Welcome to 2021… and Day 295 of 15 Days to Stop the Spread (Opinion)

Feels like we picked up in 2021 right where we left off in 2020. No change.

I leave for a week or so and upon returning to New Jersey, it's clear not much has changed. Empty parking lots in front of restaurants. Endless news reports about deaths and positive tests. Lectures from health officials about how to reopen safely, knowing that these measures are irrelevant to stopping any viral spread and only serve to crush the normalcy that is critical for our economy to function.

The idea that we hear government officials declaring that they won't "risk anyone's life" to issue a license flies in the face of reason and facts.

Most coronavirus tests are positive among healthy people. That's right, no symptoms, no threat to spread to others ... just an unreliable PCR test that is not an indicator of sickness. In addition to the absurdity of flagging healthy people with an improperly used test, there's the pesky fact that for most people who catch COVID: they'll be just fine.

As a matter of fact, 99.997% of young people under the age of 20 who get it will be fine. Under 50? 99.98% survival. For every 10,000 people over the age of 70 who gets it, 54 will die. But there's a catch. Out of those 54 deaths, 51 will have a serious comorbidity, according to the CDC, like cancer, lung disease, etc. That means only 3 out of 10,000 will potentially die from COVID. The fact that we are still debating "safety" is ridiculous and harmful.

In March 2020, there was a call to "slow the spread" by telling non-essential (defined by government) people to stay home. Of course, no action of the government did anything to stop the spread. The spread of the virus flattened all on it's own. Ask Dr. Daniel Murphy, who is the head of emergency medicine at St. Barnabas in the Bronx. Look at Wuhan, China — open. Sweden — never closed. South Korea, Japan, Florida, Texas...the list goes on. Open and doing fine.

It's too easy to blame the government for our problems in New Jersey. The reality is that until people wake up and recognize that the COVID danger may be one of the most exaggerated stories in our modern history we can expect to suffer long into the new year.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill’s own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talking’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.