I feel like almost all of the Wuhan bug discussion is just proof that old allegories are the sum total of the human experience.
I love my sister and admire her to infinity. She does "her" so much better than I've been able to "do me". Her authenticity scale is 1000%.
I'm just WIP by comparison.
So I'm stunned that she's sucked in the #covidmadness. Maybe I shouldn't be.
For one, my job has never been threatened by #covidmadness, and the business she and her husband created has been gut punched.
For two - I'm an idiot. I got into old USN airplanes and flew them at 300mph at 300' above the water. I also flew at a small margin above stall speed 200' above the the water to make fast passes over the submarines we were tracking. We did that for hours on little sleep with a crappy auto pilot (did I mention how old the planes were ...).
Then when they sent me to an aircraft carrier I found a way to work in the world's 2nd most hazardous industrial environment - launching jets from the flight deck. 5000 launches, the airplanes crossing over my head while I - after directing the launch - crouched to the deck and held my goggles to my face so at least I I wouldn't have hydraulic fluid in my eyes.
And when they said "the good news is you get to go on an all expense paid vacation for 14 months, but the bad news is you are going to Bagdad and you leave in 5 days", I did it and ... dealt with it, became a better version of me while my kids and beloved wife were doing the same 12 time zones away.
And that's what I wish the USA were doing now.
Instead we pretend politicians and the CDC know what to do. We pretend that governments "can get this thing under control". We pretend that masks make things safe and social distancing must work since some expert says so (maybe it does, it probably helps, but makes things safe? Not likely). We talk about lock downs, as if they really were lock downs, and we say "15 days to flatten the curve".
We act like humans act when in challenging, unfamiliar circumstances - we act the fool. We listen to the "news" - a group that earns their living by keeping us frightened and feeling like we have to know the latest thing that will make us all the more fearful and judgmental.
We listen to politicians who tell us they think they know what to do, when a brief review of the history of political judgement could prove they are lucky to find their assholes with the toilet paper.
45,000 people per year die in cars - and we all just drive every day anyway, as we should based on the risk/reward curve.
70+ percent of the 7000 to 8000 people who will die today (and have died every day for the last 20+ years) die a premature death from metabolic derangement from eating sugary, high carb diets - and before these unfortunate souls die they live a drastically diminished life characterized by vascular disease (heart attack, stroke) neurological disease (ALS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's) or cancer (a substantial majority of these predicted by diabetes or pre-diabetes). More than 5000 people per day, year after year, dead after a long suffering end state based on our food choices, most of which were advocated by our government's USDA food recommendations.
What does that have to do with now?
This Chinese virus kills those who would die anyway. 40% of the deaths are from the .6% of those who live in long term care or nursing homes. 30% of those in those facilities die every year. The other 60% all have the pre-existing characteristics of high sugar, high carb diets (aka metabolic syndrome or full blown type II diabetes). If you are under 50 and have normal blood sugar and blood pressure - your death from covid would be extraordinary.
The politicians only have one incentive - to take action and use their monopoly on coercion. If they take action and people die - oh well, they did what they could, they "followed the CDC recommendations" or whatever. If the same number of people were to die but the pols were cautious of government over-reach, they would be pilloried. We see the witless ordering the timid to do those things which sound good but apparently just pave the way for more of the same government over-reach.
Government was wrong on everything - minimum wage, prohibition, the drug war, USDA food recommendations, the assessment of Iraq's nuclear capacity, the potential harm of home loan guarantees to risky lenders, the benefits of the CAFE laws, and so on and so forth. It's a miracle when the government gets anything right. And like freak show idiots we allow those morons to dictate the covid response.
When fears are high enough, humans get tribal. "Tribal" means you are either for us or against us - there's no middle ground. That's when we all instinctively start to preach the religion of our tribe, and condemn the intentions of those who will not pretend to comply.
And that's the part that vexes me. Once folks are tribal, they can only say "the sky is falling" and they can only "cry wolf". Any invitation to dialogue is a threat to the tribe and must be stomped. The need for certainty reaches multiples of atmospheric pressure. Fault lines interrupt human connection. We are deprived of our daily bread of feeling safe with the extended family members we love most.
Covid will do what covid will do. There's little to be done about it until the vaccines are available, assuming they are effective like polio vaccine (but not like flu vaccine). You can continue to perseverate the risk of death from covid (less than 1% of the population so far), or you can face that risk like the many additional risks we face daily. You can join in the "sky is falling" freak out, or you and improvise, adapt and overcome. You can deal with the risks and get on with life or you can keep yelling about the wolf and adding to the fear.
The dead? Heartbreaking.
What could I have done to prevent those deaths? Not one thing, nor would their deaths be more noble if I stood around fearful and grief laden.
I will not be tribal. I will not cry wolf. I will not tell you the sky is falling. I will not wake up in fear of any of the many ways I may perish tomorrow.
And if I do, I will curse myself, forgive myself and get it right the next day.
The goal: Be person worthy of the incredible liberty and safety you have been given, a birth right few or none have had in any generation before ours. And be merciful and kind and understanding to those who are not yet at the point of clarity.
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