I felt there was enough good news (that is still often being spun as bad news) that I needed to send this update to business owner’s in the firework industry.
Also, I believe that each of us can make a difference. As a group, you are not Average Joe’s. You are business owners, often leaders in your communities. With enough positives voices, especially from leaders like you, the tone and energy of the world will change from negative to positive. So I am taking a risk with this e-mail and I am trying to speak for the positive.
I believe our political leaders are doing what they think “we the people want”. I think regardless if they are Democrat, Republican, Red Communists, or any other party, they need to feel safe that “we the people” are ready to allow them to take some risks before they will remove the lockdowns and allow us to resume our lives. So we each need to consider if we are ready to accept the risk of the virus and then find a way to help let our leaders know we are ready to move-on.
The virus is very frightening. One fearful thing about Covid-19 was the claim that it is “10 times more deadly than the flu”. But, what if there were three separate studies conducted by legitimate, world class, USA research facilities that all showed that the death rate for Covid -19 is much lower than the 3% WHO rate, and it is in fact about the same as the flu? Would that make you feel personally less worried? Would you be more willing to push to reopen your business with this new information?
This is exactly what has happened in the last several days. Here are links with more info about the three new studies (the media still tries to spin the information as negative, but the new data is very good news):
Stanford Study – Real death rate closer to 0.2% and not 10 times the flu – https://reason.com/2020/04/17/covid-19-lethality-not-much-different-than-flu-says-new-study/
LA County Study – http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/media/mediapubhpdetail.cfm?prid=2328Mass General Study – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8232857/One-people-Massachusetts-study-tested-positive-COVID-19-antibodies.html
What about treatments? What if there were treatments that helped? Would that make you feel less anxiety and begin to speak-up about opening society again? Here are two stories about possible drug treatments that appear to be helping:
Remdesivir drug showing early positive results – https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/16/early-peek-at-data-on-gilead-coronavirus-drug-suggests-patients-are-responding-to-treatment/
Personal Story of how Dr. Michael Saag Recovered from Covid –https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/what-renowned-infectious-diseases-doctor-learned-when-he-got-covid-n1186451
List of 23 possible treatments – http://the-emperor-has-no-clothes.com/index.php/possible-treatments-for-covid-19/
Understand that “flattening the curve” does not reduce the number of total deaths. It only spreads them out. The total area under the curve remains the same. The reason to close the economy was not to reduce total deaths, it was to not overwhelm the hospitals. However, with the new data, we now see the original models were vastly overstating the strain on hospitals. Also, for every Covid death prevented, there will be other deaths caused by suicide, poverty, lack of preventative healthcare, etc. Therefore, this is NOT a democrat vs republican debate. Both democrats and republicans need a functioning society. Now with the new VERY IMPORTANT information that the real death rate is about 0.1-0.2%, each of us should be reaching out to your representatives by phone, e-mail, or letter and telling them you want this new data to be incorporated into the city by city models and with that new data the models will show it is now OK to reopen most states.
The NFA and APA have also been trying to get a positive message out. We should all sign the NFA’s petition to Save July 4th. http://chng.it/xBknpyF6TM. However, your representatives weigh your personal communication to them even more. If you would like, I am willing to work with you to draft a letter that contains factual scientific information that might help your representative make a more balanced judgment that better weighs the costs of extended shut-downs. I know it feels like we “can’t fight city hall” but I think with this new information, now is the time to begin to try.
Thank you