Harnack earns his 'Badalamente badge'

Reading the May 7 Cheney Free Press, I see that publisher Roger Harnack has arrived. By that I mean he’s earned “certification” and his first scolding from serial letter writer Richard Badalamente.

I call it the “Badalamente Badge.” And in 12 years as a staff member at the CFP, I proudly lay claim to earning at least a half-dozen such citations from Richard for improper thoughts laid to paper.

It is of course interesting — and ironic — that Badalamente points out Harnack’s failing in his story to have cited “statistics on the COVID-19 cases and deaths” as a downfall.

Lack of other numbers, those attached to context and perspective in this “panic-demic,” have been MIA — and that’s my complaint. Apparently, such relationships temper the scare-factor?

For instance, does a virus that affects just 74 people out of 100,000 in Spokane County, and slightly over 100 of every 50,000 people statewide, require sheltering in place for weeks on end; the killing of our economy with mass business closures and shuttering schools?

Particularly when state stats show just 3 percent of cases happen in the 0 to 19 age group — with NO fatal instances — while 92 percent of COVID-19 deaths occur in the 60 and over/underlying conditions demographic.

Have you checked out yearly deaths from cancer or heart disease in the state?

While we’re talking missing numbers, how about that miserably failing modeling from both the University of Washington and Imperial College in England?

Their projections have never factored out. So bad are they in fact, they could never, ever, qualify for the “close enough for the horseshoe and hand grenades” tournament. Yet they have driven this madness and helped needlessly scare hell out of millions upon millions of people.

And finally, when talking numbers, be sure to never mention seasonal flu death comparisons in coronavirus conversations. This virus, which over the past decade routinely affects 10s of millions annually — with deaths ranging as high as 60,000 — never puts the public in mass lock-down chains?

Questions, not necessarily numbers, are what’s missing here.

Paul Delaney

Spokane