Lockdowns, Masks, Vaccine Mandates and Why All Women Don't Just Get Mastectomies

Covid-19 was a trailing third in causes of death in the United States in 2020 according to "The Leading Causes of Death in the US for 2020" by Farida Ahmad and Robert Anderson in the medical journal, JAMA Network. With 345,323 deaths attributed to Covid-19, the disease caused only a little over half as many deaths as the two top killers: cancer with 598,932 deaths and the winner, heart disease, with 690,882 deaths. Yet the public response to Covid, led by public health and government officials and the media, far outpaced the response (ever) to the dangers posed by cancer and heart disease. The entire economy of the state of California shut down completely for nearly three months, and all sectors of business in the state have not yet fully reopened, 19 months later.

While cancer and heart disease are not contagious, they are nearly twice as deadly, and one would expect, in a rational society, that twice as much attention would be paid to measures to mitigate and control these killers as to the measures taken to mitigate Covid. This does not happen.

In fact, during the pandemic lockdowns in California, doctor's offices had to limit the number of heart disease and cancer patients they treated because of Covid restrictions. They did this even though it was more likely the patients were going to die from the heart disease or cancer than from Covid. This produced consequences. Deaths from heart disease rose 4.8% according to Ahmad and Anderson, "the largest increase in heart disease deaths since 2012."

The over-the-top measures taken to prevent infection from Covid (not death, which only occurs in 1.8% of the cases in LA County), do not exist and are not taken to prevent, say, breast cancer. Breast cancer will strike 13% of all women in the United States. (This number is growing. 30 years ago it was 9%.) Of those women, 15.4% will die. This means that for every woman in the United States, there is a 2.6% chance of dying from breast cancer.

The chance of contracting and dying from Covid-19 - for an unvaccinated individual in LA County - is 0.2%. So there is 13 times less chance of getting and dying from Covid for a woman than of dying from breast cancer.

Judging by the hysteria over Covid, one would imagine that a woman in this country would be willing to take extreme measures to prevent this very high chance of death from breast cancer, a chance so much higher than the chance of dying from Covid. She would get a preemptive double mastectomy. But that does not happen. Women do not preemptively obtain double mastectomies unless there is some great additional risk due to their genetics. Doctors do not recommend them to women who are not at additional risk. An ethical surgeon would not perform them. And why not? Breasts are completely unnecessary. It's nice to be able to breast feed a baby but not essential. In order to save a life - the life of 1 woman in every 8, one would think prophylactic mastectomies would be the order of the day, starting at birth.

Oddly enough, women are willing to live with the risk of contracting breast cancer - a risk 13 times greater than that of dying of Covid. Having breasts is worth the risk. Besides, there is an 87% chance a woman will NOT get breast cancer and a 97.4% chance a woman will not die of breast cancer.

Just as there is a 99.8% chance a person will NOT die of Covid-19.

So what are we doing: firing essential workers who won't get vaccinated, masking children (who are at even lower risk), ostracizing the unvaccinated from public places, and cowering in fear in our homes? Is a breast worth the risk but not our social fabric?

The public has been sold an emotional bill of goods about Covid-19. It is time to grow up and behave rationally.