A variation on the theme of the cold — a cold with an attitude.  Is Western civilization going to collapse over a cold?

As Newsweek stated a few months earlier: 

[A] cold can also have more severe symptoms in the very young and the very old. Older people are more likely to develop a more serious infection compared with adults or older children. And people who smoke — or who are exposed to second-hand smoke — are also more likely to get a cold and have more severe symptoms.

Another group of people who are more severely affected by infection with cold-causing viruses are people with an existing lung condition. They can include people with asthma, cystic fibrosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Infection with a virus that causes inflammation of the airways can make breathing much harder. People with COPD who catch a mild cold virus are also at risk of developing a bacterial infection.

That is what we are experiencing.

Is the death rate from the coronavirus higher in the very old?  So is the death rate from colds (see above).  Yet we see that many people are asymptomatic.

The biggest breakdown yet of novel coronavirus cases suggests that 80% are mild. Some patients never show symptoms.

Many do not show symptoms?!  Of course not!  Everyone has had colds in their lives, and we acquire immunity from them.  Those who have already had colds from similar strains of coronavirus will have acquired a degree of immunity.  Hence, the rather high 80% of people who do not show serious symptoms.

Coronaviruses are an extremely common cause of colds and other upper respiratory infections.

So why the deaths?

However, infection with rhinovirus or one of the other viruses responsible for common cold symptoms can be serious in some people. Complications from a cold can cause serious illnesses and, yes, even death — particularly in people who have a weak immune system.

The news is not actually reporting that a lot of these victims have secondary conditions.  USA Today ran this headline: "Spanish soccer coach for Atletico Portada Alta dies from coronavirus at age 21."

Only when one read the story did one find out that "[a] 21-year-old youth soccer coach in Spain died Sunday from coronavirus while also battling leukemia."

Leukemia?!  Leukemia affects the immune system, and the treatment also savages immunity.  What killed this soccer couch was leukemia.  His body was set up to die from any infection.

The number of people who die from colds is necessarily underestimated.  Those who are elderly or have lung or immunity problems will often pick up a cold, then catch a predatory secondary infection such as pneumonia.  It is the secondary infection that is listed as the cause of death or the underlying illnesses — but not the cold that set the process in motion.

This demarcation will now be reversed, as coronavirus — rather than pneumonia — will be listed as the cause, thus giving a distorted view of the reason for morbidity.

I would not be surprised if the death rates from common colds among the elderly are similar to those now credited to the coronavirus.  We can make some inferences from rhinoviruses, which are also the causes of many colds.

However, infection with rhinovirus or one of the other viruses responsible for common cold symptoms can be serious in some people. Complications from a cold can cause serious illnesses and, yes, even death — particularly in people who have a weak immune system…

Another group of people who are more severely affected by infection with cold-causing viruses are people with an existing lung condition. They can include people with asthma, cystic fibrosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Infection with a virus that causes inflammation of the airways can make breathing much harder. People with COPD who catch a mild cold virus are also at risk of developing a bacterial infection.

Is COVID-19 a bit worse than most coronavirus strains?  Maybe so.  But it looks to still be a variation on a cold.

The real question is, why is the world panicking so?

With the common flu killing 18,000 annually, why are we panicking over these much smaller numbers from the coronavirus?  Worse yet, why is this panic worldwide?

I may be wrong, but this global panic seems to have been engineered.  For a number of reasons:

A) To get rid of Trump

After all, the opposition has failed at every other attempt to get rid of Trump.

... Democrats 'hoping' to 'destroy Trump and the economy' as coronavirus spreads

B) To get rid of cash

Governments have been trying to get rid of cash for years.  Fungible currency is one of the last arenas of personal autonomy.

Fear of Virus-Tainted Dollars Opens New Front in War on Cash

C) To get people used to infringements on civil liberties

For years, warnings about globalist conspiracies have drawn catcalls of criticism.  However, the overnight rapidity with which this corona panic has become worldwide seems to justify such suspicions.

Meanwhile, large swathes of Africa and the Middle East will soon be facing famine over historically significant swarms of locust, which will most assuredly kill more than the coronavirus.  That is all but ignored.  When this corona panic breaks, the world may sink into an economic depression and political instability — which will kill more than the virus.

And a frightening precedent will have been set up to enforce totalitarian measures for the slightest of reasons — in this case, a common cold with an attitude.

If this is not a global conspiracy, it sure looks like a dress rehearsal for a global dictatorship.