Be careful around seniors. They remain among our most vulnerable to coronavirus
The 1918 flu pandemic killed 174 Stanislaus County people.
In 2006, 24 perished here in a horrible heat wave, the most in a single disaster since 1918.
As I write this, the county’s death toll from COVID-19 is 24.
That number will continue growing, and may have exceeded two dozen by the time you read this, because the coronavirus is nowhere near contained, people are circulating more, and a vaccination is at best months away.
So this pandemic soon will surpass the death toll of the tragic heat wave of nearly 14 years ago. Many readers will remember temperatures stuck in triple digits for a dozen or so days, depending on whose thermometer was cited. Humid heat barely dipped when the sun went down, preventing the usual nighttime recovery routine.
The first 13 died in a three-day stretch of 111 degrees before local government officials scrambled to establish cooling centers for people without air conditioning. Corpses backed up in the county morgue.
“Hundreds of others were sickened and went to hospitals. Ambulances rushed from nursing homes, apartment houses, trailers and parks to emergency rooms. Just breathing seemed to scorch our lungs,” The Modesto Bee wrote in a July 30, 2006 editorial.
What does the 2006 heat wave have to do with the current coronavirus, aside from a temporarily identical death count?
In both cases, most victims were elderly. (The 1918 flu pandemic, in contrast, was weirdly vexing because it killed so many young adults.)
In 2006, several older victims could not afford the luxury of AC to bring down body temperatures. Just as tragic were stories of those who did have AC, but feared the extra cost of turning it on.
Stanislaus County victims all 50 or older
It’s ironic that so much emphasis today is given to staying home, while staying home is what killed most people 14 years ago.
This year, 21 of our Stanislaus dead were 65 or older, according to county statistics, and the other three were from 50 to 64. The coronavirus surely does not spare the young from catching it — 22% of Stanislaus’ 544 people testing positive were younger than 31 — but those who do are statistically far less likely to die from it.
These catastrophes always have been and always will be especially cruel to seniors.
“Age is the greatest risk,” said Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, Stanislaus public health officer, addressing county supervisors Friday.
Human ability to fight off disease decreases with age. The elderly also may be less likely to use social media for virus news, or to check the county’s regularly updated data dashboards, or to tune in to officials’ Facebook Live videos.
Unwarranted hyperbole in news accounts is unwise. Early on in this crisis — March 19, to be precise — a reliably progressive reader shared in an email that The Bee’s headlines to that point had been “in my opinion, way too scary ... it ratchets up my anxiety level.”
That’s a valid concern, one we must weigh with every sentence in every article and column on every day. Exaggerating and embellishing should not permeate our pages.
But our more mature readers, especially those with underlying health problems, also deserve to know what they’re up against. They must know that this supremely contagious disease can kill, and that precaution can be a matter of life or death. Hyperbole for some is reality for others.
The rest of us must not be selfish when we consider where we go, who we see and what we wear on our faces.
As local leaders move to reopen our economy, they usually emphasize the wisdom of keeping our distance. Regaining the ability to pick up store goods curbside, or to take dogs to the groomer, is not a license to hang out with grandma. We may feel hale and hearty and not realize what nasties we can carry with us — and share with others — without knowing.
Now more than ever, let’s honor our elderly with selflessness. Many paid steep prices for our freedom and our way of life. They shouldn’t have to pay with their lives for our carelessness.
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 10:19 AM.
