Letter to the Editor - May 7, 2020
Questioning coronavirus measures
Why is our government not consistent when it considers the number of deaths from various causes? With COVID-19 they have totally shut down the economy in hopes of saving a few lives. However, the same consideration was not given when they gradually raised the speed limit from 55 to 65 to 75. The researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that for every 5 mph increase in a highway’s speed limit, roadway fatalities rose 8.5%. If they applied the same logic they’re using in the coronavirus pandemic, they would set the speed limit around 35 mph.
More people will die this year from alcohol-related incidents than from the coronavirus. Why don’t they tell all the liquor stores they must close?
Cigarette smoking accounts for approximately 400,000 deaths annually in the U.S., so why don’t they force all the stores to stop selling tobacco?
The bottom line is that in America we have always been given the freedom to evaluate the risk and make our own choices. Then along comes this virus and they take all of our liberties away from us.
E. Mac McBride
Daniel Island