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This Coronavirus Calculator Will Tell You How Likely You Are To Die
Stay Home! Wash Your Hands! You Can Beat The Odds!
What are the odds that the Coronavirus will kill you?
This Coronavirus Calculator can give you an educated guess, after you’ve plugged in relevant information about things like your age, gender, health and amount of Social Contact.
Disclaimer: it wasn’t created by a scientists or doctors, but by a London software developer who felt that Covid-19 risk “should be expressed as a number, not a feeling.” And that, because each of us is different, this risk should be personalized. (You can read more about him and his process here.)
How accurate is this tool? Who knows?
Like its cousin, the Death Clock, it’s probably more interesting parlor game than exact science. And yet it can be illuminating, if only to show you the impact that factors like increasing your handwashing and decreasing your Social Contact can have on the chances that you’ll die from this thing.
My own odds of dying from Covid-19 are currently 1 in 8,627, because I recently had to fly to Philadelphia from California, which dramatically increased my Social Contact.
After I’ve self isolated for 14 days, my odds should go down to 1 in 21,567.
Since, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the odds of being struck by lightning in my lifetime are estimated to be 1 in 13,000, I’m okay with those chances.
And? I’m happy to continue to staying in my house drinking coffee, reading magazines and playing the piano to keep my odds that low.
If the Covid Calculator does nothing else but encourage folks like me to keep doing the things that can lower our Death Risk, I think it’s worthwhile.
So, how about you? What are your odds and how do you feel about them? Tell me all about it in the Responses section.
And? Good luck! Stay Safe! And don’t forget to wash your hands.
( Roz Warren is the author of two collections of library and book-related humor, Our Bodies, Our Shelves: A Collection of Library Humor, and Just Another Day At Your Local Public Library, both of which…
