DRINKING THE COVID KOOL-AID
There is no doubt that the world is beset with a serious virus that has cost the lives of millions of people. Nonetheless, for the most part, those who have died were particularly vulnerable due to advanced age or underlying health issues. Although there is some evidence that otherwise healthy people afflicted with the virus have died, these are exceptional cases and should be examined individually to better understand why in their case, the virus proved fatal. We do know that some healthy individuals showed little symptoms when afflicted; others had typical flu-like symptoms, while some experienced prolonged fever and were bedridden for several weeks. That said, while the experience is most disagreeable, recovery tends to be complete.
This has been known since the very beginning of the pandemic. With this in mind, most governments and notably ours, have grossly mismanaged the pandemic. They have imposed drastic measures severely curtailing the liberties they are expected to value and protect, without any empirical proof that in so doing, they are advancing the public good.
We are, for the most part, law-abiding citizens. No one wants to get sick. With social distancing and better hygiene, the spread of the virus is limited. However the measures imposed such as: curfews, eliminating the right to socially interact, shutting down business, closing the border, criminalizing travellers returning home despite a negative Covid test by quarantining them in hotel rooms under police surveillance and at their expense, is appalling. Is it because we failed as a community to protect the most vulnerable, many of whom died alone, likely infected by staff, in senior-citizen residences? Are our governments fearful that if they acknowledged they acted ineffectively and foolishly, they would lose face and ultimately power? In the end, they blithely strike away at our most fundamental freedoms: the right to circulate freely, to leave the country, and to associate with others. By dramatizing the dangers of infection, they have created a social neurosis where people routinely cross the street for fear of walking past another pedestrian on the sidewalk. When restaurants were permitted to open, people were forced into Plexiglas enclosures to dine. This is irrational, yet the public, for the most part, has bought into the dogma. Any protest, whether individual or organized, is seen as heresy. It is hoped that we wake up soon from this Covid nightmare.