Purple crocuses and golden daffodils are springing out at the beckoning of the sun. “Spring is here!” sang the tiny fluttering birds as they dip between the flowers on every English meadow.
Why then the daily gloom on news articles proclaiming every sad statistic of death at countries far far away? Are good news out of fashion? Good news do not sell but scaremongering does. Every winter as surely as the new lambs are born in the spring, there are deaths, as the very old, the very young and the very weak succumbs to the flu. But who records these deaths day by day hour by hour when it sells no newspapers?
Livescience.com states, “So far, the new coronavirus has led to more than 100,000 illnesses and more than 3,000 deaths worldwide. But that's nothing compared with the flu, also called influenza. In the U.S. alone, the flu has caused an estimated 32 million illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 deaths this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “
The latest Public Health England (PHE) report published at 2pm on 30 January 2020, shows that seasonal flu continues to circulate across the UK, although activity is decreasing.
Over the last week, GP consultations with flu-like illness decreased from 10.3 per 100,000 to 9.0 per 100,000 which means in the UK population of about 67 million, we had about 6000 new cases of flu in that one week. Much much higher than Coronavirus. Annually around 17,000 die of flu in England alone.
We need perspective. Yes Coronavirus is new and relatively unknown. But we do know, yes sadly the weakest 2% who are infected may die, but 98% recovers. Not everyone will become infected if exposed to the virus. Other diseases have much higher mortality rates. The numbers are very small in the UK so let’s not shut down schools, restaurants and industry. Let’s not ruin our economy by over reacting to the fear orchestrated largely by the media.
Let’s enjoy the long awaited sundappled forests full of snowdrops and await the bursting bluebells , and rejoice that LIFE in England is blessed indeed. Carry On as before, Keep Calm as always because we are Brits, as we have much to live for.
