Sharing Reality Is Not Fearmongering - Responding To Covid-19

Oklahoma State Senate
Senator Micheal Bergstrom

Senate District 1

March 27, 2020

Capitol Considerations by Senator Micheal Bergstrom

Sharing reality is not pushing fear

            I know there are some who believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is not really that big a deal. After all – some will say – tens of thousands will die from the flu in the United States every year, and we don’t take these kinds of actions.

Here’s some statistics to rebuke that argument.

The mortality rate for the seasonal flu averages 0.1 percent. As of now, the international mortality rate for COVID-19 is about 4.5 percent. The Italian mortality rate is about 9 percent and the U.S. mortality rate is around 2.3 percent, 23 times higher than the flu. (When I first wrote this the U.S. mortality rate was only 1.5% but it has continued to inch up.)

Let’s say that Oklahoma aligns with the U.S. average and it manages to decline to just 1 percent – that is still 10 times as many people dying from COVID-19 than from the flu.

That’s a big deal.

I believe this pandemic is a terrible enemy we must defeat. We don’t want to be Italy, nor do we want our morbidity rate to reach the average for the rest of the world.

So, even though some accuse me of trying to cause fear and panic, I am going to post the most up-to-date statistics every day and direct those who visit my Facebook pages to the most recent information and websites available so they can dig into it themselves.

Sharing reality is not pushing fear. Rather, it prepares us to face this enemy and defeat it.

I am convinced that the actions we are taking here in Oklahoma will save lives.

Unfortunately, there are those who brush off the headlines and don’t seem to listen to the troubling stories. They ignore the reality of hospitals around the world that are unable to properly treat deathly ill patients because the disease has so overwhelmed their healthcare systems after their governments were slow to act.

American automakers are taking this seriously by closing down vehicle production and joining in to help produce enough respirators and ventilators for healthcare workers and patients.

They know this is a big deal.

If you don’t think this is serious, go look at the situation in Italy where intensive care unit (ICU) beds and ventilators are nowhere near what is needed, and many are dying because of this shortage.

There’s a recent headline in Business Insider that reads: “New York City hospitals are running out of room in their morgues, but the flow of coronavirus bodies is just starting to ramp up.”

Seems to be getting serious.

I hear from healthcare workers all the time, and this is a frightening time for them. I have family members who work in area hospitals. They and their co-workers pay close attention to what is going on in the world and nation in regard to this pandemic.

They know this is a big deal.

Our healthcare providers are on the front lines of this pandemic and know the potential for each of them to contract this disease and suffer serious illness or loss of life is very real, yet they continue to do their jobs.

If we don’t “flatten the curve” of the rate of infection, we could end up like Italy or other places with an extreme shortage of ICU beds and ventilators. What happens when our healthcare workers get infected? Who’s going to take their place?

This is the reality we are facing. Now let’s pull together and defeat this enemy.

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