Letter: Other facts to consider

Dear readers:

I wish to express my viewpoint in light of Don Niemeir's opinion and words to me in the January 28th BVD. I appreciated his candid approach to our current national crisis as it forced me to do more research. Here are some other facts to consider:

Mr. Niemeir states at the beginning of his letter that "the over-all death rate from all causes has not risen." In my study of the CDC website, I found statistics showing that on a weekly basis starting from March 28th, 2020, through January 9th, 2021, deaths due to Covid-19 have caused the number of deaths by all causes to increase by from 5.7% to 41.2%! By October, Covid-19 had become the 3rd leading cause of death (ages 45 – 84) and the 2nd cause (ages 84 and older), according to the Center on Society and Health, Virginia Commonwealth University in the School of Medicine. I believe recently Covid has become the #1 cause. Here is the latest as of February 5, 2021: United States; 26,837,844 cases; 460,311 deaths; case fatality rate 1.7%. The percentage sounds small, but look at how many souls that represents, souls that did not have to die at that point in their lives. Even if a person is flummoxed by all the data, how can one ignore the evidence on the ground? Thankfully, the over-all number of hospitalizations and deaths appears to be declining, but the average number of deaths in January was still 3000 per day!!

Throughout 2020 many hospitals became overwhelmed with Covid patients, beds crowding hallways, doctors and nurses in tears and exhaustion trying to manage the numbers, pleading for help, ambulances lined up with patients for whom no beds are available (one woman was shown lying in the street beside the ambulance); maybe she didn't have Covid, but she couldn't get in the hospital because of Covid!), mortuaries turning away thousands of families because they could not take any more dead bodies and semi-trucks full of the same with no place to put them. These people, deceased and still living, aren't members of some vast conspiracy to drive the world into socialism or control healthy peoples' freedoms. These are our neighbors and friends torn apart by a real virus.

These are terrible and tragic images. Of course, it's easier to hear "we are rounding the corner" than "it will be a dark winter." But these images are not fake people in fake scenarios. Don thinks I am living in fear because I pay attention to these statistics, aka people, but I am not shying away from people I love or the work I love to do. I wear a mask and limit group exposure. I'm getting the vaccinations. What does scare me are people who buy into conspiracy theories instead of helping their followers to learn the truth; people who slam and distort the record of individuals who have given millions of dollars and much of their lives to HELP others. Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg, the Obama/Biden administration and others kept Ebola from getting out of control in this country and aided Africa in its struggle with the disease. Bill Gates is at the forefront of vaccine research. What if these smart and generous people that Don thinks are trying to "scare us into submission and compliance" are only trying to save our lives?

For years, mainstream scientists have been warning the U.S. about pandemics, running preparedness campaigns, and doing research on viruses and vaccines. Now, Don notes, because of that, the Covid pandemic suspiciously appeared on the heels of establishing protocols for such an outbreak! That reasoning boggles the mind. Covid-19 is a NEW virus (which is apparently shape-shifting right under our noses). No one made it up, and no one expected that America couldn't handle it. Mr. Niemeir thinks the pandemic "is an opportunity to overthrow the existing world order." By China, maybe, but they don't seem to need the pandemic to do that. Sounds as if Don has his own fears, but I believe they are misplaced. He should read H.R. McMaster's Battlegrounds for a more educated opinion.

Don states that the Covid crisis "is political." Yes, sadly, folks have used the pandemic politically on both sides, but what I believe is that the virus, the protocols, the vaccines, the safety guidelines are not in themselves, political. The virus is in control here – no political party or extremist or world leader. To think otherwise is to put one's head in the sand and prevent capable, decent, honorable men and women from leading us out of it!! I do agree with Don that the economic damage is huge. And the personal damage to dreams, businesses, families, and freedoms is immeasurable. But the virus is doing that all by itself! If we are pounding our fists (and each other) for our "pursuit of happiness", the virus is going to win. Some experts think that if everyone would wear an N-95 mask for four weeks, the virus would disappear. I know that sounds impossible, but just think how the economy would grow after that, and we would all be able to pursue happiness unfettered.

Are we such a selfish society that we must have our individual freedoms while others are suffering and dying? Is your freedom to gather, not to wear a mask, not to get a vaccination greater than my freedom to live without Covid around every corner? The discussion of "freedoms" has become political, but if you gathered a diverse selection of American citizens into a room and asked them to list their most important freedoms, there would probably be a huge consensus. Don says "if we cave to the pressure and propaganda of the radical left. . ." Wait a minute. The radical left didn't storm the Capitol with hatred and weapons to overturn a free and fair election and kill the Vice-President and some lawmakers based on a lie! We should not allow extremism from either side to direct our lives and ratchet up the divisiveness.

How hard would it be for us to have the goal of building trust and cooperation, and yes, some compromise, so that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights works for everyone, especially in the time of a national health crisis? Maybe wearing a mask is a compromise. Maybe it isn't a symbol of a new world order. Maybe it just means you care about your neighbor.

I am very willing to meet and discuss anyone's viewpoints further. I ask that we take it out of the BVD for now. Thank you sincerely,

Liz Cain