Power Line’s Paul Mirengoff cites at length a David Leonhardt article for the New York Times (behind paywall) concerning hopeful developments in the Covid-19 pandemic. All of it is interesting but I found particularly relevant the following excerpt:
A typical 65-year-old American woman — to take one example — is five foot three inches tall and weighs 166 pounds. If she had been vaccinated and did not have a major Covid risk factor, like an organ transplant, her chance of dying after contracting Covid would be 1 in 872, according to the calculator. For a typical 65-year-old man, the risk would be 1 in 434.
Among 75-year-olds, the risk would be 1 in 264 for a typical woman and 1 in 133 for a typical man.
Those are meaningful risks. But they are not larger than many other risks older people face. In the 2019-20 flu season, about 1 out of every 138 Americans 65 and older who had flu symptoms died from them, according to the C.D.C. (emphasis added)
Translation: Flu is dangerous to seniors, so is Covid. The vaccines for both are (a) helpful and improve your odds, but (b) no guarantee of absolutely dodging the disease.
The no-longer-young DrsC get the flu vaccine every year, and I won’t be upset if we end up getting a Covid vaccine every year too. Doing so beats getting sick and Medicare wisely picks up the tab.
