Among the funnier things that I have been able to do over the last several weeks is look back at my social media posts from a year ago as the pandemic was in its infancy.  Whether they’re snarky posts about government overreach or frustration with the lack of intellectual honesty by which restrictions were being placed, I get a chuckle out of my own child-like ignorance of the year I was about to endure.  A few days ago I wrote a piece showing my analysis of the data from the Diamond Princess COVID-19 outbreak from a year prior.  This data showed that not only were we acutely aware of who was at risk, but that it was a disease that primarily affected the old and sick.

This morning I was gifted with another reminder of data from last year by Facebook. This data came out of New York City’s Health Department, who, at the time, released daily numbers regarding the spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent deaths from those infections.

First, as noted, only 1.2% of those who died had no underlying health conditions.  That means that 98.8% of those that died either had or potentially had an underlying health condition that contributed to their death. Sixty-nine percent definitely had an underlying health issue. Of those who died, 70% were over the age of 65 and 94% were over the age of 45.  Of the one death under the age of 18, that child had a preexisting condition that made them at risk.

“But Scott! This was early on and more people were yet to die and those numbers could change!”

You’re right, but luckily for us, the NYC Department of Health continued to produce those numbers for yet another few weeks, giving updates until May 12th, 2020.  This data solidifies the case, showing that 74% of those that died from COVID 19 were over the age of 65, and 96% were over the age of 45. Of the nine children that died or just 0.05% of all COVID-19 deaths, six of them had preexisting conditions.  Only three of them did not have a preexisting condition.

Of the 15,233 people who died before May 12th, only 99 did not have a preexisting condition or 0.6% of the total deaths and of those, 79 of them were over the age of 45.

For too long the media and the left perpetuated the myth that “we didn’t know enough about the disease” in order to allow certain people to go back to work. It is clear from the data that everyone under the age of 45 could have gone back to work and healthy people under the age of 65 could have as well.  Students should have absolutely remained in school and the vast majority of lockdown measures were unnecessary and a completely ineffective strategy for dealing with the outbreak.

At this point, the government response is either a clinic on gross incompetence, or was a direct effort to spike the Trump admin’s stellar economy.  Frankly, it could have been both.