A Year Later, Still Dealing with the Virus

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