“Therefore, I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. … (Martin Luther/1527 treatise)
Martin Luther wrote the above almost 500 years ago during an outbreak of bubonic plague. There was no germ theory, pharmaceutical research, or vaccines. Medical practices were primitive by today’s standards. Yet, Luther knew to take precautions to protect himself and others.
America loves winners. Sometimes we love losers. We love to fight and turn everything into a fight or a war on whatever. Americans love fear-mongering and trust fear-mongering politicians and “journalists.”
We have been “fighting” the COVID-19 pandemic for over a year and a half. The news media uses terms like fighting, war, beating, or battling. So do our unlovable elected officials.
The pandemic wreaked political, economic, emotional, and physical havoc throughout the country. People suffered and are still suffering from the aftereffects of COVID. People mourned the deaths of their loved ones. Commerce and industry, especially small businesses, suffered. All of us made sacrifices to win this “war.”
Now, medical experts, including Dr. Fauci, are claiming there may be no end in sight. The War on COVID may be a perpetual war for at least another year. Economists are making dire predictions. Politicians are shaking in their boots. Their “jobs” are on the line, as they should be. We are wondering when it will be safe. When will it be normal?
Pandemics are not wars or battles. We do not fight them. There is no glory in the march to normalcy. No generals are sending military personnel off to die in glory. No medals are given to the frontline workers or troops, as some refer to them. There will be no grand parades, stump speeches, or memorial works of public art bestowed upon the “heroes.”
Pandemics are not political. They do not identify with political parties or ideologies. They are not economic. They are diseases. They run their own course. They mutate into variants. It is called nature or science. Even God, if you are a believer, can do nothing about them. Nature has been trying to kill us off since the Great Comedian put humans on this planet. Nature is His joke on us.
People need to get real. Almost five hundred years ago, people knew to protect themselves, taking common-sense precautions. They also knew they were responsible for caring for others. They did not rebel, refuse, protest, or try to overthrow their leaders.
It is past time for the politicians and news media to stop with the weasel words. The weak-kneed worriers should cowboy up instead of hoarding Depends™. We had enough panic generated from them and the news media. In plain simple English, what is needed now is calm assurance and truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Can the flowery speeches or fear-mongering written by public relations, political communications, and news media weasels.
We do not pick and choose who gets sick. The virus does. We can only pick and choose to take measures to protect ourselves and others. Wear masks, distance from others, avoid large public gatherings, get vaccinated. It really is just that simple.