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by Linda Kaidan
As I went doom scrolling recently, I was amazed to discover that Herkimer County has a much lower death rate among Covid-19 infected. In comparison to world stats of 1 death in 44.6, Herkimer has reported 1 death in 81.7. New York State reports 1 death in 21.7 infected. It appears that up till now individuals who have tested positive for Covid-19 in our county were 4 times less likely to die from this virus than in New York State as a whole.
This data came from Worldometer today, December 12, 2020. We can conjecture why. Is our health data erroneous? Are Herkimer County residents super isolative in nature? Did I do my math wrong? Or do we possess some type of immunity? This last hypothesis is my favorite. Last year family members here became quite ill with the flu lasting 3 months. (August-November 2019). The symptoms were very similar to those of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. A near epidemic flu was reported in the US at that time.
Often statistics are given as occurrences per 100,000–homeowners, high school graduates, teachers per 100,000. I find the 1 in a number statistic more compelling because it’s personal and easily visualized. We can clearly imagine sitting in a classroom with 80 people. One gets up and walks away.
