We must all take personal responsibility to stop COVID-19 pandemic | Letter to the editor

Some are minimizing the seriousness of Covid-19 by comparing it to the flu, as if the flu is not a severe disease. Both the flu and Covid-19 are dangerous, and both easily mitigated with proper precautions, e.g. social distancing measures, washing hands for 30 seconds, and wearing masks when ill – all public health measures that require only a sense of personal hygiene and cleanliness.

• Covid-19: 400,000 cases in the U.S. Flu: 9 - 45 million cases/yr. in the U.S.Covid-19: 13,000 deaths in the U.S. (April 8).
• Flu: 12,000 - 61,000 deaths/yr. in the U.S.

The mortality from the flu is 0.1% The mortality from Covid-19 is unknown but believed to be 1% - 4%. The difference a factor of 10. If you don’t know anyone who has died from Covid-19, then it’s just a statistic. If you have a friend or family member who is seriously ill or has died, you probably wish more people had taken this more seriously.

We all need to take personal responsibility, both for our health care and the health of others. We all need to accept and follow the recommendations of knowledgeable health care professionals, some of whom are on the front lines risking and losing their lives for the rest of us. It is wrong to adopt a wait-and-see attitude to see how much more serious this might become before taking corrective actions that are too little and too late.

Preventive measures seem to be unnecessary and expensive — how do you value the expense of a fire or other disaster that doesn’t happen? There has to be a trade-off between the cost of preventing unnecessary deaths and the financial toll on society.

How we choose to behave is a litmus test of our values.

John Ayres

Bradenton