Re:Is It a Pandemic Yet?
by AnimalMuppet on Monday February 24, 2020 @03:52PM
(#22408316)
Part of it may be volition, and part may be time, and part of it may be the unknown.
If I die from smoking, it's probably because I smoked. (Yes, I know that some people can die from second-hand smoke, but it's by far the minority.) And if I die from smoking, it's from smoking for 10 or 50 years, not from one cigarette.
With Covid, though, I can die because someone at my work went the wrong place on vacation. And I can die in days, not in years.
And, Covid today kills fewer than smoking. That may not be true in a year, though. So part of the focus is because the potential is there for it to be an objectively bigger killer than smoking.
If I die from smoking, it's probably because I smoked. (Yes, I know that some people can die from second-hand smoke, but it's by far the minority.) And if I die from smoking, it's from smoking for 10 or 50 years, not from one cigarette.
With Covid, though, I can die because someone at my work went the wrong place on vacation. And I can die in days, not in years.
And, Covid today kills fewer than smoking. That may not be true in a year, though. So part of the focus is because the potential is there for it to be an objectively bigger killer than smoking.