One million.
It is the kind of number that we think we can understand because it is thrown about with such abandon. The price of a big house. A mere sliver of a school building project. The top prize on a really good lottery ticket.
But it’s a huge number that can get swamped by currency and inflation. In reality, a million of anything is hard for us to really comprehend.
Counting to a million — saying the numbers one by one, every second without stopping — takes almost 12 days. A million-page book would take about 1,000 volumes and a bookshelf 85 yards long. A million miles is a drive around the world 40 times.
Pennsylvania now has over 1 million people who have tested positive for covid-19.
There are 12.8 million people in Pennsylvania. To appreciate the percentages, here is a demonstration. If it didn’t violate social distancing, you could fill Heinz Field’sstands to their 68,400-seat capacity and ask every 13th person to stand. Those 5,261 people would represent the likely number who have tested positive.
The number of dead in the state has topped 25,000. More than the capacity of a concert at PPG Paints Arena, but about two-thirds the seats at PNC Park.
There are still those who want to believe the numbers are not as bad as they seem. The flu is contagious too, they say. It kills people, too.
In the 2018-19 flu season, there were 99,308 cases reported in Pennsylvania. There were 161 deaths. Those numbers are just as harsh but easier to grasp.
A century ago, the flu claimed the lives of millions worldwide. While still a disease that should not be dismissed as a threat, it is a manageable one. The very low numbers for this flu season show us the value of distance, masks and handwashing in keeping it at bay. Many experts think covid-19 could be similar in the future — a recurring, seasonal challenge that is handled with proven techniques and commonsense solutions.
The best way to get from where we are to where we want to be — turning a pandemic into a periodic annoyance — is by lowering and slowing the numbers.
The vaccines now available will not stop the virus like throwing a switch. The point is to limit severity, cut back spread and by extension, turn a million cases in a year into a million cases in five years or 10 or 20.
And that is why we need as many people as possible to take the vaccine — a safe and effective remedy, and a remarkable achievement of modern science and industry.
Over 3 million people have been vaccinated so far. That is great progress and needs to continue apace to achieve the goal, with more and more Pennsylvanians doing their part needle by needle.
More than anything, covid-19 should become one of those diseases where people do pick it up, take a week off work and never imagine it being a cause of death.
We need to get to the point that we are now as we look back on that 1918 pandemic — aghast at the massive numbers that we cannot begin to understand.
— The Tribune-Review/TNS
