According to the CDC website only six percent of the Covid-19 deaths are people who had no other heath issues. In med-speak: only six percent had no comorbidities. This is completely consistent with the fact that the preponderance of cases and deaths are of old people – in particular those already dealing with serious illness before Covid came along.
Another way of stating this is:
“Many, perhaps most, of those who are said to have died of Covid-19 would have died anyway without Covid.”
The current total of Covid-19 cases is 171,000 as of 9/02/20, according to the CDC website. Six percent of that number is 10,260. That number is far below the typical annual deaths attributable to the flu, as confirmed by an article in Health.com which states, “Overall, the CDC estimates that 12,000 and 61,000 deaths annually since 2010 can be blamed on the flu.” For further context, according to the CDC, there are 480,000 smoking-related deaths, 640,000 heart disease-related deaths, and about 600,000 cancer-related deaths annually. Given the relatively small number of Covid-only deaths, one can only conclude that there is no basis for social distancing, mask-wearing and the closing of businesses.
Here is the excerpt from the CDC document Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics, specifically a section entitled Comorbidities:
“Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”
Here is a screenshot of the passage in case it gets removed:
Sources:
Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics
This Is How Many People Die From the Flu Each Year, According to the CDC
Daily Updates of Totals by Week and State
Further Reading: