Look at these New York City Health Department numbers. Brit Hume of Fox News, a respected journalist for forty years, tweeted them yesterday. See a pattern—a trend?

That’s right. Most people are dying in NYC, the national center of the coronavirus fight, with the virus, not from the virus.

Close

It recalls the AIDS scare of the 1980s. Despite the hype and the legitimate tragedies, if you were not gay, not a drug user, and had not received a tainted blood transfusion, your chance of dying from AIDS was low.

Why are some people overplaying their coronavirus hand? Simple. Think of Pascal’s wager. Blaise Pascal was a 17th century French philosopher. His wager posited why it is in your best interest to believe in God. If there is no God and you don’t believe, no problem. If there is no God and you believe, no problem. If there is a God and you believe, no problem. There is only one way you get in big trouble: if there is a God and you don’t believe. So believe.

If the coronavirus is not as bad as they say, politicians say it wasn’t that bad because they took steps to stop it. If the coronavirus is not as bad as they say and they hardly took measures, they look wise. If it’s worse than we think, they can say their drastic measures were necessary, as indeed they might be. The only way a politician is hurt is if it is as bad or worse than it seems now and they didn’t take strong measures. Ergo…

Different states continue to go their own way. More conservative states like Texas and Idaho have tended not to overreact. Leftist states like New York and California are going hog wild. But if the numbers above in New York City break that way across the nation, then perhaps we ought to focus on people with underlying conditions and let the rest of the nation return to some, if limited, version of normal life.