I resigned from my position as co-chair of the Lane County chapter of the Pacific Green Party in April of 2020 because a major portion of the Lane County chapter attendees were playing the COVID-19 denial game. It is completely inappropriate to compare death rates for the flu under free range conditions to death rates for COVID-19 under lockdown and try to say that because the numerical values are the same in one study, why worry.

The evidence that we now have has validated my position compared to theirs. A quarter-million deaths is not 0.001 percent of anything, as the COVID-19 deniers would want you to believe. It is almost 0.1 percent of the total USA population of 330 million, where the average percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 is 10 percent. This means that about 1 percent of the people who have COVID-19 will die, including those who were never tested. 

Compounding this is that COVID-19 is more contagious than the flu, so more people will get it. 

I’m still the best of friends with a few Trump supporters despite my liberal beliefs. However, I refuse to have anything to do with any COVID-19 deniers. They should be shunned like the plague for their complicity in perpetrating a crime against humanity. 

John Thielking 

Eugene

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