What’s the big deal with Covid-19 when it hasn’t killed as many people as the flu?

The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News.

By Julian Sherrard

The Orange Gallery & Big Signs Belize

An acquaintance was asking, What’s the big deal about COVID19 when it hasn’t killed as many people as the Flu and then made the statement that the world also freaked out about AIDS until it realized it was a homosexuals disease.

This was my response:

1) HIV AIDS is not a homosexual disease and has never been. It’s a sexually transmitted disease. Simply put: if you are having sex, then you are at risk.

It affects heterosexuals and homosexuals alike.

Just because you saw a movie with Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas, that doesn’t make it a homosexual disease.

Go bout di have sex without a condom, you will get it, regardless of your sexual persuasion!

Similarly, COVID19 is not a Chinese disease. It’s a disease. Like HIV, it does not discriminate.

But, like HIV, you can protect yourself. In the case of COVID19, by washing your hands frequently and properly, not touching your face, wearing a mask, social distancing, etc.

2)Right now, the “flu” may kill more people annually than COVID19 has, BUT COVID19 has not been around for a whole year!

The figures show COVID19 is at least 6 times more deadly than the flu. Plus, with it being so contagious (rapid-spreading) it overwhelms the healthcare facilities of every country it has touched. Why? Because people get infected with it at a higher rate than the healthcare systems can deal with those seriously affected.

Our healthcare system CAN deal with it IF we can “flatten the curve”, meaning: if not too many people get it at once and the healthcare system is not swamped. That is why we have been ordered to STAY AT HOME! and reduce our social circles.

BUT KNOW THIS: even if we all stay at home, even if we don’t swamp our healthcare systems, on average COVID19 is way more than 6 times as deadly as the regular flu. Again WHY? Because the world’s population of human bodies has never seen this virus, it has not developed a ready immune response. For other flu, it already has some ammunition (antibodies), to help fight. But for this one, it has nothing. Your body has never seen this one before, so it has no radar system nor ammunition that is built to recognize it quickly and kill it quickly. The body first has to recognize that it being invaded with this virus antigen, THEN it has to figure out and develop ammunition to kill it.

IF your body is strong, it will win.

But if your body is fighting diseases and infections on many fronts, it may not have the fighting capabilities to send enough troops, quickly enough, to defend and beat this new attack. No matter your age, it’s your health level that determines if you can fight this and win all by yourself OR if you’ll need medical intervention and hospitalization.

So, the panic is this:

COVID19 is at least 6 times more deadly that the flu.

COVID19 spreads rapidly AND, like HIV, you can be infected with it and not know it, and be spreading it to those you love and anyone else you come in contact with.

COVID19 has swamped almost every healthcare system it has touched (South Korea and Singapore are the only ones it did not overwhelm, but only because they had prepared for it as a result of their prior experience with SARS & H1N1 years ago).

The reassuring think is that IF we social distance, observe sneezing and coughing etiquette, practice good hand hygiene, all wear masks (because we don’t know if we are infected yet), and stay home and away from the hospital (unless we have shortness of breath), we can slow the spread enough to not overwhelm our hospitals.

Good luck and godspeed to us all!

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