An aerial view of the mass graves for New York corona virus victims
One of my favorite movie quotes comes from the Magnificent Seven; So far so good I knew I’d used it before in the blog at least once and, in fact, in this case it is the title of an earlier post. I’m using it again in quotes to distinguish it.
Considering the joke it was the punch line for in that movie I think its an apt phrase for the denialists in the Republican Party who think guns will protect them from the calamities stupid people like scientists warn will happen. Not might, but will if the world is continued to be led by Republicans who sit on their thumbs praying for the rapture.
Of course the increasing speed of climate change counts as does the acidifcation of the oceans and their imminent rise and the end of significant glacial snow melt to feed the rivers of the world and on and on and on.
But it goes for the corona virus too which is arguably the result of the massive hunting of the remnants of the Earth’s wild areas to feed the Chinese medical trade in “wet markets.” The earth’s fauna is full of microbes and viruses that have yet to find a home in human bodies. The corona virus just made that leap. I haven’t come close to reading the voluminous honest news stories about it but what I’ve heard is to say the least worrisome. It can lie in wait to strike a viral host down for 14 days as the host shares the virus with others. No amount of treatment can save 2 percent of its hosts when their impaired immune systems are also stricken by other diseases like pneumonia. In 2001 I came down with pneumonia with no corona virus to weaken my immune system or scramble my lungs. It was the hardest week of my life as I was drained of all energy. I have the resources to stay away from the virus a year and half if necessary to risk becoming one of its one in fifty moralities.
The fake Pro-life protesters demanding to end the quarantine have no use for fake news sources but they do concede that people are dying. They simply make the argument that keeping the economy rolling is more important. That attitude is what pro-lifers have argued liberals who are pro-choice prefer over day old fetuses that weren’t planned. Texas has just confirmed that its lawmakers consider a day old fertilized egg a full fledged human life since they just used the excuse of the corona virus to make it illegal for a woman to take the day-after pill. Swallowing this pill is now considered an elective medical procedure. I guess my vitamin pills are elective too.
But while they ban the day-after pill they insist the economy must go on. That would mean an massive increase in sickness and hospitalization at a time when the hospitals in the hot spots are over taxed with more patients than they were prepared for. Worse medical staff face the same 1 in 50 mortality rate as the rest of us. Yesterday nurses had their own protest in front of the White House where they read the names of medical staff who have died in the last month from the virus. And of course, in hospitals rife with the virus they have the additional burden of bringing the virus home to their families.
Under these circumstances its hard for me to have any patience with Pro-Trump screamers who don’t give a damn about life.
The worst case scenario is still a little uncertain. a vaccine is most likely a year away. Places that control the virus and bring down infections will cautiously let people go back to work again which will prompt new spurts of massive infection. This cycle could repeat itself every couple of months as schools and business reopen when hospitals have more supplies to fight the virus and as the “herd immunity” spreads to surviving nurses and doctors. But vaccines for other cold viruses aren’t always a guarantee of safety. Worse yet is the news that in China where the virus first emerged 23 new strains of the virus have been detected. Each of this and additional strains which will proliferate could be worse than the first virus studied. Vaccines may not work on newer strains. And this virus isn’t the same kind that circulates every year with a new strain. Its about ten times worse than traditional viruses that infect humans. A new strain that may be happy to reinfect someone resistant to the first corona they caught might still lay them low.
For Trumpers rallying the Presidents tweets calling for the liberation of Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia I have a better idea. Why don’t you volunteer in New York or New Orleans to help bury the dead. And I wouldn’t mind in the least if you protested your contempt for science by burying the dead without hazmat suits or masks.
