Historic Places in South Jersey

Historic Places in South Jersey - Places to Go and Things to Do

A discussion of things to do and places to go, with the purpose
of sharing, and encouraging exploration of South Jersey.

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Pandemic 2020 and the value of a human life

Today, I heard Governor Murphy say we had 1000 less cases this week than we had last week.  It seems as though each week has a different focus in the one hour of news I watch each day, CNN, MSNBC, BBC World News.  One week it was finger pointing "What did Donald Trump know and when did he know it."  He took that theme and decided to get himself off he hook by blaming China and demanded an investigation into "What did the Chinese know and when did they know it."  He always takes things a bit further and so he is accusing China of engineering the virus and leaking it onto the world.  Scientific experts had investigated and assured everyone that this virus was NOT Lab engineered or modified in any way.  They are certain it was animal/human spread and originated.
Some places that have opened early, as in Georgia, have seen a return spike in the numbers of people going into the hospital.
On the radio, on the way to the hardware store, I heard an economist describing how they decide on the value of a human being in order to come up with a scale to use to weigh 'bills' a kind of cost versus life saved equation, as in 'how many lives will be lost if we don't do it; how many lives will be saved; what is the comparison of cost versus live.  
The answer is that by government economics calculation, a human life is worth 10 million dollars.  They had to argue over gradations of value as in "is a child or a baby worth more than an old person?"
They concluded that they had be valued the same regardless of any other considerations.
Personally, if it came down to me or a young person or a child who needed a ventilator, I would sacrifice my welfare tell them to give the ventilator to a young person, but I would be hurt and offended if that decision was made by someone else.  I am not an old farm horse or dried up cow that can't give milk.  Also I feel a bit more gratitude and less exploitation of farm animals at the end of their lives of service should be more prevalent too.  
I was a productive citizen of the nation and did a career that was good for the nation and I have value to the pets I care for who would lose their home and family if I died.  And I have value for my volunteering, and to my friends.  I hate to think the society has no value for me now that I am old.
Just then on MSNBC an elderly patient was released from hospital after two weeks in the ICU, having recovered from Covid 19, so just because you are old doesn't doom you to die, or make you of less value.
wrightj45@yahoo.com
Happy Trails! I sincerely hope you stay safe and well!
Jo Ann

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