Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1216530
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 MARCH 2020 OPINION FROM the outset I was reluc- tant to write anything about the dreaded 'c'-word – you know, the one that sounds like a weak Mexican pilsner served with a wedge of lemon (pre- sumably, to make it actually taste of something) – for the simple reason that… I'm not a doctor. I'm not a virologist. I'm not an epide- miologist. Heck, I didn't even pass my Chemistry O-level at school. In brief, I know nothing what- soever about the novel coro- navirus called 'COVID-19'... other than what I've read in the papers over the past couple of weeks: which is (or should be) common knowledge to every- one by now. So what on earth can I possi- bly write, that would be of any use in the event of a nationwide epidemic? But then again… I am, for better or worse, part of this global phenomenon called 'the media'. And the more I look at what's happening all around us, the more I realise that all the panic that I'm seeing – for in- stance, the bulk-buying of toi- let-paper (further proof, if any were needed, that the entire country is simply shitting it- self) – is actually not a product of this virus at all. No, it's a product that has been manufactured and dis- tributed entirely by the media: and in particular, those sec- tions of the media which in- variably presume that anything 'new', and potentially 'scary', is automatically going to turn into the next global Zombie Apocalypse. And this is beginning to wor- ry me far more than the coro- navirus itself. Think about it for a moment. Who is coming up with all these scare-stories about a 'killer virus' that is '10 times deadlier than seasonal in- fluenza'… among all the other outrageously sensational (and misleading) headlines we've seen since the outbreak began? Journalists, that's who. Not doctors, not virologists, not epidemiologists… but sim- ply journalists who – like me – don't know anything of any real value about this particu- lar virus (or any other disease, for that matter)… except what they're told by medical experts. Hence my concern: for un- like large parts of the global media, the medical experts we rely on for information are not 'panicking' about this virus at all. Quite the contrary: doctors and virologists from all over the world seem to concur that this new virus is, in fact, rath- er mild, in comparison to past major pandemics. What they're actually telling us – but very little of which is getting properly reported – is that: yes, COVID-19 has a higher-than-average mortality rate (around 1.7%) than sea- sonal influenza… but a much lower contagion rate, which results in far fewer deaths on a global level. The World Health Organi- sation, for instance, estimates that 'ordinary' influenza kills between 290,000 and 650,000 people around the world each year. In the USA alone, around 20,000 (including over 150 children) have already died of it since the beginning of 2020… a statistic which is considered so commonplace, that it doesn't even get reported at all. COVID-19, on the other hand, has to date killed 2,869 people globally. And much more sig- nificantly, these fatalities have, so far, been overwhelmingly limited only to people classed as 'immuno-compromised': a category which includes the elderly, as well as those con- valescing from other debilitat- ing illnesses (or suffering from conditions that weaken their immunity system). In other words, the same category that is considered high risk for all types of influ- enza anyway – and which ac- counts for well over 90% of the above-mentioned global death- toll. To put that into some kind of historical context: the in- famous 'Spanish Flu' of 1918 claimed an estimated 50 mil- lion lives in less than a year (out of over 500 million con- tagions: a mortality rate of 10%)… but what made it truly alarming was that a very high percentage of those deaths in- volved young and otherwise perfectly healthy people: i.e., the sort who would normally be expected to survive. This is, quite simply, not happening in the case of COV- ID-19 today. Young, healthy people who contract this dis- ease have an estimated 98% chance of fully recovering… many of them without ever even realising that they'd con- tracted the virus at all… and with only around 4% of cases requiring hospitalisation (not including for quarantine pur- poses, naturally). Statistically speaking, then: unless you fit the profile of an immuno-compromised per- son – in which case, you are in just as much danger from the Raphael Vassallo Yes, there's a dangerous virus going around. It's called 'social media' Who is coming up with all these scare- stories about a 'killer virus' that is '10 times deadlier than seasonal influenza'?