So, Why Are We Still Afraid?

Now that we are several months into this COVID-19 pandemic we have a lot more data. Initially there was a lot of concern about the unknown, but now we have the data. If the American health care system is good at anything, it is stats and numbers for disease rates. We are really good at tracking disease. Not so good at eradicating, preventing, mitigating or curing it, but quite good at tracking it. Even with possible manipulation of the data, the trends can be seen.

In Yakima county where I live, we have been number one county on the West coast for the number of cases per capita throughout May and June. It is a very agrarian county, with a high percentage of essential workers outside of government jobs. So, we have enough numbers to ask the question, “So, Why Are We Still Afraid?”

Let’s take a look at the numbers:

Table 1. COVID-19 Data, Yakima County, Washington state, updated July 12, 2020.

Age Range	Case Count	Percentage of Total Cases	Deceased	Percentage of Total Deaths
0-19	1,059	12%	0	0%
20-29	1,901	22%	1	0.6%
30-39	1,599	19%	4	2.3%
40-49	1,355	16%	7	4.1%
50-59	1,211	14%	13	7.6%
60-69	706	8%	25	14.6%
70-79	380	4%	46	26.9%
80+	367	4%	46	26.9%
TOTAL	8,578	100%	171	100%

In looking over the numbers in Table 1 you can see that there are a lot of cases among the younger aged people who have undergone testing. Up through the 50-59 age group there are over 1,000 people in each age group. So, there are enough cases to see some patterns here. In the 60+ age categories, only single-digit percentages (8, 4 and 4 percent of the total cases) are from the 60-69, 70-79 and 80+ categories, respectively. So, the majority of the cases (83%) in our county are actually people under the age of 60.

Moving over to the “Deceased” column, you can see that up through the 40-49 group there are only single digit deaths in Yakima county. Only 12 deaths for people up to the age of 49. In fact, if you add up the oldest two categories, this is about 71% of all of the deaths in the county. And the categories for ages 60+ account for a full 85% of all deaths. 85%! Fifteen percent of the confirmed cases account for 85% of the deaths. Let that sink in for a minute. These are the statistics from my local county where I live. I suspect this trend holds true across the country, as this article by Avik Roy of FREOPP indicates. Data from the CDC for the whole country shows the same age-death trend. So, why are we still afraid?

What is the risk of dying of COVID-19 if you are over the age of 60 versus under the age of 60? A simple 2X2 contingency table calculation will give us this answer quickly.

Here is the contingency table:

Table 2. 2X2 Contingency Table for < 60 versus ≥ 60.

Group	Alive	Dead	Total
< 60 years of age	7,100	25	7,125
≥ 60 years of age	1,307	146	1,453
Total	8,407	171	8,578

We already knew that older people are more susceptible to COVID. This simple comparison gives a relative risk ratio of 28.7-fold higher risk of dying from COVID-19 if you are over the age of 60 versus younger than 60. Almost 30 times the risk! And if you are young, why are you still afraid?

And if you make the contrast even more stark, compare less than 50 years of age with greater than 70 years of age. I’ll spare you the details. It works out to an 80-fold higher risk of dying from/with COVID-19 if you are over the age of 70 versus if you are less than 50 years of age. 80-fold! So, why are we still afraid?

There is another line in the county’s health data that speaks volumes:

“Deceased with underlying conditions: 169 / 171”

So, if you are healthy, your risk of dying of COVID-19 is essentially zero. Zero. So, why are we still afraid?

So far, about 121,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the USA. While this number appears large, when compared to the numbers of people who die of other causes, this number is not large at all. There are about 2.8 million deaths in the USA from all causes per year. So, while 121,000 people have died of COVID-19 this year, more than 10 times as many people, about 1.3 million, have died of something else.

From data from the CDC, we can find that about 650,000 people die of heart disease each year, and another 600,000 from cancer. 121,000 die of Alzheimer’s Disease and another 84,000 from diabetes. Medical errors themselves contribute around 250,000 deaths each year, a cause of death not captured on death certificates. These are the causes of death that actually kill most people. I don’t want to minimize the impact of COVID-19 deaths, but I do want us to have a perspective that takes away the fear.

Regardless of the reasons for all of this pandemic mess, you do not need to be afraid. Do not give in to the media’s fear tactics. You cannot control your age, but your health is totally in your control. Totally. You may not achieve perfect wellness, but you can get to a place where you can function remarkably well at any age. You can enhance your immunity to withstand COVID-19 and many other infectious diseases. I have written before on how to bolster your immune system with vitamin C, Silver Biotics, vitamin D3 / K2, selenium, alpha lipoic acid, and iodine. You can find all of this in detail on Hallelujah Diet’s COVID-19 Immune Support Resources page.

High blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, immunodeficiency diseases are underlying diseases of concern. These are all diet and lifestyle related chronic diseases. They can’t be eliminated overnight, but 30 days of strong application of the Hallelujah Diet will put you in a much better place as far as your health is concerned.

This pandemic is an opportunity for you to take back your health. If you are vulnerable, there are things you can do to improve your health right now. So, get going, kick the fear aside, and get back to the health you were created to have.

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