Some Last Minute Thoughts for the Day

I am sure there is stupidity ensuing all across the country.  But my home state is in a league of its own, I think.  The city of Minneapolis, which is run by ignorant goofballs, got complaints about young people gathering in parks to, horror of horrors, play basketball or soccer or other games.  So the city, in its infinite wisdom (maybe it is more like infinitesimal) has decided to take the nets away and the hoops down. I guess they would rather that these young people are dealing and using drugs, shooting each other or engaging in other wholesome activities.  In the post before this, I just showed that there is zero risk of these young people getting a serious coronavirus illness and dying.  This is stupidity of a whole new order.

And it isn’t just our Governor who is challenged statistically (see another earlier post today), the dishonorable Mayor of Minneapolis jumped on the coronavirus is discriminatory bandwagon.  I am sure the virus would be highly offended but since it is more intelligent and wiser than the Mayor, it has decided to ignore the insult.  Here is the accurate explanation.  African-Americans, and some other minorities, tend to have much higher rates of the underlying conditions which predispose one to becoming seriously ill and/or dying of coronavirus disease.  This can be easily ascertained by reference to any of a number of common sources.  When you adjust for those factors, there is likely little or no difference in disease and death rates.  But what would be the fun in that, when you are just a sleazy politician trying to pander for votes.

Finally, here is an article, written by a doctor, which makes way too much sense.  (The Hill Article)    He makes the same points I have been making about the very low risk of death for younger people, the concentration of death among the very old, especially in long-term care settings and the fact that 99.2% of all decedents had an underlying health condition.  He also states, as I am working on in a longer upcoming post, that the extreme lockdowns are hurting us in our ability to do the surest thing that will stop the virus–develop natural immunity.  On the other hand, he observes that the fear we have put into the population, and government orders, have led to deaths and exacerbation of illness from skipped surgeries and medical appointments, lack of access to chemotherapy and clinical trials for cancer patients and other health care problems.  Finally, he makes the obvious connection that we have a well-defined population at risk that could be easily protected while the rest of the population goes about its normal business.

Too many facts for our “data driven” Governor.