To the editor:

The editorial in the Sept. 3 Independent admonishes us to “Not let the virus take over.” What hyperbole. In mentioning that Brown County had 20 more “cases” of COVID (CV), an increase of “18%”, we are warned to “not let our guard down.”

Really? Brown county has a population of 25,008 (2019). That means the infection rate was 0.0045 and jumped all the way to 0.0052, yet the editorial warns us that this is an “18% increase.” Had the number of “cases” gone from two to four, that would be a 100% increase, an immense overstatement of the facts. Why the fascination with percentages when numbers, the numbers of deaths and hospitalizations, are what matter?

More importantly, why has the media and much of the government created this mass hysteria and fear over a virus? Why have millions of people lost their jobs, some permanently over a virus that has 99.8% of its deaths in people over 25 and nearly half over the age of 79?

Why are we calling positive tests “cases”, implying sickness and not exposure?

When you “flatten a curve” you only prolong the time it takes for the virus to spread through the population, and it will spread despite the futile efforts to delay or stop it.

The governor’s “plan” for school reopening is the laughingstock of the country. WHO has asserted that “not one case of a child passing CV to an adult has been documented worldwide.” What happened to “science”?

The lead architect of The Imperial College Model, the one we and other countries followed, predicted 20 millions deaths here. They were wrong. In fact they were wrong on SARS, H1N1, Ebola, and others. Way wrong. Yet he also admitted in an interview in August that “2/3s of the CV deaths would have occurred by the end of 2020 because of their co-morbidities.”

Lastly, why is it that to a person, every elected official, every public health expert and every media pundit who lectured Americans about the need to stay in indefinite lockdown had a secure “essential” job, while millions of Americans lost their jobs and livelihoods?

It’s time the governor stop lecturing the people who elected him, uses the science honestly, and opens up the state. Now.

John Frerich

Navarre FL (formerly of Marshall)