| Sending a letter to the editor
A recent letter to the editor “The COVID-19 risk due to the vote is being overstated” was highly misleading and based on incorrect math.
The writer incorrectly calculated the chance of dying from COVID-19 using the number of deaths in South Carolina due to COVID-19 from March to August 2020 to calculate the supposed “chance of dying” from the disease in South Carolina.
The letter’s author then compares that incorrectly calculated “chance” within a six-month period with the probabilities of murder and other causes of death throughout life (that is, over 70 years). In other words, the writer compares the six-month period of COVID-19 deaths with life numbers.
The fact is that, on average, less than 400 people are murdered in a given year in South Carolina, and the fact is that in the last six months alone, at least 2,500 people have died of COVID-19 in South Carolina. is that, on average, less than 17,000 people are murdered in the United States in any given year, and the fact is that in the last six months alone, more than 170,000 people have died from COVID-19.
If these numbers remain constant, the chances of dying from COVID-19 are at least 12-20 times greater than dying from murder.
In fact, many experts suggest that the official death count due to COVID-19 is inaccurate and that the actual number of deaths is much higher.
Alfons Teipin
Greenville