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Numbers without perspective

Columnist Marc Legare writes about the pandemic and other ailments like starvation
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A Distant View

Marc Legare is a philosopher and motorcycle adventurist.

He has travelled extensively, worked and lived in Australia, US, and across Canada.

He has a varied working career including: Firefighter, Lawyer, Navy, Motorcycle Importer, plus others.

He chose to return to southern Saskatchewan because of his family's deep roots here.

As a columnist, Legare's columns will offer food for thought.  

We have lost sight of what numbers actually represent in our modern world of staggering numbers. For example, gone are the days when a million dollars meant something. Presently, billions or trillions of dollars is what we take note of. Human demographic figures are of similar ilk. 

Currently, there are 7.9 billion people on this planet, with the world population increasing by 220,000 persons per day, or approximately 80 million per year.

Since COVID-19 came on the world stage, it has killed 2.6 million (as of this writing) in just over a year. At the same time, the population of the world has increased by about 75 to 80 million. That means the people who died from the virus (in over a one year period) were replaced in less than 14 days. 

Using a backdrop can give those numbers a better frame of reference. If every person in Canada (37.5 million) were to die from coronavirus, our population would be restored in six months. In Canada, at this moment, the death toll from COVID-19 is 22, 276 people.

For the pandemic to have a negative impact on overall human population, it would have to kill more than 220,000 people per day, every day, for decades.

Currently, about 6,000 people per day have fallen victim to the virus or complications from same. 

Here is when many would interject and say that for an individual or their loved one who are one of those COVID-19 casualties, it would be devastatingly horrible. Sadly, that is accurate and heartwrenching. However, that is always the case whenever someone dies from any preventable malady whatsoever. 

The same personal tragedy holds true for those who die from the scourge of malnourishment. Starvation, which is curable, kills nine million humans per year, over three times as many as our current virus. Remember, we have the vaccine for hunger, food, and we produce plenty enough to feed everyone and more. 

Experts have wildly different numbers on how much it would cost to feed the starving. Some say as little as 7 billion USD/year, yet 116 billion/year is a more accepted number. The higher amount is still a puny crumb of a cost compared to the trillions being spent on the pandemic. Why is COVID-19 more important than starvation?  By number of deaths, eliminating hunger should be three times more concerning to us. 

Not so incidentally, those who argue that malnourishment is a political problem must explain this view with an acknowledgement of the massive worldwide political will, effort, power and control, and money being spent to eliminate the virus. No such effort is, or has ever been, remotely attempted to attack malnourishment.

This leads to another troubling number that can give us a better vantage point, and it is the antithesis of hunger. There are 4.7 million premature deaths per year from obesity. Another avoidable death rate that leaves coronavirus in the dust. Smoking (7 million deaths annually) is yet another item on the long list of preventable deaths that eclipse our current pestilence. 

I understand speaking in raw, impersonal, and vulgar numbers when we are talking about people's lives is hard to hear. The purpose of this writing is not to be impervious or indifferent to human death and suffering. The intent is to put our current pandemic in its proper perspective in order to react sensibly to it. 

Most of us have learned and would agree that making decisions based on emotions most often leads to mistakes. It is better to make decisions and respond to any challenge by keeping the problem in context. This aids in making more appropriate and reasonable choices. 

Is our reaction to COVID-19 emotional? Do the numbers support our reaction? Whatever your view of the matter, we can all agree we must protect ourselves from sickness, but we need to live as well. Considering those two needs, ought we not, at a minimum, examine the overall reality with honesty and with an open minded acknowledgement of real world numbers? 

As shocking and offensive as this may sound, the current death toll from coronavirus is absolutely objectively unremarkable. It is anything but a showstopper and it is not making a dent in our out-of-control burgeoning worldwide population. It is serious for some, but for humankind, it barely rates a mention.

There is something, however, that will rate a mention in the history books of tomorrow. Dismally, that will be the devastatingly negative impact our reaction to this virus has had on us and the future generations who will pay for it.

George Orwell said, "The very concept of objective truth is fading out in the world, lies will pass into history".

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.  

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