SARS-Cov-19. Why has something imaged as nicely as this caused so much trouble around the world? The answer is amazingly simple. People are not by nature to be consciously aware of invisible infections that take time to incubate. For example, how many of us use the "5 second rule" when food falls on a contaminated surface such as a floor? I'll bet that some of my readers follow this rule. For many of us, if we can't see it, it doesn't exist.
As I may have mentioned in earlier posts, my dad died of the virus. Sadly, he died before proper protocols were established to help keep people in nursing homes safe. My dad was one of 400,000 people (so far) to have died due to the virus, and still, many people believe this virus to be a hoax. It didn't help that our 45th president modeled inappropriate mask wearing behavior while in office, as many people model their actions on that of the leaders of their tribe.
Now that vaccines exist to help arrest the spread of this virus, we still have to get 330,000,000 arms stuck, so that we can slow down the spread of this virus in the 50 states. This will take quite a bit of time, considering that our 46th president has pledged to get 100,000,000 arms stuck in the 1st 100 days his administration is in office. That is a tall order at best. But what about the other 230,000,000 of us? At the rate POTUS #46 has mentioned, we won't be done vaccinating our citizens until year end. What would happen if this virus was the result of terrorist use of bio-warfare technology. This is not so far fetched as one might think. A few years ago, a similar scenario was posed in a work of fiction, A Brief History of the Dead. Would we be as complacent about getting everyone's arms stuck as POTUS #45's administration has been? I'm grateful that POTUS #46 has chosen Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health to be his Assistant Secretary of Health. Not only has POTUS #46 chosen a competent person for the job, but he has chosen someone who had the support of both Democratic and Republican parties for her office. (And this should overshadow the fact that Dr. Levine is also Transgender.) Pennsylvania's loss is America's gain. And we should be happy for that.
I still hope to have my arm stuck before summer starts. But I expect that there will be problems before that happens. Hopefully, we will all be able to stay safe until we have all been vaccinated. Until then, keep wearing your masks, wash your hands frequently, and avoid large, dense crowds when you can.
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