To The Eagle:

“Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” So said Mark Twain in 1897, obviously anticipating the Covid pandemic by 123 years. The numbers submitted in a previous letter indicating that 80 percent of Covid deaths were folks over 65 with people 34 and younger accounting for less than 1 percent were from a CDC chart dated June 17. More recent info from the end of July shows 92 percent of Covid deaths were people over 55, with the same 1 percent below 34. This underscores the relative safety of schoolkids and their teachers, and indicates that best public policy would be a relaxed attitude for those below 55 allowing for mild cases and development of herd immunity, and offering maximum protection to senior citizens.

Another fascinating statistic comes from Uganda, a nation of 44 million in west central Africa, in the heart of malaria country. The population is pretty saturated with hydroxychloroquine which has been in use against malaria for the past half century, and, consequently, they have had only 1603 Covid cases and 15 deaths. Meanwhile, this drug has been restricted and/or banned by various governors and agencies across this country – Minnesota’s governor just lifted his ban last week.

None of this is intended as criticism of the actions of our local schools or other institutions, who are constrained by the edicts (euphemistically called “guidelines”) of our governor. Unfortunately, gubernatorial policies have been aimed, not at either disease control or economic recovery, but at the purely political goals of fomenting civil disorder and unseating Trump. So we’ll leave the calumny and opprobrium in the very capable hands of the Merry Marxist down the street.

Howard Brawn

Puget Island