1. So. A coworker & I were discussing the rise in new COVID19 cases in Indiana & he says, "But only six percent are REALLY dying of COVID19. They're lying about the rest dying from it to scare us."

I refrained from hitting him with the broom I held. I realized he didn't get

2. comorbidities and what that 6% meant. I had to figure out a way to explain it to him.

This is what I came up with:

3. Say there was someone you HATED. Completely hated. But, not being a homicidal maniac, you limit your hate to talking shit about him on social media, maybe trading punches at the skate park. Nothing major, just scuffling.

With me so far?

(Coworker) yeah.

4. So, your cousin from out of state comes to stay. And he is CRAY-ZEE. Like, he's violent and doesn't give a shit if he goes to prison. He's like Charlie Manson without the groupies.

And HE decides he hates the same guy you hate. Hates enough to kill him because he CAN.

5. What happens next? Maybe crazy cousin Charlie talks you into telling him everything you know about the guy you hate. Where he works, where he lives, where he hangs out.

Then Charlie convinces you to start some shit with the guy at the skate park. Why not, right?

6. You hate the guy.

So, you do. You get in the guy's face, start shit talking, maybe even throw a punch. While this is going on, Charlie comes up behind the guy and cuts his throat. Because he's crazy as fuck and he doesn't CARE.

7. Now, the guy is dead. Charlie killed him. What're the cops and lawyers gonna say about YOU? You're an accessory. They're going to charge you, too. They may even charge you with murder even though Charlie did the deed. You participated in the set up. You don't get to go home.

8. So...let's change the names. Charlie is COVID and you're...diabetes.

When the coroner writes up the death certificate, they're bound by the law to list the killer and ALL the accessories to it.

So, yeah, COVID gets listed but diabetes does, too. Maybe coronary failure.

9. They ALL had a hand in it. Thing is, just like you and Charlie and the guy, YOU wouldn't have killed the guy, right? Not on your own, not without Charlie. Diabetes wouldn't have killed the patient, not on its own. But it HELPED COVID kill them.

10. This is what comorbidities means. They went together to kill someone. And, yeah, in six percent of the deaths, COVID didn't have an accomplice. But in the other ninety-four percent, COVID did the killing with help from the comorbidities. Like you, the comorbidities weren't

11. really killers on their own. This is why COVID is so dangerous. It's a crazy motherfucker that talks other diseases into becoming killers with it.

12. I THINK I got through to him. I'm not sure. He got called away and we never picked up the convo again.

Anyway, sorry for the long thread.

/END