My observations of the people and covid.

I have been stuck on how to put into words how I have felt since the entire pandemic started. As one of 7 billion or so humans experience this for the first time, I am sure that some of my emotions were also widely experienced. Let me start from the beginning, and offer a caveat. I am a scientist at my core. That means I like to hypothesize, experiment, prove or disprove, and repeat. I am also a deeply spiritual man. I have a lovely stew of those two truths coursing through my veins.

Living in the United States, we have been subject to ultra biased news sadly leading to ultra biased opinions. That was happening well before March of 2020. I said to my brother as covid started to emerge, that I was sure, in my heart, that my country would not politicize this, as the greater good is the human collective. That sounds wildly naive when I say it out loud now. In our country, instead of putting politics and bias aside, it was doubled down. Here is how I experienced the timeline.

Virus Emerges: Each virologist in the world suddenly is thrust into the spotlight and having to deliver information to news outlets that are used to “slant”. There isn’t “slant” to science. It is what we know “now” (hypothesis), and what we will know “later”, (proven or disproven). So in the beginning, and throughout this year and a half, those that are trained as experts in the field, have all pretty much said the same thing:

• Human viruses are spread through saliva, so wash your hands, and distance yourselves from others.
• Lots of people, close together, was a bad idea
• Masks will help, but since supply is low, don’t hoard masks, as the front line workers need them first . As supply became less of an issue, masks were recommended, and then required.
• This virus is a coronavirus, like a cold, but with a much higher mortality rate. It also has a much higher mortality rate than the flu.
• Those with comorbidties were at a higher risk than anybody else.
• Two theories of where the virus came from, wet market, or lab.
• Viruses mutate, as will this one.
• This virus didn’t seem to affect younger persons in the same manner.

So those initial findings, remained to be pretty much true throughout. As the experts found out more, these were the additions:

• Shared air seemed to be the main problem, so indoors was worse than outdoors.
• Surfaces were unlikely to spread the virus.
• Mortality rate seems to be 2-4%

So, if you read the above lists, whether you are scientific or not, its really kind of hard to disagree with any of that. Yes our CDC seemed to be scrambling at times, but in fairness, this was a novel situation.

So lets flash forward a bit into it, and these are what I thought were the emerging story lines, and this is where it the divisions started to appear.

Since there was no real way to fight this virus, other than separation, both private and public entities started closing, or implementing rules like mask mandates. This was unsettling to most people in the world, as each of our day to day lives drastically changed. My view of this during the time, and now, is that it made sense for what we knew at the time. They had to figure out more about the virus. In essence, to keep as many people safe as possible. What really angered me during this particular phase of the virus was that there were already people in the media saying, it’s more important to keep our day to day routine going by keeping businesses open and kids in school, than it was to figure out just what we were dealing with. And trust me, my heart truly went out to those that had zero flexibility with work, and had children that relied on schools to feed them, and to offer, in essence, a safe place to be during the day so the parents could work. That is an impossible situation.

The next disconcerting thing that started to arise was that the apprehension that all were feeling about the oncoming vaccines.

• New virus, of the corona variety, meant a new vaccine had to be developed in record time.
• That vaccine was going to have to be mass produced, and fast tracked to provide protection.
• There were two types of vaccines being created at the same time: mRNA (new), DNA (old)

The three items above, were what seemed to be the prevalent thoughts for most people, and there was some skepticism and fear about them. Naturally. Then there were the following thoughts that started emerging:

• There was a undercover intention to create the virus so that the vaccine could be created to control people by injecting microchips into their arms (inside the vaccines)
• Bill Gates, and others, were behind this plot, whose intention, seemingly, was to be able to track all humans.
• That there was no new virus.
• That the people dying in the hospital weren’t dying of covid.
• The virus was just like the flu.
• Only unhealthy people get covid

On a personal note, I have close friends that are some of the healthiest people I know, that got covid, and were sick for months. Not being able to walk. I have a family member, also healthy, who needed multiple surgeries, including heart surgery, because he got covid. Thankfully, none of these people died, but ask them how they feel about people not taking this seriously.

So, as the vaccines started to roll out, there seemed to be divide. Some of this divide made some sense, healthy skepticism. Some, did not. Full disclosure, I am a person who absolutely believes that you should have sovereignty over your own body. You should be able to choose what goes into that body, and what doesn’t. I also believe, that we as humans, have to act as one to protect all of us, because we are all connected. If you say to me, I am scared, I’m not sure how it will act in my body, I would say to you, I was scared as well. In a vacuum, I would probably wanted to have waited a while to let the science mature a little, (although there are plenty of scientific articles who will lay out how mature this science was already), but my choice was about wanting to be with humans.

If I was to meet somebody who said to me, “I don’t eat mayonnaise” because they don’t believe in the process by which it is made or they have fear of the ingredients. I would say, don’t eat it then. If an unprecedented illness started sweeping the globe, and people were dying, any amount of people that wouldn’t normally be, and the solution was to eat mayonnaise to save not only you, but possibly others, then I would say, perhaps you should reevaluate that, and eat some mayonnaise.

We were not put on this earth to get what’s “ours”. To live alone. To isolate. To have individual freedoms. Human beings are pack beings. We chose this path because of the collective we call humanity. If we can all act together, we work better. Those folks that are choosing to not vaccinate themselves, now, today, after 5 billion or so vaccines have been administered, seem to be more interested in themselves, than others. And even if their intent is that they really think that the vaccine is a bad idea, at this point, it seems to be the most adopted idea by a plurality of people. So the further denial leads to isolation, which, isn’t what is the important thing.

As I read that last paragraph, I realize it could be considered inflammatory. That is not my intention. But I have been truly saddened by the reality of the 20-30 percent of this world that is ignoring their own well being for a political cause. The virus is not conservative or liberal. The vaccines are not conservative or liberal. They are a product that was created to try and make people safe. Could there by side effects? Of course. Human bodies are tricky things.

I am also fully aware that medicine continues to evolve and that western medicine doesn’t know everything. I choose to take vitamins and herbs. I use essential oil. I meditate. I receive acupuncture. I do breath work. All things that would not be considered useful by western medicine. I also can’t stand any corporation that puts profits as a priority over human interest. I know some think this is all about that. But, as mentioned before, I also am a scientist, and my observation, is that the best suited for this particular situation, are the virologists. This is a virus, and I’m grateful that we have developed the knowledge and science to a point that we have the ability to do something about this.

In the end, covid will probably be with us for a long time. We will learn to live with it through vaccines and being healthy human beings when we can. But the most disconcerting thing about all of this to me is this. Viruses will continue to happen, that is nature. The planet is changing quickly. We are more connected with travel than every before. So there will be, not might be, will be, other new viruses that happen. When? Who knows. But if covid was a dress rehearsal that claimed, as of this writing, 5,310,736 people, and 11 months after a vaccine was available, we only have 55% of the world vaccinated, what happens if a virus develops that has a morality rate of 10% or higher, and, affects children the same way? Will people still say, I have a healthy immune system, I’ll be fine?