There are things we know about coronavirus. We know Sweden is the European country that didn’t impose a lockdown. Lockdown supporters forecast an epidemic of medieval proportions. They were wrong. But Sweden did not suffer more COVID-19 related deaths, on a population basis, than any other European country.
Related: Things We Know About Coronavirus (Part 1 of 3)
The number of confirmed cases in Sweden peaked on June 24. That was later than in most European lockdown countries. The decline has been sharp ever since. Sweden has had fewer COVID-19 deaths per million than Belgium, the U.K., Spain, and Italy, all of whom deployed widespread lockdowns.
We know Florida’s COVID-19 deaths are not near those of New York. The virus is spreading among Floridians. The number of COVID-19-related deaths has been rising. It will continue to do so. As of Aug. 1, Florida’s 327 deaths-per-million population ranked below the U.S. average of 475. It is well below the 1,685 rate in New York State and the 1,790 of New Jersey and 1,234 of Connecticut. Suggesting the conditions in Florida with those in New York and the Northeast is recklessly inaccurate.
Who’s doing poorly and who’s not in the USA
The list of counties with the most coronavirus related deaths hasn’t changed much since late April, according to USAFacts.org data. Eight of the 10 counties that led the U.S. in deaths at the end of April were still on the top 10 list at the end of July. You can be the judge if there is a message there.
New York City and surrounding counties in New Jersey and on Long Island filled eight of the top 10 slots on April 30. They occupied six of the top ten on July 31 and three of the top five. We can see from the outcomes where the poor results are. Should we infer they have made the best response about the things we know about coronavirus?
We know wearing a mask will not prevent you from getting COVID-19. Yes, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said on July 15, “I think if we could get everybody to wear a mask now… I think in four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control.”
First, there’s the imprecision of his forecast. Does he think it’s four, six, or eight weeks? Then what does he mean by “under control?” Goalpost moving is a national political pastime. Many no longer find amusing. Then, there’s the utopian nature of the hypothetical. How would you go about getting everyone to wear a mask? When he says wear a mask does he mean all the time? The point here is Redfield was making another of those unsubstantiated, off-the-cuff statements.
Just say no…
On the other side of the discussion, social media resonates with warnings. Masks deprive the body of oxygen. Wearing a mask won’t prevent you from getting infected. It may send you into a stupor of hypoxia. Well, actually no. Masks may help prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others. That makes sense. They don’t protect the mask-wearer. They may protect others from the mask-wearer.
The CDC says that wearing a mask “may” have this effect. That is because none of this has been proven to a scientific certainty. It isn’t possible. You can’t conduct a properly controlled experiment that yields scientific proof that masks really help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. So masks are political “I can force you to do something” discussions.
If there’s no definitive proof that masks work, why wear them? Mostly, commonsense. Scientists seem fairly certain that COVID-19 is spread by droplets. There’s some evidence it’s present in aerosols. Either way, it’s on/in our breath.
There is evidence people who don’t know they’re infected can spread the disease to others. Imposing a physical barrier with a mask reduces the speed, thus the spread of our breaths. This is thought to lessen the chance that a person who doesn’t know he’s shedding virus will spread the infection. These are things we know about coronavirus.