The world, especially the USA, had the beast under the net,
but somehow we allowed it to get free. A year and a half after the beginning of
the pandemic, we are now officially living with the virus.
I don’t know if we as a country were always this way or
whether Trump just released all our demons, but the government is now more
polarized than ever. Maybe the whole
thing started with the election of former President Obama. Many in the country saw that as a slap in the
face. Even Mitch McConnel, the majority
leader of the US Senate, vowed to block everything President Obama proposed to
make him a “one-term president.” He did
get elected twice, but the country took a giant political swing. We ended up
with the polar opposite, Donald Trump. The
arrival of social media unleashed the ability of everyone to express their opinion
and often under the disguise of a pseudonym.
Emotions reached a culmination on January six of this year when many Trump
supporters stormed the Capitol. They were
looking for anyone in power. They were mainly looking for VP Pence as he was
affirming the results of the November 2020 election. A sad period in our history and a reminder
that we are just like the rest of the world and not an inch above anyone else.
Another casualty of the times has been the disregard for
science and knowledge. Trump airing the
concept of “alternate truths” instigated the idea that whatever you want to
believe in, it is okay because that’s what you believe. No need for data or knowing how to interpret
data. Anyone’s ideas are just as good as
gospel, and as long as you can verbalize them, that makes them sound. Being a scientist since my earlier days, this
lack of regard for knowledge and the process of acquiring this knowledge makes
me sick and intolerant when I hear folks promoting ill-acquired information and
when some put more weight on superstition and their beliefs than what comes out
of the peer-reviewed medical journals and spokespersons.
I am moving on. I
also have my views and ways of looking at the world. I believe in science and am happy to trust fellow
scientists when they bring their ideas forth.
I don’t expect the ultimate truth.
In science, we know that scientific discoveries are only good as long as
they reflect the latest understanding of the scientific community. Two months or two decades later, that same
concept is passed and replaced with the newest information from competing scientific
teams. That’s the nature of
learning. That’s the way science grows
in understanding and knowledge. I don’t
get upset that one day someone says the virus is transmitted by touching
contaminated surfaces. The next minute someone finds that only two percent of
the infections are because of touching contaminated surfaces. The first was a good guess of how it could
happen; the second comes about after reviewing the data and further
investigation. It’s okay; the truth is
not written in stone to never be erased; the truth is only as good as the data
that supports it.
We have learned a whole lot about this virus. We now can go about our lives, thanks to vaccines
and thanks to the experience we just went through. It would make sense. But not to everyone. A large segment of our society questions everything
that does not agree with what they have built as their truth. I don’t know where this is going to take us,
but I am terrified
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