If you know the facts about the CCP (Chinese Communist
Party) virus, you aren’t very alarmed, you don’t take heroic measures such as
always wearing your life-saving equipment (mask) and, you don’t lose a lot of
sleep over the virus itself unless you are elderly or, in another high-risk
group with a pre-existing condition.
You know that young people hardly ever die from it (only 26
under the age of sixteen out of a total of 103,339 as of June 27, 2020 according
to the CDC) and that is why schools are closed.
You know that almost half of the deaths have occurred in
nursing homes to the very elderly with extant medical problems and that over
80% of all the deaths have been people aged 65 or over (again according to the
CDC) and that is why some states are still sending virus patients to nursing
homes.
Why then are Americans terrified of the virus?
Why do they turn away with a look of horror if you aren’t
wearing a mask and they encounter you turning an aisle?
Why are people wearing masks in their cars?
Why are people wearing a mask when they are out
walking…alone?
Why are governors re-shutting down economies when deaths
are way down?
Well, I finally found the answer to these and lots of other
virus-policy questions.
It is found here: https://www.kekstcnc.com/media/2793/kekstcnc_research_covid-19_opinion_tracker_wave-4.pdf
This is a poll taken of 1,000 Americans taken July 10 -15,
2020 with a margin of error of +/- 3.3%.
Here is what they found:
Americans think that 20% of the country has had the virus and that 9%
(half of those that get it, in their minds) HAVE DIED from it.
You read that right, your friends, your neighbors, your
relatives think that almost 1/10 of the country have bit the dust from the
virus!
Of course, total deaths have just recently pushed north of
150,000 or, about 1 in 2,000, nowhere close to 1 in 10!
No wonder everyone is living in terror, I would be too if I
thought that 30 million (9% of our population) Americans had died from the
virus in the last half year.
No wonder they applaud governors when they mandate
mask-wearing and stay-at-home orders, after all, they are protecting us and
otherwise we would die.
So, you see people are acting rationally, they just are
reasoning from wildly incorrect data.
But, how can people believe that the actual death rate is
225 times the actual confirmed death rate (CDC again)?
How can the perception be that 45% of the people who have
gotten the virus (20% / 9%) die from it when the reality is maybe, on the high
side, 0.64% (https://osf.io/wdbpe/) or, 70
times less than they have been led to believe?
So, I have answers to my questions raised earlier but,
confound it, now I have a different set of questions.
How can a population of hundreds of millions of people be
so completely misled, be so absolutely wrong?
Who could have deceived them so thoroughly, through what
mechanisms?
Why aren’t our leaders and, the press, stepping up and
setting the record straight, talking about the real numbers and demonstrating
the truth?
Why instead are they acting and talking as if what the
public fallaciously believes is true when they know it isn’t?
Are the American people really so dumb as to base their
lives on figures that 225 times higher than reality?
Are they so lazy as to not find out what the truth is (it
is readily accessible) on such an important matter?
Should the terrified Americans (you can tell who they are,
those that believe 1/10 of their friends and relations have gone to the great
beyond) – they are wearing masks – be allowed to vote?
In other words, do we really think people who have demonstrated
a complete lack of ability to discern the truth on the most important public
policy issue of the day possess the mental acuity to make reasoned voting
decisions?
If we do, then we should send them all a ballot in the
mail.
By Terry Applegate