One of the many lessons I am learning from the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic is that those people who are in leadership roles do not have all of the answers on what to do to protect their constituents — and I am not sure that some of them even have the good of the people they serve in mind.
Editorial: We Need to Stop Relying on Government to Take Care of Us
The medical community — including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization — has been perplexed by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus for several reasons, as no one definitively knows:
- How deadly the disease caused by the virus could potentially be if its spread is left completely uncontrolled, as the prognostications have varied wildly — some forecasts have been in the millions
- How long the 2019 Novel Coronavirus can live when airborne or on certain surfaces — although more information is becoming available
- Whether people can become immune to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus — and if so, how is that possible and to what extent is the immunity effective
- Whether an effective vaccine can actually be developed for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus
- If and how the 2019 Novel Coronavirus mutates into multiple strains
Those reasons are generally why comparisons between the 2019 Novel Coronavirus and other microbes are frowned upon — regardless of the number of fatalities.
The 2019 Novel Coronavirus Became a Sharply Divided Issue in Society
For the most part, people seem to be entrenched in two significantly distinct camps: those who believe that the 2019 Novel Coronavirus should be allowed to run rampant and unfettered in achieving a phenomenon known as herd immunity — some to the point of purposely infecting each other with it without knowing the full consequences of doing so…
…and those who believe that we should go all out in doing everything possible to mitigate the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus — even if it means:
- Suddenly leaving tens of millions of people without a way to support themselves or their families through no fault of their own
- Postponing elective procedures at hospitals which could potentially endanger some of the patients
- Portending the demise of large corporations and small businesses
- The almost complete shutdown of travel — especially as many cities, states, and countries have either instituted checkpoints at their borders or closed them off altogether
- Possibly bankrupting cities, states, and countries
- Endangering people in situations of domestic violence and sexual abuse
- Leading to suicides due to such factors as isolation, depression, and despair
- Requiring people to wear masks and gloves instead of as a suggestion
- Increasing the possibility of creating more “superbugs” which become immune to the suddenly substantial amount of sanitizers and disinfectants being used
- Placing the deaths of people from 2019 Novel Coronavirus at a higher priority over other causes of death
- Suspending the vaccinations of millions of children from other diseases
- Infringing upon the freedoms and rights of people — whether temporary or permanent
Death is death. Everyone will die one day. No one is immune to it. People who are still living are most adversely affected by the deaths of the ones they love. Death is part of life. We do not have to go so far to embrace it as we need to stop being unrealistic about how many deaths are realistically prevented…
…and locking down an entire planet of billions of people for weeks or months — perhaps even years — is completely unrealistic and to the point of where life is simply not worth living.
Like it or not, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus is here to stay. It has already infected virtually the entire planet. It will not go away. It may very well mutate to the point where scientists may have to do everything possible just to keep up with effective vaccines — if one is actually developed, which will not happen for months or possibly years…
…and like myriad other causes of death, thousands — perhaps millions — of people will die over time from 2019 Novel Coronavirus anyway. This will happen regardless of what methods are implemented in terms of attempting to mitigate the number of those deaths — and this does not take into account the deaths and suffering of millions more people primarily due to the ironic attempts of preventing casualties from the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
Summary
The wording of the title of this article is Editorial: We Need to Stop Relying on Government to Take Care of Us, which is deliberate. I do not want the government to take care of me. One role of government is to enact sensible and prudent laws to protect us and our quality of life, which is significantly different. Although exceptions exist, the protection is for those situations in which members of the constituency are powerless to protect themselves for whatever reason — such as saving innocent people from the maniacal tendencies of a murderer…
…and even still, that protection provided by the government should not egregiously overstep the bounds of the freedoms and rights of people who elect the leaders who are supposed to run it. To do so is not worth the cost — including during the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic. One example is that recommending distancing ourselves from others is one thing; but requiring it as punishable by law is different.
In the extensive amount of articles which I have written pertaining to the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic, I tend to fall somewhere in the middle: I have always believed that some attempts to mitigate the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus should be employed — but not to the point of practically shutting the world down, which has caused numerous other significant problems and issues.
If given the choice, I have no intention of purposely infecting myself with the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, as Matthew Klint of Live and Let’s Fly hypothetically mentioned that he would do in this article in order to travel again. Although a precedent already exists for immunity passports, that does not necessarily mean that I support the concept because then we could need them for other diseases — perhaps even for the more common strain of influenza — and that could set a potentially dangerous precedent, as I am not willing to live in a society which increasingly depends on either requesting more papers to move about or branding towards possible discrimination.
We need to take more responsibility for our own actions — such as properly washing hands on a regular basis, not touching anywhere on our faces and heads unless our hands are absolutely clean, and remaining a safe distance apart from other people — and not have the so-called “leaders” of governments dictate what we should do, as many of them seem to be more concerned about their political careers and future legacy; as well as not knowing enough information about the 2019 Novel Coronavirus in general to issue definitive orders pertaining to it.
In other words: we need to stop relying on government to take care of us — ironically, for our own good…
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
