Most At Little Risk of Death?

Scott Johnson, one of the four principals at Power Line, has done a semi-tedious series of 37 columns about Covid-19 in Minnesota, most of them taking a dim view of the Governor’s responses to the disease. Today, he summarizes the MN experience, after noting that in MN roughly 80% of the deaths have been among long-term care residents and the average age of those dying is 83.

Minnesotans also fail to understand this: outside of long-term care facilities and absent an underlying medical condition such as obesity, diabetes, respiratory or cardiac disease, they are essentially at no risk of death from the virus.

I wonder just how true this appraisal might be nationally? Especially when over 40% of Americans are obese. The behavior of people in semi-rural CA, where I reside at present. suggests many have privately drawn this conclusion and gone about their work and lives, to the extent possible.

True, restaurants and many shops are closed, and most of us need a haircut, but mask-wearing is now reduced to a sizable minority and keeping 6’ apart isn’t being particularly observed. Traffic is back to maybe 70% of normal, although some large stores (WalMart, Home Depot) are making customers enter in elaborate, off-putting ways.

Our nephews in the Bay Area report a more strict adherence to social distancing guidelines there. Doing so may make sense in that higher density environment.