Yesterday, a friend asked me if I have an opinion about Covid 19. Yes, he did ask me if I have an opinion. He asked me that. If I have an opinion. Oh, but that is so funny, Gentle Reader! How else could I write any of this dreck, if I didn't have an opinion! So, here is basically how I replied, after we stopped laughing, that is.
The Covid 19 virus was not invented in a petri dish in China. It is a natural, random occurrence. Like any illness or virus. Disease happens. It has always happened. And sometimes, some of us will get sick and die. We are all going to die, you know, darlings. Live with it. It is in the contract.
Do I think we are overreacting to the virus? Now here is where I could get in a lot of trouble, so I am going to try to parse my words as carefully as possible. This is a serious pandemic. The mortality rate is low, being one to two percent, but this bug is highly contagious, and especially deadly to elderly people and those with other underlying conditions.
Is this so deadly as to justify shutting down entire economies and countries? Well, for me that is hard to say. We see what has happened in places where they didn't act soon enough, or where the people just weren't taking care. I am thinking of Italy and Spain, especially. I don't know why things are going so bad in The US or in England. We seem to be doing better in my province, British Columbia, but people here are generally being very compliant.
This is not grave, but it is serious. People are frightened and anxious, understandably. Many have lost their job and livelihood. Vulnerable populations: seniors in care facilities and the homeless and unsafely-housed are particularly vulnerable. People seem to still care more about seniors than the homeless, and that is the curse of meritocracy. It is assumed that the seniors are worthy of kindness, compassion and respect because we all helped build this country, etc., etc. And that is largely true. The homeless and poor are still assumed to be less worthy because for some reason it is their own fault, or they have addictions, they don't want to work. All of this is garbage, of course, but people are still very selective when it comes to compassion.
I understand that our governments want to flatten the curve of new infections and deaths and keep our health care system from collapsing. Understandable and laudable. I understand that safe distancing is the most effective way to prevent the spread, and this makes it very difficult to keep a lot of places and events open where people are going to crowd together. So restaurants, cafes, bars, hair salons and any shops or services not deemed essential have had to close down, throwing a lot of people out of work. Liquor stores, by the way, have to stay open. They have been designated essential services, and now more alcohol than ever is being purchased and consumed and is it any wonder that there is such an uptick in domestic violence and spousal abuse.
I draw the line at wearing masks. They have been shown to be ineffective for protection, and only work if you are carrying the virus and this way you are less likely to be a transmitter. But people are really afraid, and when we are afraid we also get very selfish, and vice versa (chicken and egg, you know!) I completely agree with our public health officials that wearing the masks is overkill. I find it especially troubling that some stores will not let customers in who are not wearing masks. I will not shop in those places.
I am especially on board about the need to safely distance, giving one another a minimum of two metres distance. Some people still don't seem to get it. Yesterday in a bakery I had to ask one woman for my two metres please, and she just looked frightened and offended and didn't move. For me inconvenient, because I was just about to pay for my purchase, so I couldn't move aside from the stupid woman. She was wearing a mask, but I suspect that she wasn't wearing it to protect anyone but her precious and exalted self.
I also suspect that we have already been living in a culture of fear and heightened anxiety, at least since the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York back in 2001. I just wonder how much this communal fear is hitting critical mass now, with this pandemic being a convenient vector. Not because it isn't serious. It is very serious. But because it is being blown out of proportion by such dangerous hyperbolic words and language as deadly, lethal, grave, existential threat to human existence. Regardless of gender, I think a lot of us could stand to man up a little. We are not all going to die. Well, eventually, yes, of course we are, and that is, as I said earlier, written in the contract.
When I was on my way home from Costa Rica March 20, I knew I was entering a climate of fear and anxiety. I was not afraid of the virus, nor of getting sick or dying. I was afraid of being infected by the fear. I prayed, and God, instead of promising to protect me, simply and very gently directed me to protect myself, by loving and caring for others. By maintaining and nurturing friendships, by opening my heart and life to others. by being kind and friendly to strangers, even stupid women who will not safely distance from me. And by keeping a joyful and positive attitude, which is actually easier than it looks. But having a joyful and positive attitude is often the fruit of loving others, rather than vice versa. Try it sometime.
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