My best friend died from the flu a few years ago. So I'm not insensitive to the fact that people die from viral-related illnesses. When he contracted the illness, he had a myriad of other underlying health issues that rendered his body incapable of being able to fight off the virus, and he succumbed to it.
I only mention this because as I proceed, I don't want anybody to accuse me of being insensitive, callous, selfish, uncaring, unloving, or any combination thereof. Of course I want people to be safe, and I'm all for doing whatever we can to ensure that people protect themselves from unwanted illnesses.
But I have some questions. And some of those questions pose further questions I'm not sure everybody is thinking of down the road. So here we go.
Where did the sudden concern for humanity come from? By that I mean, why have we, as a society, virtually ignored every single pandemic, virus, and flu-related illness that's come down the pike in the last 100 years or so, with nary batting an eyelash, but all the sudden, at the mere mention of the word "Coronavirus," the entire country has virtually been shut down?
Somebody please explain that to me.
According the Centers for Disease Control (the CDC) the flu alone has killed well over 30,000 people, including my best friend, each year since 2010, and that's just the past 10 years.
And here's the stats I found on H1N1, the "swine flu" that was all the rage back in 2009 and 2010. Direct from the CDC website: "From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there were 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (range: 195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus.
Over 300,000 flu-deaths in the last 10 years, and nearly 12.5 thousand deaths from H1N1 alone in one year, and not a single shutdown. Not a single sports contest cancelled. Not a single travel ban. Not a single school closure. Not a single concern that doctors and hospitals would be overwhelmed.
None. Why now?
Please don't throw speculation at me. It's not as though there has never been global health crises before that affected other countries dramatically and yet had very little impact here in the US. It's happened plenty of times. The data so far on this one doesn't back up a single shred of the panic we've seen. China's #'s alone for the Coronavirus, (albeit, likely under-reported from their Communist regime) don't warrant the kind of panic we've seen, let alone the absolute minuscule numbers we've seen here in the US so far. I can't speak for Italy, or Iran, or South Korea. God only knows how truly prepared any other country is, or how much their governments remotely care about their people. I only know that so far, here in the US, even until we started seriously social-distancing from everyone, everything cancelled, and all overseas travel was banned, the total amount of cases in general, let alone the deaths, were barely worse than a bad weekend in Chicago. As of this writing, there are a total number of 68 deaths nation-wide, and roughly 60% of those cases are in one nursing home in Washington State. That's 20-30 deaths otherwise in the US. More people have been killed in crimes in Indianapolis so far this year.
Look, if in the past, in a response to H1N1, or SARS, or Ebola, or the ZEKA virus, or the common flu, we'd seen even a remote attempt at stopping the spread -- a mild travel ban, the cancellation of a few games, the closing of a school for a week or so -- anything at all, then one could remotely justify the panic we're seeing now.
But nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
Until now.
So why?
Look, I get it. One death is one too many. I understand that. And I'm not saying precautions shouldn't be taken. I'm not even saying I think we shouldn't be doing what we're doing or that what we're doing is wrong... well... sort.
What I AM saying is that the panicked response to this, given the data, and in the absence of literally anything for the virus-related illnesses of the last decade simply makes no rational sense.
If anyone can give a rational answer to that, I'm all ears. Otherwise, we are left to speculate.
In general, I believe in the overall good of people. I believe people don't want ill to befall other people. There's a moral vapidness that is gradually overtaking our society, but otherwise, I like to believe the general populace wishes well-being on their fellow man.
But I've seen several social media posts in the past several days that basically read like this: "Sure, you might be able to go out in public right now and survive the virus, but you might carry the virus to some other poor schlub who isn't as healthy as you, and they might not survive. And that's the problem." I've seen that post in several variations over the past few days, and they all follow that same vein.
And while that scenario might actually be true, my question is simple: Where has this concern for others been over the past decade or so? Why have we not given a lickety-spit as over 30,000 people were dying from the flu each year, and all the sudden we're shaming people for stepping outside their house?
Why? It literally makes no sense. Did everyone suddenly gain a conscious? Did everyone suddenly find some heretofore unearthed love for the fellow man they hadn't noticed before? Do the heads of state suddenly have access to health information they've never had before?
I'm sorry, but while the optimist in me wants to believe in the good of people, the skeptic in me doesn't buy it for a minute. Because a great deal of the posts I've seen like that have been posted by people who I know would dance a jig tomorrow if our President were assassinated.
We've gone from literally ignoring every virus of this kind we've ever seen in modern society to losing our collective minds and shutting down the entire country over a death count that so far is barely greater than a bad bus accident Albuquerque. (Shouldn't a taken that wrong toin!)
It. Makes. No. Sense.
Could the "conspiracy theorists" be right? Could this be a media-driven false panic? Worse, could it be yet another insane hail-mary to bring down our President? Could it be a purposeful bio-attack from China in retaliation for losing the trade war?
I have my suspicions, but I'm not gonna come right out and say it. I'll just say this: I've racked my brain and I can't come up with any rational answer. And worse, I can't get anybody else to give me one either. There is but one variable that's changed from this pandemic vs. all the others: Donald Trump wasn't President during those others.
And here's how we'll know whether my suspicions are right or not: What are we going to do next time?
(Spoiler alert: I'm saving that topic for my next blog.)
There will be a next time. That much is for sure. If we've learned anything from the past few decades, it's that every year or two there's a new virus or a new strain of the flu that's going to ruin the world. Will we flip out as we have on this one, or will we completely ignore it as we have done with every one before? There will be some very reasonable questions raised depending on our response, whatever it is. And it will be interesting to see who the President is and which side of the aisle he is from.
Fear. Panic. Hysteria. Mania. With very little data and mostly speculation and forecasting to back it up. Complete lunacy. Pure insanity.
If you've got a rational reason for all this, please, by all means....
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