Our mayor awkwardly tried to convey that Covid decisions are not just all about the math but also about feelings. That her “calculations” show (groan) that there is a 100% chance those who have passed away are missed by their loved ones.
Clearly, this is a dig at people like me who insist on doing cost benefit analysis of different courses of action during the “pandemic”.
I’m sure she’s very proud of her clever “percentages” segue and her conclusion that people missed their loved ones when they pass away. To which I say:
No kidding.
You know who else is 100% missed by their loved ones? The 2.7 million Americans who died last year of all those non-Covid causes. You know who else? The 2.7 million Americans who died the year before that.
The 7,500 Americans who died yesterday of all sorts of non-Covid causes are ALSO missed dearly by their sons and daughters and loved ones…as will be the 7,500 more that will pass away today.
This may come as a surprise to Mayor Talbert, but people have been dying in this world before March of this year. In fact, every person ever born eventually died – and they were mourned by their children and grandchildren and friends. Every person reading this will also die someday. People dying didn’t start in March of this year.
I would guess that between March 2019 and October 2019, probably 100 people died in Lampasas County. Including some tragically young adults in car accidents. Why did Mayor Talbert not get on Facebook and cry over each one of THEM? After all, THEY were all 100% missed by their loved ones too. Are those deaths < a Covid death? [a little math symbol there, Misti!]
When you are a LEADER in charge of millions (like Governor Abbott or Donald Trump) you most certainly DO have to strictly use math to do cost benefit analysis comparing one course of action to another and leave your emotions out of it.
If a 23-year-old woman is killed in a freak automobile accident, you don’t demand that the entire country “lock down” their cars and never drive again because “if it saves one life it is worth it”. That would be absolutely idiotic. Yet that also doesn’t automatically mean that we don’t feel for that poor mom and dad who just lost their daughter. It is terrible and tragic, but MATH and COMMON SENSE tell us that the rest of the world keeps on spinning. Why? Because to “lock down” cars and trucks would cause tens of millions of deaths from starvation alone as food couldn’t get from farm to table, to show just ONE obvious ‘COST’ of that ridiculous course of action.
When you start to realize the massive cost in lost life years from locking people down (suicides, overdoses, cancer screenings that didn’t happen, heart conditions and diabetes that weren’t treated, chemotherapy sessions missed, stroke evaluations that were missed) and compare them to “Covid deaths” – you will quickly start to realize that the cure was worse than the disease.
[German Minister Admits Lockdowns Will Kill More Than Covid-19 Does]
The indisputable fact of the matter is that MOST of the deaths in our county were elderly people who had other health issues and who were already far over the average life expectancy for a human born in, say, 1935. And while, YES, those people will be sorely missed by those close to them, the truth is that those people were going to fall victim to SOMETHING relatively soon anyways. Stroke. Pneumonia. Heart disease. That is a statistical fact (ugh – evil, callous math again).
Just because some of us don’t get on Facebook video and cry over every single death of a person we don’t know, doesn’t mean we don’t understand this fact and sympathize with the family left behind. But that is not how you make decisions as a leader.
I’m sorry the “math” works out this way, but I think almost everyone would agree that the death of a 25-year-old who kills himself over depression from being caged like an animal for 6 months and losing his job and live savings is FAR more tragic than the death of a 90-year-old, bedridden stroke victim. Who is to say the 90-year-old wasn’t alive this year only because of a mild flu season last year?
Math will help us answer all these questions and steer us in the correct direction.
While I appreciate that Mayor Talbert has a big heart and “feels” for every single death, none of that enters the equation when you are making decisions that are adversely affecting the lives of thousands/millions of other people who are still alive and trying to put food on the table.
The same exact “math” should be used with mask mandates. The math clearly tells us that kids under 20 are at practically ZERO risk of dying from Wuhan Flu and therefore masks are not needed in the schools. Math/statistics also proves that masks are useless anyways against aerosolized virus: every chart comparing mask mandate counties to non-mask mandate counties show this starkly. Math again tells us that there are MANY adverse effects to forced mask wearing – which we will see show up in the statistics eventually.
P.S. I will say I am delighted to see that Mayor Talbert is now cognizant of the existence of “math” at all. Too bad her realization comes NOW instead of years ago. She could have “calculated” that the cost of the $96,000 no-bid Azbell A/V system they bought for City council chambers was > (GREATER THAN) the $34,000 Broadcast Works bid that was on the table.
She might have also realized that the $128,400 RKJ elevator cost was > (GREATER THAN) the $96,000 Austin Elevator bid that was also on the table.
But there is hope! She can maybe still “calculate” that the $4 million they are trying to waste on the ‘business park’ is > (FAR GREATER THAN) any phantom benefits you are counting on from future “economic growth”.