COVID-19 Daily Deaths Average Nearly Identical To U.S. Soldiers' Deaths Per Combat Day Average

Averaging the total number of combat deaths by the total number of days the U.S. has been at war is almost the same as the average daily number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. since the start of the crisis.

I wanted to avoid posting this until after Memorial Day. I didn't think it would be proper or respectful to write about U.S. combat deaths, and compare them to deaths from coronavirus, on the day that is meant to honor those who died in defense of this country's basic principles.

Now that the holiday has passed, I think it's important to point out some very alarming statistics that I've recently run across.

Across the number of wars that the United States has been involved in — the American Civil War, both World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, the Iraq War, the Phillippine-American War, the Spanish-American War, the War in Afghanistan, the War of 1812 and the American Revolution — millions of American soldiers have died.

If you averaged out those total deaths across the sum number of days that every war lasted, you wind up with around 1,207.06 deaths per combat day. That's a remarkable number that shouldn't be discounted — each death is a sacrifice to this country, and we are right to honor those who gave all.

But I want to take a moment to point out a similar stat on coronavirus. There have been 100,228 deaths from coronavirus so far, as of Tuesday afternoon. The bulk of those deaths have taken place between this present date and February 29 — 87 days so far.

If you take the total number of deaths from coronavirus, and divide that number by those 87 days, you get an average of about 1,152 dying from the disease per day so far in this crisis.

That's a small 4.5 percent difference between coronavirus deaths per day during this crisis so far, and soldiers' deaths per combat day during every American war in our nation's history.

In other words, the total number of Americans who have died, per day while on the battlefield in the various wars in U.S. history, is almost identical to the number of Americans who have died, per day, during the COVID-19 crisis.

This shouldn't diminish the soldiers who died for this country and the sacrifices they made. Rather, I bring this up to put into perspective just how devastating this disease really is...and how it remains a threat that has the potential to surpass those combat day averages in the months ahead.

This past weekend was the first major holiday where much of the U.S. was "reopened" following several states' stay-at-home orders being implemented across the country. Yet we have no reason to believe the virus has gotten less dangerous from the start of March until now.

The commander-in-chief seems to think differently, with no evidence to back up his claim. President Donald Trump even wants us to believe that things are so much safer now that we should reopen schools across the country as this pandemic rages on.

This president does not understand just how devastating this disease has been to this country. Hopefully, understanding it in terms of comparing it to the average number of U.S. soldiers' deaths per combat day will help bring to light just how serious things truly are.

If not...then God help us all.

Featured image credit: MarkThomas/Pixabay; NIAID/Wikimedia

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