Q&A of the Day– Balancing facts & pragmatism with COVID-19 in South Florida
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Twitter: @brianmuddradio
Facebook: Brian Mudd https://www.facebook.com/brian.mudd1
Today’s entries: 1st) More people have died here because more elderly with health problems have contracted it!!!!!!!! Be honest. If we know that seniors are more likely to die from the virus, and they are most of the people currently contracting it here, the numbers may be factual but they are misleading. Facts are great, but occasionally context matters and can calm a population.
2nd) It's sad to watch the politicization of the latest issue fear mongering people, destroying millions of dollars of value in the stock market... Demonizing the president, the one man who has been ahead of everybody on this issue. But it's nice to know that people with common sense and cooler heads will prevail, thanks for your insightful and factual information!
Bottom Line: I received these two notes within ten minutes of each other yesterday and it’s instructive for a couple of reasons. Since the onset of the COVID-19 fears I’ve used the same analytical approach I do to all stories and analysis. As per usual, I cut through the BS and bring you the facts and conversationally go where they take us. These two notes illustrate the pragmatism of my approach. For the 1st listener...
I’ve been completely honest. And yes, it’s true that to-date – the older one is in addition to those with pre-existing conditions, the higher the risk. The fatality rate has ranged from sub 1% for those under 20 to 15% for those over 80. Overall, the average has been 6%. What I’m not going to do is dismiss the death rate because it’s worst oldest. Those are our parents and related loved ones.Ironically, because of the demographics of those most impacted – it puts South Florida further at risk compared to most of the rest of the country.The average age of all Americans is 38. Here’s the breakdown in South Florida:
- Broward: 40
- Miami-Dade: 40
- Palm Beach County: 45
Residents of South Florida are anywhere from 5% to 18% more at-risk on average. That’s what’s honest and additional context for this conversation looks like. As for the second note... I agree it’s sad to see and hear some in news media placing politics above all else in a potential public health crisis but that’s where we are with our news media. As for me, I’ll continue to do what I always do. Factually and pragmatically wherever it takes us. And as I stated, I was buying in the stock market at the open yesterday and if we can turn the corner on the threat of the virus before we have widespread layoffs there’s tremendous opportunity for our economy with record low interest rates, including mortgage rates, cheap gas prices that are getting cheaper by the day along with record high employment and wages. I’m still long-term bullish on this country but I’m always realistic. We won’t know how bad this will be until we get there but I can tell you that a 6% death rate is a really big deal that’s not to be explained away because some people want to compare it with the traditional H1N1 flu with a death rate of 0.0005%.