In the 2011 movie “Contagion,” a surprisingly accurate bio-thriller that became a must-see when our real-life outbreak hit, everybody’s holed up in their houses with guns by the end.
That’s because the movie virus, which spread from bats to people, was an equal opportunity killer, felling young and old alike at a murderous rate of 20%.
In that environment, “nothing spreads like fear,” the movie said.
I thought of this the other day when I was talking to my dad, who is 91 and lives by himself. He’s holed up in his house, but he’s not a gun guy so he’s armed himself mostly with facts.
The coronavirus case fatality rate for his age group, 85 years or older, is more than 20%, he noted (22%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).