Interesting feeling to see your own name in a letter to the editor, but more odd to see an argument pitched on a misrepresentation. Reading my letter dated June 28, none of the numbers John presented were questioned, and again I thank John for having them published for us to consider. It is prevalent nowadays to see accusations from parties guilty of the same, Quid Pro Quo Joe demonstrated this dramatically in Ukraine, but a trivial misunderstanding is a tangent.

The CDC numbers of influenza deaths in the July 7th letter to editor range from 61,000 (2018) to 12,000 (2012), a 500% variation, and is studied and said to be understood in general, hovering around 40,000 unfortunate US deaths annually. But again, for this number to drop to 600 deaths, the number John provided for the 2021 season estimate (and presumed correct), is an outlier, pointing to an extreme change or simply wrong, and mask wearing doesn't fit as an explanation.

How do we not agree that some percentage of deaths attributed to the Covid virus, enhanced to be more contagious at the Wuhan China lab, caused a skew? At https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/public-health/covid-19-deaths-by-age/ it states "According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 is deadliest among older populations. In fact, through February 17, 93 percent of COVID-19 deaths nationwide have occurred among those ages 55 or older. Only 0.2 percent were younger than 25." To scare children to wear mask ("or they will die") and younger people, is morally and factually wrong.

Chad Sellers,

Pocatello