Accidents Nearly Twice as Deadly As COVID-19 in Colorado

Despite the panic, the divisiveness, the double-masking and shaming of normal people that has become all the rage in Colorado, the novel coronavirus has been far less deadly than accidents were in 2019 in terms of years of life lost. It is not even close, even if we assume the clearly-inflated coronavirus reporting standards are accurate.

While it may sound heartless to view some lives as more valuable than others (because all life is precious), a society must rightly understand that there is a difference between the death of a 25-year-old and the death of a 90-year-old – especially when the question is the cost to society to “save” a life. Logically, we understand that no life is truly “saved” (we all die eventually), only extended. It is impossible for us to act as if every life has infinite worth because we don’t have infinite resources to spend on each life.

So we are left with the unenviable task of figuring out what a life – or more specifically a year of life – is worth in terms of what burden should be placed on society in order to preserve it. For example, it would rightly be considered unethical and even immoral to create economic circumstances that shave 20 years off of the lives of a dozen people in order to buy two more years for someone else. It must be within the framework of the life-year that we analyze health-related public policy decisions.

To figure this out, we consider the average lifespan of Americans – 78-80 years – and consider any death prior to this age in terms of years lost. For example, a person dying at age 60 would be considered to have lost 18 years. A person dying at age 20 has lost 58 years. A person dying at 90 would have lost zero years.

For the entirety of the novel coronavirus in Colorado so far, approximately 50,800 lost life-years have been attributed to COVID-19. This is assuming that every coronavirus-linked death was indeed primarily caused by the disease, but of course, this is not a requirement for a death to be counted.

In 2019, over 86,000 life-years were lost to accidents in Colorado, making accidents in 2019 69% deadlier than coronavirus. Worse, if we take into account the approximate percentage of coronavirus deaths where the person had multiple comorbidities contributing to their death, accidents may be up to 2700% more deadly than the novel coronavirus.

This in no way diminishes the threat of COVID-19 to vulnerable populations, but it is hardly the societal scourge it has been made out to be, and clearly not worth the damage that has been caused attempting to thwart it. When over 53% of coronavirus-linked deaths result in no years of life lost (because they occurred in people over 80 years old), has it been worth it to create lasting (and often permanent) damage across all age groups?

Colorado has lost (and will lose) decades of life to unintended consequences like:

• Decreased cancer screenings
• Widespread increases in poverty
• Massive increases in unemployment
• 1 in 4 young adults considering suicide
• Massive increases in substance abuse
• Long-lasting and/or permanent educational delays
• Many more serious pathologies than can be listed

There is simply no justification for what our government did to Colorado. The consequences of what they have done (and what the people have allowed through fear and ignorance) will reverberate for years to come – long after Colorado officials stop counting. The coronavirus panic of 2020-2021 is the single biggest economic and societal blunder in the history of the state, country, and likely the world.