1st World Luxuries In The Time Of Covid

Around a campfire spit with his 3^rd world host, Anthony Bourdain nibbled on freshly roasted local beast. His host asked, “I hear in America some people don’t eat meat.” With greasy fingers, Bourdain chewed another piece off the bone and grunted, “Yeah, it’s a first world luxury.”

I’ve thought about Bourdain’s comment while folks refuse Covid vaccinations. What a luxury, to be so safe and comfortable we have the emotional energy to get suspicious about nourishing sustenance and life-saving medicines, even imagining some are, in fact, poisons.

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 It’s a curious thing that the safer people are, the more petty dangers hover like a mirage in the road ahead.

 

And the tricks the media use to keep us tuned in amplify the curse.

 

A friend who once anchored local news jokingly told me, “If it bleeds, it leads.” And so they started each newscast with a menacing story, even if it had been a great day in the news; malfunctioning child car seats, suntan lotion destroying barrier reefs, unruly airline passengers, dangerous local intersections. There’s something to fear around every corner. Film at 11:00!

 

During President Obama’s 2^nd term, law enforcement research showed violent crime was at a near 30 year low in the U.S. At this precise time a FOX News-watching neighbor lamented to me that crime was out of control in America, that our cities and towns were cesspools of violence.

 

How could it be that that he felt most threatened in one of the safest times of his life? Because someone was feeding him fear everyday. All the fear mongering could actually be cherry-picked true stories that still added up to a misinformed mindset.

 

I’m one of those tiresome people who believe scientists who have actual credentials and run actual studies, who document their work and expose it to peer review. In that world, 90+% of scientist and doctors, people who’ve spent their entire lives researching pathogens and treating patients, it’s settled science that wearing masks dramatically protects against getting or transmitting Covid. It’s also settled science that Covid vaccines dramatically protect against getting Covid or having a dangerous reaction to it.

 

But at a recent school board meeting in Noblesville, when Dr. Jaime Stelzer, vice president of the American Academy of Pediatrics spoke to support that science, she was verbally attacked by anti-mask parents in the audience. Police had to escorted her to her car.

 

How fortunate we have the scientific and medical infrastructure enjoyed in America, one with a stellar record of success. The vast majority of other nations in the world can only dream of it. Yet, significant numbers of Americans have come to believe this infrastructure is lying and the real truth can be found elsewhere.

 

And so, as 3^rd World folks planet-wide beg for Covid vaccines, folks in the lap of luxury actually conjure a threat and tens of thousands of doses near their expiration date in red states with low vaccination rates.

 

Which raises the question: why is it that low vaccination states tend to be states that voted for Trump? Why is it those are the very states right now where ICU beds are near full. Next week, will people die in hallways and parking lots, waiting for a ventilator, or simpler yet, staff that can tend to them? 

 

And in a cruel twist of fate, this past week a 5th conservative talk show host, Bob Enyart of Denver, who spread misinformation about Covid and vaccines, died of Covid. This self-induced thinning of the heard will go down in history. 

 

That sounds way scarier than getting a vaccine shot. Nuttier still, many “Pro-life” folks, despite 630,000 Covid deaths and counting, refuse to get the vaccine, allowing it to mutate and become deadlier. Perhaps they’re more “Pro-birth” than “Pro-life.”

 

Some folks need a metaphorical gun to their heads before they can muster the intellectual energy to set aside emotion enough to know what to fear. 

 

Heard a doctor interviewed last week who said 9 out 10 patients in his ICU are unvaccinated and nearly every one is remorseful, begging for the vaccine. Facing a true threat has a funny way of  focusing attention on reality. But when you’re comfortable and disconnected from immediate threat you have the luxury of carefree, careless emotional, even political principles, as perhaps many of those 9 out of 10 had before they got sick.