Dr. [Tom] DeMarco’s dismissal of COVID-19 puts him on the same team as Mr. Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, [former U.S. President Donald] Trump, and [U.K. Prime Minister] Boris Johnson in the first four months of the pandemic. [Letter to the editor, March 18, “We need herd immunity against brainwashing politicians.”]
It is not coincidental that the U.S., Brazil, and the U.K. have the first, second and fifth highest COVID-19 death counts on the planet.
Fortunate for the doctor that he hasn’t lost anyone to COVID, but with respect, it is myopically self-absorbed to ignore the health care workers, friends and families of the 2.7 million who have died from COVID-19, not to mention the long haulers who suffer long-term debilitating COVID-19 symptoms.
Furthermore, in decrying the seriousness of COVID-19 compared to cancer, heart disease and other serious ailments, Dr. DeMarco implies that because the death rate for COVID-19 is less than those diseases, that we shouldn’t be so concerned and the world shouldn’t have taken the steps that it has to protect against transmission—what he dismisses as irrational overreaction.
But that wrongly dismisses not only the horrendous death count and that 80 per cent of COVID-19 recoverees continue to suffer serious symptoms for greater than three months, but that COVID-19 patients take up ICU and other hospital beds.
If prudent governments had not taken drastic measures, there would be more seriously sick COVID-19 sufferers filling up hospitals to the exclusion of those suffering from the types of ailments Dr. DeMarco names.
Italy’s COVID-19-full hospitals are a case in point: the immediate need to keep COVID-19 sufferers alive has squeezed out others who would otherwise fill those beds.
There is no doubt that the collateral damage from COVID restrictions is considerable, but it is far less than would have been the case without drastic measures.
The one thing I agree with in Dr. DeMarco’s letter, is that much blame can be laid at the feet of the media, but not for the reason that he gives (“creating and maintaining a constant state of hypervigilance regarding COVID”) but rather because of the confusion and distrust they have fostered in vaccines, face masks, and other safety measures.
At the end of the day, it is public skeptics like Dr. DeMarco who are causing people to disregard the seriousness of the situation and in turn, to disregard the measures designed to limit and eventually eliminate COVID-19 transmission, which, ironically will only prolong the disease, the social and economic restrictions, and the collateral damage he fears.
We need more vigilance, not less. And P.S.: Individuals who have the misfortune of having cancer, hypertension, diabetes or heart disease are at considerably greater risk of death from COVID-19 than those who do not.
Rick Coleman // Whistler
