a 2.9% case fatality rate); but it’s much worse elsewhere. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

I don’t have numbers that I can cite for this, but what I’m hearing from doctors (I listen to several scientific podcasts that have MDs as hosts) is that there’s a substantial post-infection morbidly rate as well - people just aren’t recovering to their pre-infection state.

P.p.s - Actually, participation IS the award in life.... and quite frankly I’d like to keep participating, thank you very much!

Learn some history, This virus is just another morbidity in life. The overreaction is political theatre. A blip on the radar,
Cancer, Heart attacks. Accidents, Wars, old age, Medical malpractice etc. total more annually -
We lost millions during the II world war world wide, Plague of the middle ages.
You guys are conditioned to believe the doom. You lack confidence.

7.8 billion people in the world and you cry about a virus with a 99.998% survival rate. Really?.
You have it so damned easy.
Medical facilities
Air conditioning
Transportation
Entertainment
food
lights
heat
and a dumbed down education system.

No participation awards in life.