The Real COVID Crisis

Summer is nearly over. The days are growing shorter, the nights a little cooler. The girls are back in school. Fall is upon us. I had hoped our lives would have returned to normal by now, but I’m beginning to wonder if our lives will ever be normal again. The media doesn’t back down. Every cluster of positive cases is covered as though COVID-19 has mutated into a high-powered Ebola virus with a 99% death rate. There is no hope for those who believe their gloomy projections, just fear and uncertainty overtaking their lives like a fart in an elevator. One woman posted on a news article related to children going back to school, “It’s like sending sheep to the slaughter”. I get it, it’s scary to feel like you have no control, especially when we’re led to believe things are so out of control. I’ve felt that way at times, but never in regards to a viral illness with a 97% recovery rate.

Others are cruel and hateful in their comments toward anyone who disagrees with quarantines or mask mandates. When a sheriff in Florida stated his deputies were not required to wear masks on duty and visitors coming into their office would not be permitted to enter with a mask on, people cursed him to a COVID death. It didn’t matter what his reasons were, which were likely related to masks being cumbersome, hard to breathe in and often reduce visibility, and for those coming into the office, they can disguise and conceal a visitor with bad intentions. During this era of social upheaval, those concerns seem far more pressing to me than the risks associated with COVID. Though even with very reasonable information provided, fear of COVID has made people so irrational they can’t hear anything that suggests their fears are unwarranted and they label anyone who doesn’t share their fears as selfish or stupid, spouting things about others not listening to “the science”, a comment so vague it always leaves me wondering which science they’re referencing, because the medical research I read doesn’t support most of what’s been happening over the past 6 months.

Many believe masks will save us all from COVID, and that if people were more adherent to the mask mandate the pandemic would already be over. I believe masks give people a sense of control over their mortality, during a time when they fear the lack of control. That’s not a problem until everyone is expected to adhere to a recommendation that has not been scientifically researched and determined to actually reduce the spread of disease. One trip to Walmart will give you some idea why the effectiveness of the mandate is questionable. Mask wearing for the masses ignores the fundamentals of personal protective equipment use. Without education on the handling and management of something that is suppose to be filtering out a “deadly virus”, we actually increase the risk of spreading the infection. It’s a stretch for me to believe these health advisors are not aware of this fact. As the old saying goes, anything worth doing, is worth doing right.

COVID testing is just as baffling. With a suggested accuracy of 35-40%, these tests are our gate keepers, telling us what we can and cannot do. One wrong result and we might be out of work for the next two weeks whether we are truly sick or not, and in healthcare this could mean two weeks without pay. A few too many positive test results and those living in fear of the COVID are ready to shut down the country again. Can our economy really afford that? The media is reporting that we have economically rebounded and are doing great! That seems a stretch to me so I did a little research and discovered that the unemployment rate for July was at 10.2% while in February this year it was at 3.5%. Many businesses have permanently closed and many more are still only in partial operation. All this seemingly pointless COVID testing may be boosting the economy somehow, but I don’t think the 7% still unemployed in July are benefiting from it. I’ll be interested to see what the August rate looks like.

The truth is, the real COVID crisis isn’t a virus, it’s the mishandling and misrepresentation of data and the intentional efforts of the media and health advisors to instill fear in the people. It’s thoughtless and unethical. In our efforts to save the highest risk individuals, who will in time die from the very causes that make them high risk, we have sacrificed many more to social and economic breakdown that may take years for all of us to recover from.

Humans are social creatures designed to live in community, not isolation. They need to be occupied in constructive activities, like work and school. They need friends and companionship. They need to see people smiling at them and not hiding behind a mask, like they’re a sure carrier of the plague. People need to go to weddings and celebrate with those they love. They need to attend funerals and go to church without being condemned. They need family and friends to visit when they are recovering in the hospital or living in long term care. They need hugs. If we can not live in a way that promotes emotional and social well-being in our communities, we may as well already be dead. No one wants to be saved from COVID just to die alone watching Netflix. We are designed for much more, but somehow many have entirely ignored this fact and their mandated response to a “not so deadly to the majority” pandemic has stolen months from our lives that we will never get back. We Americans should be outraged.