The Shadow
Dear Editor,
I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone far and near for making the Pine Street Baptist Church Community Day and first year Pastoral Anniversary of pastor and people successful.
Thank you to all that played a part in each service.
A special “thank you” to Mayor Tom Sibold, Jr. and Vice Mayor David S. Crosier, Tim Bowman Jr. and, last but certainly not least, the members of Pine Street Baptist Church.
May God’s favor be upon you and your households in my prayer.
From the depths of my heart.
Pastor Roddrick D. Jenkins, Sr.
E. Fudge Street, Covington
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Dear Editor,
I’d like to respond to Ron Brunetti’s Nov. 17 Letter to the Editor, where he claimed that Americans who get sick with the Coronavirus have a 99.7 percent survival rate. That number is incorrect.
As I write this on Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Center for Disease Control (the CDC) lists the total number of U.S. cases at 12.2 million, with 256,000 Americans dead. That is a mortality rate of 2.1 percent (or a 97.9 percent survival rate). Maybe that doesn’t sound so bad. Maybe we should — as Mr. Brunetti says — treat this all as a hoax, just go about our daily business as usual, and let herd immunity happen.
What would happen? People who study herd immunity — medical doctors, scientists, statisticians — tell us that herd immunity of a virus is achieved when about 70 percent of the population has gotten sick. If 70 percent of 328 million Americans catch COVID, that’s 229.6 million people. And if 2.1 percent of 229.6 million die, that’s 4.8 million Americans dead.
For purposes of comparison, that is more than ten times the number of American military personnel who were killed in WWII, and I’ve never heard anyone call that death toll a hoax.
Take care of your neighbor and take care of yourself.
Sincerely,
Steve Metzler Jackson River Road, Hot Springs
