Dear Editor:

The letter from Frank G. Helman was a nice piece of feel good propaganda. His line, “The Institute for Disease Modeling calculated that the new coronavirus is roughly equally transmissible as the 1918 flu, and just slightly less clinically severe, and it is higher in both transmissibility and severity compared with all other flu viruses in the past century,” says it all.

CDC stats for Spanish Flu: “It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.”

U.S. population in 1919 was 104,500,000 and the 675,000 deaths was .6%. U.S. population in 2019 was 329,450,000.

So, according to Mr Helman's post “The Institute for Disease Modeling calculated that the new coronavirus is roughly equally transmissible as the 1918 flu, and just slightly less clinically severe, and it is higher in both transmissibility and severity compared with all other flu viruses in the past century” means the final death toll in the U.S. should be 1,976,700. Actual number as of 3/29 at 9:04 a.m. was 2,229 (three to four months since U.S. was infected).

He, like many people, bought into the media’s hyped-up sensationalist and irresponsible  journalism.

Joe Scorcia 

Boothbay