Fact Check

Dear Editor,

I hope nobody accepted Mr. McGlothin’s Letter to the Editor without checking the facts. The facts are that the flu hospitalization number is the total for the whole 2019-2020 season. COVID hospitalizations of 100,000 is the daily number. It does not include the people that have recovered or died. The US does not publish (as far as I can research) total hospitalizations. Best value out there is that approximately 4 percent of the COVID cases require hospitalization, which works out to approximately 559,127 total hospitalizations. 

So lets recap:

Flu season deaths of 21,909 is 0.1 percent of the total flu cases and 5.4 percent of those that were hospitalized.

COVID deaths (so far) of 274,077 is 2 percent of the cases and 49 percent of those that have been hospitalized. 

Somebody should have said “Whoa!” Because when are 274,077 deaths not as bad as 21,909 deaths! 

We have lost over 12-and-a-hal times lives from COVID (so far) than we did from the last flu season and the COVID “season” is not over yet. There is a vaccine for the flu, which by best stats is 50 percent effective, and then only 50 percent of the people get the vaccine. So wear your masks, wash your hands and get the COVID vaccine as soon as it becomes available.

Oh, and just to remind everyone, the 2020-2021 flu season started Oct. 1. Did you get the flu vaccine for this season? Take care and stay protected and healthy.

Scott Fancett

 

 

Chinese Flu And Greensboro Police Problems

Dear Editor,

We had a chance to get Gov. Cooper out of here and blew it.  Now he thinks he can do anything that suits him, like shutting down businesses again.  What are those of us with a modicum of sense to do?  He is more interested in being politically correct than solving the problems.  There is one demographic causing probably 90 percent of the Chinese flu spread and instead he chooses to punish businesses.  I always thought getting through law school weeded out those too obtuse to make it.  Obviously there are exceptions.

Regarding the police situation, our City Council can take 100 percent of the credit, along with those who think they made a good choice at the ballot box. Our present City Council has only one adult among them.  When you handicap law enforcement as the council has repeatedly, you get what you required of them. I can accept that every sworn officer, at least at times, does not measure up, and that a few should never have been issued a badge and a weapon.  But we are people and we occasionally err on the side of good intentions. 

As a child I was taught that when in distress, seek out a police officer, and I still firmly believe that to be good advice.  If you are frightened of the police, there is a reason beyond those one in several million who have issues regarding things like race, ethnicity and neighborhood.  I still trust the police to do the right thing, and if you break the law, you establish an adversarial relationship and it is not their duty to change that.  Their job is law enforcement and in these times I certainly do not wish to be in their numbers.  Maybe the reason for the shortage.  Ya think!

Rich Carrera

 

 

Thanks To The Voters

Dear Editor,

The election is over and it’s important to recognize and hold in appreciation the voters and the various boards of elections.  We should never take for granted the significance of both.  As Susan B. Anthony once said, “Someone struggled for your right to vote.  Use it.”  And use it we did.

In this time of COVID, I was awed and moved as a record number of Americans made their mark in history by exercising their rightful and vital responsibility as citizens of this great country.  Their collective voices have been heard as they chose those they wish to lead them in the years ahead on the local, state and national levels.  Billie Eilish, singer and songwriter, captured it this way:  “We all have to vote like our lives and the world depend upon it, because they do.  The only way to certain of the future is to make it ourselves.”

And the tireless efforts and long hours logged by boards of elections to insure a fair election and that every vote that was cast and should be counted, was counted.  The tasks they and poll workers performed were done with efficiency and integrity and those efforts embody the very heart and soul of our democracy and help guarantee that our constitutional republic and its traditions long endure.

Bob Kollar

 

 

Miller Forester <cecjnr419xe@gmail.com>

 

Dec 5, 2020, 12:36 PM (5 days ago)

 

to ‪Elaine

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few observations.

 

Dear Editor,

AMERILIFE is an Insurance Company located in Marlborough, MA.   For several days now, I have been receiving RoboCalls from them; a machine asks about my Medicare benefits.  First, why would they think that I was eligible for Medicare?  Where did they get such information?  And second, RoboCalls are illegal, and are a felony.  So I, with perhaps some of you, can phone them and ask the same questions.

I’m sure everyone is aware of the shrinking size of packaging of all types of products, food, drugs, etc.  I’ve been buying the same brand of shampoo for a very long time.  The size has shrunk from 16oz, to 12oz, to 10oz, to 8.5oz, to 6.5oz.  Still five bucks for water, a bit of soap, fragrance, and food color. The standard size for a pie is 9″, shallow or deep.  Now, all I see are 8″ pies.  Doesn’t sound like much, so I trotted out my high school algebra.  The area of a 9″ circle is 63.61 square inches, an 8″ circle is 50.26.  That’s almost 21 percent less.  Such a deal.  Instead of a 1/2 gal of ice cream, you get .375 gal, 25 percent less; but the package is wider, so it looks the same on the shelf.  Don’t even get me started on coffee.  This is nothing but an attempt to disguise a price increase.  Apparently, that works fairly well.

Another way is to cheapen the product.   An example might be Sunbeam Products (Newell Brands, Inc).  They used to make great kitchen appliances, such as my old “Mister Coffee.”  After years of service, I broke the glass pot, so I ordered another one.  First time it touched something hard, it shattered.  Bought another one, it shattered almost immediately.  Then I dawned on me that they wanted it to shatter, all thanks to “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap.  Now, 940,000 Sunbeam crockpot multicookers are being recalled as the lids have popped off, spewing burning liquids.  Nearly 100 burn injuries so far.  Sunbeam says it is the consumers fault by not securing the lid properly.  How do they know? 

Not only are Krispy Kreme donuts smaller, but they don’t bother to glaze the bottom – double gotcha on that one.

All this is at best disingenuous, or what I call “sneaky”.  The factual comment is public information, the rest is my opinion.

On the other hand, Blue Bell Ice Cream has not been reduced in size, or quality.  I will pay their price.

Miller Forester