As we watch new case counts for COVID fall dramatically (down 73% in the first half of February) I must ask, “are we addicted to bad news?” I have had the chance to be a guest on numerous news outlets throughout the COVID experience and the interviewers often seem surprised when I share that there are reasons for optimism. Consider this…
According to a recently released study by the CDC, it is estimated that 8 times more Americans have had COVID than the number of confirmed cases. We are around 30 million confirmed cases. So, that means we have 240 million of us who have had COVID in an asymptomatic or mild way.
We can also look to numerous studies from some of the earliest and hardest hit countries like Italy and others to verify that the reinfection rate is less than 1%… This would seem to be pretty darn good news.
Now, combine that with the fact that herd immunity is expected at somewhere between 70% (230 million) and 90% (300 million) of the population.
It could just be that we are much closer than some would have us believe. When you add the 2 million/day and 60 million who have received at least the first dose of their vaccine.
