Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York is the most visible and
outspoken Vidalian Caligula in a compact of similarly endowed governors that
includes Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
A recent Stanford University antibody study
estimates that the world fatality rate among those infected with Coronavirus is
likely 0.1 to 0.2 percent, which presents a risk far lower than previous World
Health Organization (WHO) estimates that were 20 to 30 times higher. It was the
fanciful WHO estimates that spurred sequestration and business shutdown policies.
Nearly one-third of all deaths in the United States have occurred in New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic. In New York State, two-thirds of fatally infected patients were over 70 years old; more than 95 percent were over 50 years old; and about 90 percent of all fatal cases had an underlying illness. Of Coronavirus deaths fully investigated for underlying conditions to date, 6,520, or 99.2 percent, had an underlying illness, according to the antibody study.
Nearly one-third of all deaths in the United States have occurred in New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic. In New York State, two-thirds of fatally infected patients were over 70 years old; more than 95 percent were over 50 years old; and about 90 percent of all fatal cases had an underlying illness. Of Coronavirus deaths fully investigated for underlying conditions to date, 6,520, or 99.2 percent, had an underlying illness, according to the antibody study.
“If you do not already have an underlying chronic condition,”
The Hill commented, “your chances of
dying are small, regardless of age. And young adults and children in
normal health have almost no risk of any serious illness" from Coronavirus.
When Coronavirus was raging like a brush fire through New
York’s nursing homes, Cuomo did not direct the bulk of his remediation efforts
there. The same is true in Connecticut. We knew right from the get-go that
Coronavirus was especially deadly to people over 65 and those whose immune
systems had been compromised. Here in Connecticut, we were able very early on
to identify Coronavirus “hot spots,” such as Fairfield County (confirmed cases
13,236, deaths 1,034), New Haven (confirmed cases 9,209, deaths 701), and
Hartford (confirmed cases 7,263, deaths 909).
A proportional response that would have taken into account the severity of Coronavirus in different sections of Connecticut was rejected from the outset by governors such as Lamont and Cuomo – because they were governors of states, not chief executives of municipalities. Similarly, President Donald Trump was the chief executive of the nation, not the states. If the doctrine of subsidiarity, the first casualty of authoritative, top-down governance, had held sway in Connecticut, schools in low-impact municipalities such as Windham County (confirmed cases 270, deaths 7) might have remained open, and a rational shutdown regimen would have been far less devastating to business there and elsewhere in the state.
Fully 60 per percent, more than half, of Coronavirus deaths
in Connecticut occurred in nursing homes. The CEO of one Connecticut facility
especially hard hit, Kimberly Hall North in Windsor, we know from recent news
accounts, had begged relevant state agencies in Connecticut for rapid
assistance. The agency heads had ears but they heard not, eyes but they saw
not. Why were they deaf, blind and unprepared for the deadly assault on nursing
homes, some of which quickly became funeral homes?
Screwing in his scientific eye loop and pouring over recent
data, Cuomo discovered, to his
astonishment, that 66 percent of New Yorkers admitted to hospitals had
contracted Coronavirus while sequestered at home.
The number suggests that sequestration may not be a
Coronavirus silver bullet. Even as the governors of New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania were requiring their citizens to wear face masks – but not in
churches they had closed – face masks were becoming as difficult to procure as
toilet paper. Some of the home-fashioned masks and bandannas seen while shopping at
grocery stores are nearly useless, and there seems to be little agreement among
scientists whether face masks are a help or a hindrance.
Early figures from scientists concerning the number of
people who had been infected by Coronavirus or those who died “from
complications arising from Coronavirus” were, to put it baldly, laughably
incorrect, as were calculations of the number of hospital beds needed in New
York City to wage war on the plague. Historian Victor Davis Hanson
punctured the grosser projections of credited scientists when he said that not
only did we not know the denominator in our Coronavirus calculations, we did not
know the numerator either.
Ponder this: a woman crossing a street is hit and killed by
a hearse carrying the body of 91 year-old resident of a nursing home who has
died, it has been determined, “of complications arising from Coronavirus.”
Later, it is discovered that the woman hit by the hearse had been exposed to Coronavirus.
Did the second corpse die “from complications arising from Coronavirus, or did
she die WITH rather than OF Coronavirus?”
This Coronavirus business has been a messy affair, and some
of the mess has been intentionally generated. Politicians know there is a level
of confusion at which the average citizen simply stops paying attention. That
is why political skulduggery lives, like a maggot infestation, in the
intercesses of complexity. The antidote to this bewildering complexity is -- large
doses of modesty. The now waning, one hopes, Coronavirus infestation should
make us far more modest and less arrogant than we have been. Always know more than you say, and never say more than you know has always been good advice, in and out of season, for data experts, medical professionals, politicians and journalists.
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