News You Can Use

Power Line’s Scott Johnson this morning has a detailed list of the pre-existing conditions that put one at greater danger of dying from Covid-19. In Minnesota at least, just over 1% of the deaths from it (6 of 499) are people without one of these who do not live in a long-term care facility.

What are the significant underlying medical conditions that place one at risk of death from the virus? They are set forth in paragraph 2 of Walz Executive Order 20-55: chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma, serious heart conditions, immunocompromised systems (caused by cancer treatment, smoking, bone marrow or organ transplantation, immune deficiencies, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, or prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune weakening medications), severe obesity (body mass index of 40 or higher), diabetes, chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis, and liver disease.

It must be said that if you aren’t in the above group you could still get very sick but will likely survive after much misery. Nobody is saying so but I suspect this same group of people are at elevated risk of dying from influenza. The Walz referenced is MN Governor Tim Walz.