{Originally posted to the FirstOne Through website}
The Covid-19 pandemic is attacking every person on the planet but the United Nations only cares about some of them.
UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres spoke in New York City on March 31, 2020 about the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19. It was a shameful display of political correctness in the face of statistics.
He led with a call to aggressively combat the virus saying “I am particularly concerned about 1the African continent.”
He then added “Second, we must tackle the devastating social and economic dimensions of this crisis, with a focus on those most affected: women, older persons, youth, low-wage workers, small and medium-sized enterprises, the informal sector and vulnerable groups, especially those in humanitarian and conflict settings.”
The head of the global agency addressed a global scourge and selectively highlighted segments of humankind for his concern – seemingly everyone who is not a middle-aged white male.
It is worth reviewing the people who have been most impacted by the coronavirus.
Worldometer maintains a tally of the death toll and those who have contracted the virus. At the time of this writing, April 05, 2020, 11:33 GMT, here are the plain facts:
- The greatest number of deaths in proportion to the population are happening in EUROPE. Spain, Italy, Andorra and San Marino are seeing fatalities of 266, 254, 220 and 943 per 1 million, respectively. Belgium and France have deaths of 125 and 116 per million, respectively. In Africa, the hardest hit country is Algeria, with 29 deaths per million. The continent’s largest country by population, Nigeria, had 0.02 deaths per million. The Europeans are dying at ten times the rate of Africans.
- The fatality rate for men in confirmed cases is 4.7% while for women it is 2.8%. Men are 68% more likely to die than women.
- Older people are indeed the most likely to die from Covid-19, with those over 80 years old having a 14.8% mortality rate. People in their 70’s and 60’s have a 8.0% and 3.6% mortality rate, respectively. But for the youth, there are extremely few deaths. For those between 10 and 39 years old the rate is 0.2% and there have been no cases of anyone under ten dying. Meanwhile people in their 50’s die at almost seven times the rate of 20 to 40 years old.
But the United Nations made a special call out for the young women in Africa when older white men in Europe are dying by the minute.
When it comes to economic losses, there is a direct correlation to educational level, with those with college degrees having the most job security, while those without a high school diploma fairing the worst. It is also true that more women are now graduating college than men in the United States, a fact for all races. As such, women will continue to gain in job security relative to men.
The day after Guterres made the comments above, he said “The COVID-19 crisis reinforces the importance of science and evidence informing Government policies and decision-making.” Meanwhile he has shown no ability to use evidence to inform his thinking or direct his concern.
The United Nations demonstrates the maxim that political correctness makes no room for factual evidence.
Related First One Through articles:
The CoronavirUS is Not Us Versus Them
“Coastal Liberal Latte-sipping Politically-correct Out-of-touch Folks.”
Older White Men are the Most Politically Balanced Demographic By Far
NY Times, NY Times, What Do You See? It Sees Rich White Males