I’ve lived through a lot of scary health crises [AIDS & HIV, Ebola, and unpredictable flu strands not covered by the annual vaccine] … but nothing compares to the global mass hysteria over the coronavirus. Constant mass media coverage has led millions of people to lose all reasonable perspective over this virus: canceling school, college and national conventions; two-week self quarantines; infected cruise ships docked at sea, guaranteeing the temporary illness to spread through recirculated air systems. What is wrong with people, and I mean the people in charge?
Meanwhile, tens of thousands more Americans catch the flu, work with the flu, and yes some will die and have died from the flu—but the illness and deaths caused by the coronavirus is nowhere near the number hit by influenza. According to statistics by the Center for Disease Control, this year’s flu deaths will be as many as 61,000 in the U.S. compared to coronavirus at 14 deaths so far. Coronavirus deaths worldwide are at 3,460. Let us take a moment to remind ourselves that the world is filled with billions and billions of people. The number of coronavirus cases doubled one day in New York. Still the U.S. has at this moment only 230 documented cases, mind you in a First World nation of some 325 million people. The flu, on the other hand, infects 9 million to 45 million Americans every year. Why? Because we continue to go to work, church, grocery stores, movies, restaurants, parties and other gatherings throughout the two-week duration that produces lingering cough and mucus. We usually won’t go out if we’re so nauseous we’re vomiting and/or have a fever. Godspeed.
Symptoms of the flu and coronavirus are very similar and could just be a cold, which spreads like wildfire and yes can lead to bronchitis and pneumonia, walking pneumonia, and death for some, particularly the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Nothing new here. But canceling life on the planet, remaining holed up in our apartments and homes till summer … wha?
Paranoid sickofrenic
Annual conventions are being canceled nationwide. Routine flights are canceled to several parts of the world where coronavirus has been spreading. No cancelations due to the flu. While the media keeps an hourly tally on new coronavirus cases and related deaths in the U.S. and abroad, health officials have made clear there is no need to panic. Then we find toilet paper and sanitizer along with face masks are in short supply in stores everywhere. This is due to the virtual shutdown of China where the coronavirus was first detected and the government imposed brutal quarantine measures and halted manufacturing. The world decided to follow suit in some aspects, at least with the knee-jerk emotional panic mode.
Repeatedly the public has been advised to wash, wash, wash our hands with soap and water while singing a short ditty like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in order to wash for 20 full seconds. Americans have an inclination toward impatience. We tend to rush through a lot of things. Indeed we often are not very thorough especially with washing our hands or brushing our teeth. So wash hands, use sanitizer, stop touching our faces, trash used tissues, and cough and sneeze into our arms instead of the air. Seems rather Mickey Mouse, and by that I mean simple rules instilled in childhood to prevent the spread of cold or flu.
Most of the few who’ve contracted the coronavirus report mild symptoms, perhaps feeling better than with a bad cold or the real flu. We’re told 80 percent who get coronavirus will have mild symptoms. And this is problematic for those who want and need to work. Our American motto is: Take over-the-counter meds and keep a-going. But to really avoid spreading any contagious illness like a cold, flu and coronavirus, the best thing to do is avoid contact with people for awhile. Rest is best. It’s what the doctors say but not our bosses. And people with coronavirus are supposed to stay home for two long weeks. A vaccine for the coronavirus, a bug that will always be with us now, is a year away.
Amidst the business hysteria, the epic SXSW music festival in Austin was canceled, a $400 million loss. California has declared a state of emergency. New York has imposed school closures in areas where clusters of the coronavirus were detected. All this in attempts to nip in the bud this single virus.
Maybe so, but Texas’ annual Kerrville Folk Festival is a go. At the month-long Kerrville festival every May to June, thousands of folks from across the nation camp out beneath the stars, share outdoor toilets, strum guitars and open their mouths to sing songs. Will it be a disastrous breeding ground for spreading coronavirus? Remember, some people are simply carriers and will be asymptomatic, in other words unaware they have this bug. But the Kerrville concert folks are likely trusting Mother Nature and the fresh air of the Texas Hill Country to prevent illness. A folkie or a Kerrvert is made of tough stock, linking back to our American ancestors who worked with their hands before air conditioning made us soft and whiny.
Nation of weenies
My parents and their generation had almost every kind of childhood disease and lived to tell about it. Their generation lived through polio. My grandmother as a child caught yellow fever and lost all her hair. Within a year, it grew back beautifully. She also was bit by a brown recluse spider and lost a small hunk of flesh on her forearm. Those were generations with grit, and their times were much more hazardous than ours, mostly due to modern medicine and vaccines. Yet the elders trusted natural remedies, one being to simply let the disease or illness run its course, and that oddly enough creates immunity.
For a nation that survived a couple of world wars, walked on the moon, and lived through every type of old and new disease including the gruesome Ebola virus lest we forget, how have we so easily panicked over a considerably mild virus and in so doing created a self-fulfilling prophecy of financial doom and gloom? We’ve become a generation of helicopter parents, overprotecting children from any harm physical and emotional. That control, in the guise of loving concern, may have backfired as the coronavirus continues to spread, not unlike any other bug. I’d say more people who travel on cruise ships and airplanes suffer from a bout of gastritis than coronavirus. But coronavirus is the cause celeb. The only thing certain is there will be a new bug next year. We have got to get a grip, practice good hygiene, and use our intelligence or as our foreparents called it ‘horse sense’ when it comes to a bug going ’round. If we’re gonna live on this planet, we’re gonna get sick sometimes. Going berserk over every new temporary flu-like illness has run its course.