South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Reader says virus is not a conspiracy, plus it’s far worse than H1N1

Letters+to+the+editor

Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

An April 2 writer to The Call, Larry Bierman, suggested a conspiracy against President Trump amid the present COVID-19 pandemic. He also suggested the media didn’t cover the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 under President Obama the same way.

Let’s see: H1N1 is a type of influenza. It started January 2009 in North America. Some older people may have had some immunity from earlier exposure to similar type viruses. We had at least two antivirals to help treat H1N1 — oseltamiver and zanamiver — and a vaccine became available by December 2009. In the United States, 12,469 died from H1N1 — a death rate of 0.02 percent.

COVID-19 is more like a viral pneumonia and is more contagious than the flu. It started in Asia. So far it seems no one has had immunity. We have no drugs to treat it yet — and Trump’s suggestion that we do may have caused a death in Arizona.

We already have more than 48,000 deaths in the United States, and even President Trump, reluctantly along with his advisers, have suggested that deaths in the United States may reach 100,000 to 240,000 — a much, much higher death rate than H1N1. COVID-19 is more deadly than H1N1.

A conspiracy? Really?

H1N1 and COVID-19, there is no comparison.

Michael Bander
Oakville

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