How is attending a drinking party, getting drunk and ending up killing someone in an accident different from going to a COVID-19 party, getting the disease and exposing someone who subsequently dies?

The death rate for the COVID-19 patient is certainly higher than the death rate caused by drunken drivers. The simple math procedure to determine the death rate of the COVID-19 patients can be found daily by dividing the number of deaths by the number of people who have had the disease. This number has been running a consistent 5.9% for several weeks. Unfortunately, there seem to be no statistics available for people who drive drunk and cause the 30 deaths per day in auto crashes.

For those who think this 5.9% rate is not serious, let’s examine some events we have considered serious. The Veterans Administration lists the wartime mortality rates for all our military conflicts. The rate for military personal who were deployed in World War II was 2.5%. For the Vietnam War it was 1.7%, and for the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict it is running 0.3%. Another comparison would be the common seasonal flu, which has a death rate of 0.1%.

Don’t listen to those who are telling you it is not serious. And for those of you who say it only kills old people, I am appalled. You too may someday become old.

Carlisle Harrison

Hermiston