Fuming Anger at COVID Deniers

“Why cancel ...? Don’t let the media control you … It’s no worse than regular flu. If it’s your time, nothing will stop it. Wash your hands and don’t touch your face. I’m not putting my life on hold. Merry Christmas.”


My stepmother cancelled her annual Christmas Tree Trimming this year due to COVID and a friend of hers posted the above.  I read this and red hot anger boiled in my stomach and rose through my chest.  How are there still so many people who deny the facts?  These are the facts as of today December 3, 2020. On average 2% of the people who have COVID 19 die from it compared to .1% of those with the flu.  On average around 40,000 Americans die each year from the flu.  Since February and the first official USA COVID 19 death, we have lost almost 7 times that amount.  This information is easily found on Google from reputable sources.  Yet people still keep comparing COVID 19 to the flu.  


Statistics as per December 3, 2020


However, even if they don’t accept that a person is more than 10 times more likely to die if they have COVID instead of the Flu it is the recovery and complications that make this worse than the flu even if they did have the same mortality rates.


While my family isolates for various reasons, I have personally known more than a dozen people who have had COVID 19.  Two of them died, one is in the ICU on oxygen. The others are in various stages of recovery.  Some of them have had no symptoms and recovered quickly, but others are left exhausted, unable to recover energy they had before getting sick.  


I have family on both sides of the spectrum.  I am of course on the side of mask wearing and isolation.  Perhaps if circumstances were different I would have gone out more, but with combinations of comorbidities in my immediate family including my own obesity and type 2 diabetes, I might be willing to risk my own health, but not my loved ones.  


I know people who caught it by relaxing the rules just once. I know other people who constantly go out and never get it.

I know of one person who visited his mother while the mother was still asymptomatic, he then took it back to his home and infected his daughter and wife.  He lost both his mother and his wife within a week.  


Some people like my children are lucky they can work from home.  Many others do not have that privilege.  They must go out in order to feed and home their families.  Why should I indulge in risky behavior and perhaps utilize a hospital bed that an essential worker or just someone who has to leave their house to work might need.  


Which brings me to the healthcare workers.  It takes four years of college to become a nurse.  It takes four years of undergraduate, four years of medical school and 2 years of residency to become a doctor.  They are a limited essential commodity.  It’s not like PPE where we can force a factory to make.  Those who are working on the COVID floors  are a particular risk.  From what I’ve read over 1700 healthcare workers have died, that is doctors, nurses, attendants, all skilled labor, years of education and experience gone.  


This brings me back to the quote at the beginning of this rant.  COVID IS NOT THE FLU.  It is not a media hoax.  It is a disease that with some adjustments to our lifestyle for a few months more we can avoid.  “God helps them that help themselves” and “You shall love thy neighbor as thyself”,   and the Story of the Drowning Man these quotes are truly the ones of this time..


 

 

Story of the Drowning Man

A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.

Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, "Jump in, I can save you."

The stranded fellow shouted back, "No, it's OK, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me."

So the rowboat went on.

Then a motorboat came by. "The fellow in the motorboat shouted, "Jump in, I can save you."

To this the stranded man said, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."

So the motorboat went on.

Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, "Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety."

To this the stranded man again replied, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."

So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.

Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, "I had faith in you but you didn't save me, you let me drown. I don't understand why!"

To this God replied, "I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?"


This is not 1917 when very few knew the seriousness of the Spanish Flu until it hit their town, it is not the time when there was very little medicine to combat the flu.  This is the 21st century.  We knew about the COVID within weeks of its appearing.  While there were some false assumptions and false starts in the beginning, very quickly scientists began telling us what we were dealing with and how we should proceed.  We are lucky they were able to get a vaccine within the year, when they still have not produced an effective HIV vaccine in three decades.  We know how to protect ourselves and our neighbors.  We can see the end of the disease within the next year.  Yet people insist on saying there is nothing there.  Perhaps they are living in the story of “The Emperor's New Clothes”, people are refusing to see what is in front of their eyes.  People are sick and dying.  We are lucky that we know how it travels.  Simple things like soap and alcohol can kill it externally.  Wearing a mask can usually keep it from getting it internally.  We know the signs to look for in moderate to severe cases.  New treatments are improving patients’ chances of recovery. Vaccines should be available within the month. 


If you are not going to protect yourself or your loved ones, at least stop denigrating those of us who do.  







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