Is the Coronavirus really what we should be afraid of?

“Coronavirus Death Toll Passes 4,000 Worldwide” was the headline on CNN last night. Over 32 are now confirmed dead in the United States. This is really getting scary. People are buying out hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and water. Major events around the world are being canceled. CDC is issuing travel warnings. I almost feel like I’m in an episode of The Walking Dead. 

I live in Mississippi where there have been no confirmed cases as of yet, but it’s only a matter of time I’m sure. In his comforting and reassuring why that only my husband has, he commented that I had a better chance of being killed by the flu. And sure enough, he was right. But don’t tell him I said that please!

In the United States, the CDC estimates that an average 56,000 people die a year of the flu. That is 154 deaths a day from the flu.

Every 37 seconds one person dies of cardiovascular disease.

Since I’ve been working on a heart disease series this past month, I’ve been doing an enormous amount of research on the subject. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. One person dies every 37 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease. Every 37 seconds. That is roughly 647,000 Americans die from heart disease each year. Please understand that for every four deaths in American each year, one dies of cardiovascular disease. 

That just absolutely blows my mind the number of people that are losing their lives to heart disease. Yet how many of you have heard those stats? February is Heart Month, so you many have recently been exposed to more information about the American Heart Association and cardiovascular disease, but it’s not being discussed on every news channel and flyers are not up in every public building addressing it as a pandemic like the Coronavirus is.

Did you know that the CDC defines a pandemic as “an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.”

We buy target out of hand sanitizer but we continue to abuse our bodies with obesity, smoking, stress, lack of exercise. Do you know that heart disease can be prevented in a lot of cases, even reversed? Is anyone screaming about that? Are we eager to learn more about heart disease and how we can avoid dropping dead of a heart attack? Are our politicians, doctors and the media speaking out about the epidemic, or for heaven’s sake, the pandemic of what heart disease is doing to this country?

No, they are not.

Type 1 diabetes and children.

In 2018, 34.2 million Americans, or 10% of the population, had diabetes. Nearly 1.6 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, including about 187,000 children and adolescents. Over 1.5 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes every year. Every single year. And 210,000 Americans under age 20 are estimated to have diagnosed diabetes, approximately 0.25% of that population.

We spray our kids down with Lysol and make them wear rubber gloves as we continue to load our children up with sugar and sit them in front of the TV. We fear that they will become infected with the Coronavirus, but don’t think twice about the dangers of childhood diabetes.

What sense does that make?

Cancer is killing us and our children.

In 2019, an estimated 606,880 people died of cancer in the United States. Each year in the U.S., an estimated 15,780 children aged 0-19 are diagnosed with cancer.

‎Children are dying of cancer everyday and what do we hear about it? We see “Fight for Ryan” and “Believing for Brandy” on Facebook. We follow people’s cancer journey on Facebook. We feel their emotions and yearn to fight with them, because it’s such a hopeless felling. We pray and cry even for complete strangers because we know all to well what this terrible disease will do. And what is being down about saving lives from cancer? Research we know from wonderful organizations like American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen, and St. Jude’s, but why aren’t we doing more?

Suicide is a leading cause of death in adolescents.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10-24. Ten years old! My God, why??? What is happening to a ten year old to cause them to feel like this is their only options. 

More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, COMBINED.

Each day in our nation, there are an average of over 3,000 suicide attempts by young people in grades 9-12.  Four out of five teens who attempt suicide have given clear warning signs. Our children are screaming our for help!! Are we listening to them as closely as we are listening to CNN or Fox News about the Coronavirus?

Wake up! Our children are killing themselves. Taking their own life away from us, their family, themselves and are we so terrified of adolescent suicide that we are rushing out getting help for our young people. Fighting for healthcare benefits to help those with mental illness.

Over 47,000 Americans take their life each year. Everyday 128 people will end their life. 

We have to stop and look at the bigger picture here. People are fighting the Cornavirus. They are being a active participant in keeping their family safe. They are reading up about it, watching the news, taking necessary precautions and rightfully so. Educate yourself, but why haven’t we done that for heart disease, cancer, diabetes or suicide? Is it just because it’s been around so long and we’re numb to it now?

Is no one shocked and horrified that almost 650,000 Americans will die from cardiovascular disease, but the entire world is on lock down because 4000 people worldwide have died? I just don’t get it. Let’s put this in perspective. It’s terrible when any life is taken away for any reason. I am not making light of human life or of this new virus. Those 4000 people were mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters and friends; but so were the nearly 7,500 people that died today in the United States. 

Thirty people just died while you were reading this article and it wasn’t from the Coronavirus.