Covid-19 What Do These Death and Infection Statistics Mean?

The USA is in turmoil. Some people are in favour of lockdown, others against.

You often hear or read:

'The percentage of people affected is less than one percent. That's less than die of flu.'

It is like comparing guns and knives. 

When I go to a doctor, I don't want him to refuse to treat me on the grounds that I am more likely to be run over by a bus. 

Nr to refuse to treat my teenage child on the grounds that he is more likely to die by suicide. Or by driving too fast.

To the average member of the public these figures are meaningless and the public presented with these facts showng tiny percentages ignore them. Many forums in popular media repeat the idea that it is all a lot of fuss about nothing. 

To convey the message that these statistics are important, we may need to illustrate numbers in human and visual terms.

Meaning how many deaths? And families and workers – does a percentage really matter? If we tell the public this means x deaths in ‘your street’ or ‘your children’s school’, or two primary school children in your school will lose a beloved granny, or two schools in your city will lose a teacher, they are more likely to understand the implications and  demand action and comply with suggestions and laws and instructions.

It would certainly put a blight on a wedding if a parent or grandparent died.

It would cause a major upheaval in a family if the grandparents doing babysitting and childminding were taken away so that the parents could not work.

Stay home. Stay safe.

Useful Websites

https://www.gov.sg/features/covid-19
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/covid-19-a-cautionary-tale-from-spore?
Facebool.trevorsharot

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, club organizer and speaker.

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Coronavirus update Sunday 26 2020.

Flag of China.

Sunday. Death toll in China is 55.

China has banned travel into and out of Wuhan province (a large area like a US state) and most travel around the area.

The Coronavirus is a family of viruses including the common cold, SARS and MERS.
Sars in 2002-3 killed 800.
MERS (Middle Eastern virus) killed 700.

Elderly and Young
So far, in 2020, the latest version has killed mainly those over the age of 50, except one case.

Some commentators shrug. It's only the elderly. And the young.

I read about one family. An extended family who had travelled back to China. When they left they were ok. Now the grandparents and grandchildren are all sick. Imagine being a grandparent, wondering if you will die and if you have infected your grandchildren.

Imagine being in the middle, having your parents and children all ill. Imagine being a child. You don't know whether you will live You don't know if your grandparents will live. Your parents are dividing their time between you and the others of you, two siblings and two grandparents.

You cannot travel. You cannot work. Everybody is quarantined.

Spanish Flu 1918
The 1918 Spanish flu killed more people than WWI. 500 million were affected and more than 50 million died.

It killed the young, who had no immunity.

One of my ancestors died of it. He was in South Africa. He was a young married man who jumped up from his sick bed and ran downstairs to answer the phone call from his sister (my granny Hetty) who was in London. He dropped dead.

His wife never remarried. After her sister-in-law, my granny, had died, my mother kept up correspondence. Eventually my mother went to South Africa to visit the now elderly widow.

I look online and read that somebody I know has a cold.

I wonder. Is it just a cold?

I hope they keep following instructions. Wash your hands. Do not touch your eyes and face with your hands.

Keep away from crowds and people who are coughing.

Carry tissues and/or wear a mask.

Useful Wbsites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Recording yourself and your family and colleagues on holidays and business trips

Problems
When my uncle who was a professional musician, died; and I had no photos or recordings or him speaking or playing. At our wedding, my family insisted that the two musicians on both sides of the family should be invited to a meal and not have to perform. The result was that after they died we had not record of them playing, for ourselfves or our children and grandchildren.

At weddings and other important occasions, we were at venues far from work and home and our musicians who were guests did not have musical instruments with them, so even if we had asked them to play, they could not.

When my mother died in her late eighties I had no instant record of her life ready to help me write a quick speech for her funeral.

When my father died a few years I was better prepared. I went through family photos with him and added dates, places and names. I wrote 100 word and 500 word and 1000 word accounts of his life ready for a funeral speech or obituary for a local paper and professional journals. I still had not thought to make a video of him.

Now if I were to organise a wedding for my son I would ask the photographer to ask everybody in the room their name, what they did for a living, the country they were born and where they met their spouse and their advice on life of business.

Answers
Video records.

If you have a musician in the family, make sure you get a recording of them playing. Either go to watch them perform. Or ask them to play just an opening bar.

If they say it's not professional, you caon't play except when being paid, instead ask them to demonstrate their musical instrument and why it's good. Or ask them to teach or deomonstrate to a child in the family. Ask uncle of grandad or auntie or grandma to teach the grandchild. (And pay the going rate or if they won't take money then give them soemthing else they need.) Then ostensibly photogh or video the child, whilst at the same time you will have the video of the adult.

Yourself on video
I often go to events and take photos. I come back with photos and video of others but not myself.

Make sure something of yourself is in the public domain. You cannot expect your family to preserve every photo and old computer. Ensure that something is in the public domain so that it is preserved and can b found.

When you go on a trip, record the family. The recording is most likely to be o f interest and to be kept and passed to others if you say aomthing interesting about the place or the family history.

Place
Ask a family member to describe the place you are visiting on holiday or business and to say how it differed from their expectations. Ask them to describe how the place has changed over the years. Ask them to compare the old parts of the city with the newer and say whether the new parts are an improvement or if they are pleased the older areas have been preserved.

Books of family records which you can buy and fill in by hand. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Family
I was sold a family tree book from the trolley at a maternity ward after I had my baby. In addition to the books which you see in the pictures I have also bought a Grandparent's book which I gave to my father to fill in.

Media and On-line blogs
Nowadays you can make a book from Facebook or a blog dedicated to your family or business and add videos.

Family History
Ask people to describe how they have spent their holidays or business trips and how things have changed.  If you do this even two or three years running you will have an interesting record. If you do it every year for ten or twenty years. you will have a fascinating record for your family and local archives and businesses.

 Your local history society will eventually be interested in the past. They might be interested in recording the present. If you don't have recording equipment, the local history or school might be interested in making a recording of your grandma (with you and grandchildren)  for you.

Similarly, when visiting a foreign venue, you could ask the children and adults and elderly people to tell you how things have changed or whether they are the same - food, activities, transport, business, items they sell, crafts, clothes. household objects.

A lot of shy people don't like to talk about themselves or say they don't look good on camera. However, if you ask them to demisntrate an object, you can photograph them sewing or fishing, or cooking and get them in the picture.

If you make a recording of the grandparent and the grandchild, the boss and the receptionist or post room worker, you will have a quick record to make a speech of thanks for the trip at a farewell business dinner, or a wedding, retirement party or funeral or obituary or your own memoir.

If you make a short video when you start a business, years later you will be able to look back, or show it on your website.

Remember to add thanks verbally or in subtitles at the end, the way they do in the movies.That way you have a reason to send the video to all the participants and ask them to check the spelling of their names is correct.
One of the dangers is that they might decide they don't want the picture of video shown to anybody else. However, if you have your own copy, it will still be useful to you when keeping accurate records of the places or people, or going back to different people a year later.

Just as people can be happy to be recorded, then change their minds, people can withdraw permission, then later change their minds.

A simple short video an later be expanded who you have time. You can add opening credit, closing credits, still of places, a map of the country or local area at the start, music, a diary cover, turning pages, special effects, repeat of the opening photo.

Books
The conventional family history book is a handy reference for everything from your passport number and national insurance number to photos of family weddings, or photocopies of birth certificates, and locks of hair secured in a transparent bag.

Tips
https://www.craftsy.com/painting/classes/expressive-pages-journaling-the-everyday
Family history books for you to fill in can be bought on line.

Author Angela Lansbury. Please share links to your favourite posts.