Ridgefielders' letters to the editor should be emailed to: news@theridgefieldpress.com. This letter writer gives his opinion about Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s recent announcement about the coronavirus in regards to the Thanksgiving holiday in the state.
Macklin Reid / Hearst Connecticut MediaGovernor Ned Lamont’s latest foray into controlling our lives came Friday with his announcement that we can only have ten people at our Thanksgiving dinner in our own house.
Governor Lamont did not protect us from the coronavirus when it initially came to CT. Connecticut is fourth in the country for deaths per 1 million of population, only behind New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/). In CT 65% of deaths occurred in nursing homes. Our current total deaths from COVID-19 are 4,671. The 35% of people not in nursing homes that succumbed to the virus is 1,635 - in a state of 3.6 million. That’s 1/8 of 1%, and for that the governor has closed down businesses, cut off people’s livelihoods, prevented people from getting preventive screenings, deprived children of a full educational experience - and now he’s trying to tell us how many friends and family we can host at Thanksgiving.
“During the 2017-2018 (influenza) season, the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was at or above the epidemic threshold for 16 consecutive weeks. During the past five seasons, the average number of weeks this indicator was above threshold was 11” (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2017-2018.htm) but nobody shut down the whole economy then. A recent study, albeit small, found that of a group that had all contracted the coronavirus, 70% said they wore masks all the time, showing that mask wearing has minimal effect. The virus has become less lethal over the months, and we now have good therapeutics to treat the disease and keep patients off ventilators.
I say to hell with Lamont’s edicts. He and his fellow travelers, governors Cuomo, Murphy, Newsome, Whitmer etc. are acting like tin pot dictators and it’s high time we said enough is enough. Enjoy your turkey with as many people as you want.
Sean Archambault