CONA March 2020 Newsletter

 Our March meeting is canceled due to potential risks of the Corona virus to our membership. We intend to resume meetings in April, but that is subject to change too, depending upon the situation. Stay safe.

Cancelled

With the Corona virus moving toward and through Ohio at a rapid pace, the CONA board decided March 12 to cancel the March meeting.

Speaker Bill Bierly, author of In God We Trust, has rescheduled for the June meeting.

We are dealing with a great deal on unknowns, but made the decision in light of the governor’s decision earlier March 12 to close the state’s schools and ban large meetings.

Given the fact that our membership skews older (I’m 70) and the disease appears to be especially hard on senior citizens, the decision seemed prudent. 

I sincerely hope we’re overreacting and that disease is nothing more than annoyance. But it’s not something we can risk. — Gerry (As I wrote this, I received word that Whitman has canceled next week’s Baltimore show.)

Some Perspective

 While I think that the media and some have hyped the issue of Corona #19, as a health and safety professional there are some very real concerns.

1. Early data suggest that the rate of infection is ~2x that of flu and has an overall lethal rate ~10x that of flu – for all citizens. For those in their 80s the rate jumps to upwards of 16% lethality; anyone over 60 and especially those with underlying health issues is at increased risk.

2. Efforts to limit crowd sizes are intended to slow the rate of disease progression, to keep the peak infection levels at a given point in time level lower and to buy some time to get ready and find solutions. This is important because upwards of 10% of those getting #19 – mostly the elderly – will need breathing assistance. These types of breathing-support hospital beds are limited

 3. The rate of infection in the U.S. remains largely unknown until we have more people tested which has been limited by the number of test kits available at local doctor’s offices – at least until recently.

Given this information, along with the uncertainties facing all of us, and the age of our membership, I believe we should error on the side of public health and safety and cancel upcoming club meetings until things settle down. — Steve Petty

By: Gerry Tebben

Interested in past CONA Newsletters? Please visit the Newman Portal for a vast collection that dates back to 2011!