Are the COVID-19 casualty numbers real? (Opinion)

Our hearts go out to anyone who lost a loved one to the novel coronavirus during this pandemic. It is real and your loss is real and every loss of life is tragic. What's happened to our society as a whole is also tragic. Not just monetary loss or loss of employment, but the mental, psychological, physical damage and death due to shutting down our society is a tragedy of unprecedented proportions.

And it was self-inflicted by our leaders. It would be outrageous and unconscionable to think that any of our politicians who brought this on, would inflate numbers to gain more federal aid or special circumstances to fix budget problems — or allow hospitals to gain financially from padding numbers of people who died WITH COVID-19 and not actually OF COVID-19.

It was reported that New Jersey saw its highest jump in the number of deaths due to COVID-19 so far on Tuesday.  Mark me down as skeptical. I don't trust this governor and neither should you. The media should also not trust him and stop playing nice with him because they all happen to be from the same political party united in the fight against the evil opposition. It came out almost two weeks ago from Dr. Birx herself.

It almost seems at times that the media is rooting for a prolonged, deadly plague that would keep their ratings high and the clicks coming. You can find some information about it, but you have to do some digging. I thought that's what the press was for.

No one wants to see one more death from this or any other preventable cause. Just like traffic deaths, strokes, and heart attacks are all preventable deaths when proper intervention is introduced, we can prevent just as many of these COVID-19 deaths with the right steps too. Shutting down our world is not the right one. Panic and fear driven by some of our government officials and mass media have made us think that was the only way to go.

With these new numbers from Tuesday, Murphy will likely extend this torture longer than it needs to be. If you have a bulletproof salary from government or a large corporation you don't have to worry. Even some who were laid off will make more with the payroll protection plan coupled with unemployment. We have to make sure the vulnerable are protected as best we can do and cut our losses from this shutdown immediately. My bet is Murphy probably won't do that anytime soon. Remember that and vote on it in 2021. He's betting you won't.

FIRST RESPONDERS AND THE PANDEMIC: Thursday at 7 p.m., New Jersey 101.5 takes a special live look at the plight of first-responders on the front lines of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the resources available to help them through an extraordinary time. Listen Live on the 101.5 FM or the New Jersey 101.5 app. Join the conversation and ask your questions in a live chat at Facebook.com/NJ1015.

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