I ran into somebody who hit the wall. He is undergoing a crisis of confidence.
He knows people who have done "Everything they were supposed to do" and still got Covid. Science!
Masks! Hand washing! 6' social distancing! Working remotely! Science!
And the second wave is ramping up.
I probably did not help things when I suggested that there was nothing magic about 6'. Fine aerosol can stay suspended indefinitely due to Brownian motion and there is no distance that is absolutely safe. None.
"Nope. It is science. They proved it. That is how far sneezes travel." he said.
<sarcasm font> "Really?" </sarcasm font>
And the rules in restaurants. You are communicable as you walk through the room and must wear a mask but there is an invisible force-field around the chair so you can take your mask off to eat.
Oh, and by mandating that every-other table be vacant the state rules are funneling all of the customers over the same tables rather than have them randomly use all of the tables.
He did not want to think about that.
Over the course of his life, this gentleman made some choices that left him with some risk factors. He has very real anxiety because actions can be taken to mitigate the risk of Covid transmission but there is no way to drive risk to zero.
Theoretically, you could mandate that everybody stay in their homes for two months and everybody who had it would either be dead or recovered.
But who delivers the food? Who keeps the power plants and water treatment plants running? Who repairs the furnace if it pukes? No Walmart. No new TV shows. No economy.
What happens to the people on chemotherapy? How about the people in ICU or living in Senior Centers? Do we just euthanize them? Is that the price of eliminating (maybe) Covid? Because some people relapse....maybe. Maybe Covid lurks in the cells like shingles or herpes.
Ultimately, the gentleman must face his mortality. A timid man dies a thousand deaths. A hero only dies once.
Better would be to just not fret and then treat the secondary infections if they hit. As it is the secondary infections, particularly interstitial pneumonia, that are the killers.
ReplyDeleteOnce the secondaries reach the 'looks like walking pneumonia' stage, it's time to hike up to the doc and get treated for the lung problem and then sweat it out.
Some people... you could scare them with a drawing of a virus.
And there is another factor I've discerned over the years....if you live long enough something is going to kill you. ---ken
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Despite appearances, there is no such thing as Zero risk.
ReplyDeleteThere is no scientific support for most of the restrictions currently imposed by government, particularly those involving numbers.
There is evidence showing that some of the restrictions, such as mask mandates, are actually counterproductive, but few 'experts' are willing to admit they don't know how to handle a pandemic in modern society.
Note: This is still being called a Pandemic because it doesn't meet the legal definition of Epidemic.
I looked into that "Brownian motion" to further edify myself and now I understand why when the wife and I go to the big city to see the in-laws and go to one of those giant malls I can never find her where she says she will be. --ken
ReplyDeleteLife is a full contact sport. Have good medical insurance. :-)
ReplyDelete