How many people are dying?

So, one thing I want you all to think about today, a question really. How big is America, and how many people dying is a huge number?

Maybe you are freaking out by the idea of 100,000 and 200,000 Covid19 deaths here in the US. I'm thinking its because this is the first pandemic in the 24/7 cable news, and social media era.

We've had these types of pandemics before. The last big one was the H3N2 virus that killed 100,000 here in the US in 1968. Never heard of that one? I hadn't until I started looking into this. The 1918 Spanish Flu killed over 600,000 in the US. That's more deaths than the Civil War. Pandemics happen, and we should be prepared, both as a nation and as individuals.

So, let's look at the most recent prediction of 100 to 200,000 people dying. Is this a lot of people? Yep, it sure is. If one of those deaths happens to someone you know, and especially someone you love, it will be even more tragic to you personally.

One hundred thousand, or two hundred thousand people is a big number, but how many people is that as far as a percentage of all Americans? Let's do the math.

America has about three hundred, twenty seven million people. 327,000,000 people is a very large number.

So, lets say people don't do social distancing, shelter in place, and stay at home like they should, and we have more than the 1-200,000 people die. Let's say 327,000 Americans die, that's almost double the amount they are predicting now. What percentage of the population is that?

Is that 10%, or one in ten, Americans dying? Nope. If 10% of Americans died, that would be 32.7 million dead.

How about 1% of Americans dying, what would that look like? That would be 3.27 million people dying. So, were still quite a ways off that.

How about 1/10th of 1%? That would be the three hundred twenty seven thousand people dead. That's the 327,000 number I used.

So, I'm not giving you this number to make you think you should blow off the social distancing orders, and go back to your regular life. Not at all. This 1-200,000 number the administration is using relies on people limiting contact for the next few weeks. This social distancing works, it really does.

Maybe the fear of these numbers is actually working to make people follow the social distancing orders. So, maybe I should just be quiet.

What I am trying to point out is we are going to get through this. No doubt, this is going to be rough. People are dying now, and many more will be dying before this is over. This is serious, so do your part. Understand your risks and minimize them.

When this is over, I want us to look at how we deal with actual crisis in the age of cable news and social media. We need to start looking at how this new social media world is really amplifying fear, and making things worse.  Our news media and social media companies will get terrible reviews when this is over. They will deserve it.