Comparing

You’ve probably heard about the Wuhan virus, China virus, 2019nCorV, or however the media is calling it today. It’s closed all transport in the province of Hubei, prolonged the Spring Festival in China, etc. As of today, 6:30 PM CST, there were 81 deaths, 2,835 confirmed infections, and about 60 recoveries worldwide according to JobTubeDialy. I am among that 19% of the population whose life was affected by the virus. I do not want to discuss the measures that have been or will be taken, tell my experience, or discuss reliability. I want to give you numbers so you can compare this against other events.

• According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention “between 291,000 and 646,000 people worldwide die from seasonal influenza-related respiratory illnesses each year.” (2017 December 13).

• The 391,832 Iraq War Logs released on Wikileaks reveal that the United States military killed 66,081 civilians in Iraq between 2004 and 2009, which means 11,014 civilian deaths per year.

• The World Health Organization estimated that 770,000 died from HIV-related illnesses in 2018 and 37.9 million were infected with HIV/AIDS.

• In 2013, “The Lancet medical journal stated that malnutrition contributes to 3.1 million under-five child deaths annually, or 45 percent of all deaths for that age group.”

Of course, this is a new virus and we don’t have a cure yet. Perhaps it will be the last virus that humanity faces, and I’ll be damned for my imprudence. But, if you’re an average human on planet Earth (which means you probably do live in China), what is the worst threat to you?