6 ms·
Where are you getting a 2% death rate or expectancy that 100% of the population will be infected? The numbers I've seen are 0.66% death rate, with an average r
by JoshuaDavid 6y ago
Where are you getting a 2% death rate or expectancy that 100% of the population will be infected?
The numbers I've seen are 0.66% death rate, with an average remaining life expectancy of about 10 years among those who die, and estimates that between 15% and 70% of the population would be infected.
70% of 0.66% of 328M is 1.5M deaths, or 15M years of life lost. That is indeed a big number.
Smoking has been estimated to reduce life expectancy by 13 years for heavy smokers. There are about 34M smokers in the US. I don't have the exact stats on number of heavy smokers and how long people smoke for, but assume that the average smoker smokes for 20 years and loses 5 years of life expectancy over that time. That's about 850,000 years of life lost _every single year_ to smoking alone.
I think the question of "would it be worth 5% of the current COVID-19 measures to stop smoking entirely for 1 year" is a valid one.
- andrei_says_ 6y agoIt would be if smoking was an infectious disease.
- nickthemagicman 6y agoThis activity smoking causes a disease. Leaving quarantine causes a disease. It's personal choice to do either activity and corona is the only disease where it's somehow the rest of the worlds responsibility for people making poor choices.