Been writing for awhile a piece on covid. Thought I'd share it here.
I think, maybe, one of the constructive ways that people with various perspectives can look at the present situation is to think deeply, instead of specifically. When they don't agree on what constitutes reliable evidence the dialogue inevitably fails, because of the ensuing conflict based on source & fact credibility. But, I think if you can transcend covid specific data that either side might view as politicised or fraudulent, the underlying principles can be a meeting place.
Here's a take on covid with no covid statistics, or covid data.. Thanksgiving 2019 I was having a pre - dinner walk with my 1 year old dog Tucker. I was enjoying the pretty fall decorations and quaint homes. On my way back, in my peripheral vision, I sensed a pair of eyes on me. Instinctually I scanned, and rescanned, eventually seeing the silhouette of a very large dog standing on the porch of a house I was walking past. At first I thought it might be a statue because it was so strangely still. Within seconds though he was moving like an apparition toward us, down the steps and onto the street, his footfalls and presence utterly soundless. I remember distinctly the process my mind went through at that moment -what's happening-is something bad happening-no nothing bad is happening-yes this is bad-no it isn't, yes, no. My mind's quest for hope and my guttural hunch started dueling. The next thing I knew my dog and I were both brought down, and what had been a deafening silence turned into the most incredible soundtrack of fury I'd ever heard in my life. I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha's 'Wild Kingdom', and this was totally different than even the lion episodes. Much of what happened after this point is a fuzzy jumble. I remember a rotating awareness of things in what felt like a dream state - I need to save my dog - I can't see my dog- this is the hugest dog I have ever seen - very white teeth - start strangling the dog - strangling isn't working. The Silver Bullet sound reel, and the feel of his shaggy hair in my fingers, as I tightened them around his neck, stand out most today. I am a pescatarian, afterall.
I did not know at the time that I was screaming, but apparently I was. This alerted the owners to the fact that their dog had escaped it's chain link enclosure. Needless to say, I'm still here, and so is my dog, and neither of us is permanently disfigured. But it has cost me in money, and in other ways related to the life my family and I previously enjoyed with our dog. My dog will never be the same again. My main response to this experience was to try to figure out what happened. I haven't had a dog in decades. Is this a reality I might face again? I committed to learning about all things dog related (and prevention), particularly when it became clear to me this may not be an isolated event. My dog was attacked, tragically, two more times by off leash dogs within the year, and we had even more close calls. My parents also within that year, in their 80's, had another elderly couple over to their home and the same thing happened while entertaining in their backyard. Their lady friend was taken down along with her small dog, by a retriever that appeared out of nowhere, and disappeared just as suddenly. Her dog didn't fare as well as mine, but the lady was ultimately okay though she was mauled.
I hired a dog training expert in my area, spoke with by-law officers for animal control. Technically, you cannot protect yourself from a dog here, because you cannot carry weapons of any kind. You must instead call 911 and get law enforcement to help. (This brings into question for me gov. concern for my safety - but that's a separate issue.) I started piecing together a picture of what I was dealing with. Let me preface what I'm about to share, by saying that I love my dog, and I love dogs (and animals) in general. I think a dog is one of the finest companions that mankind has ever known. My dog is a part of my family. But when you start looking into it, Great White sharks look like Bambi compared to the damage dogs put on humans the world over. Aside from venomous snakes and mosquitoes, dogs kill more humans than any other animal on earth. 35,000 a year - that we know of. In the US, 4.5 million people a year are attacked by dogs. Almost 1000 people a day go into an ER to get treatment for dog attack injuries. The fatalities are small, relatively speaking, but they are notable. It's definitely a bad way to go. Adding to this, there has apparently also been a 300% increase in dog attacks since 2020.
This is something to consider in light of the time in which we're living, and the discussion about risks people's choices pose to other people. The subject descends into all aspects of our lives, from the beverages we drink to the pets people choose. My street alone has 2 'red zone' dogs, one which once escaped. Does the law have a right to confiscate/terminate their dogs because they
might escape and harm me or someone else? It would make me feel better for sure, but would it be right? Many dogs qualify as potential safety risks, especially to the people who don't feed them. The question then becomes what might taking punitive action against anyone doing or having something that
could be a risk lead to? How would automobiles fit into this? Or alcohol? I'm not attempting to present any particular point of view here, but do a kind of surgical exploration of a complex matter. Is it wise to enact punitive measures against someone based on what they
might do or what
might happen
? Up until now, legal punishment could not be pre-emptive. You could not in the context of law punish someone for what they haven't done yet, or what they might do. A speedometer gauge could then be cause for punitive measures; a person
might speed or drive irresponsibly and
might harm or kill someone while doing that. Approximately
5, 419, 000 car crashes every year. Innumerable people have been killed by reckless drivers, or DUI drivers in the last half century. Any number of things fall under the umbrella of potential risks people pose to one another.
Conceivably, I could get covid. If I were to get it, I might inadvertently pass it on. But I also might not. I may never get it. Millions of people have not contracted covid, many more than those that have gotten it. There is no way to predict outcomes such as this; surely recommended precautions count for something, as they come highly enforced. That's two layers of only
possibility. (Most interestingly, and importantly, you can still catch covid, still pass it on, having been vaccinated.) If we start down the road of penalizing people for what they
might do, the harm they
might cause, it opens up a whole world of legal complexities. There would basically be no limit to enacting punitive measures on anyone for any reason, because so long as one possesses a body that is capable of holding a weapon, has a car, a dog, a chainsaw, a hammer, septic system etc. All fall under the umbrella of possible threat. It is notable too that historically in the era of eugenics, forced sterilizations was once an acceptable means of pre-emptively protecting society. The offspring of an 'undesirable person' was considered a significant and unreasonable risk to the safety of the 'public good' as a book espousing the topic once described it.
Then there is the question of risk in the other direction. Even putting aside reports of vaccine injuries and deaths, because that would inevitably lead again in the direction of debate about source reliability, we know a few things about medical protocols in general. That there isn't one that is safe for everyone - not even antibiotics, which has saved incalculable lives. For some people, antibiotics are fatal. Then there are antibiotic resistant pathogens - 750, 000 fatalities worldwide/year & rising - having evolved as a result of the lifesaving antibiotics themselves. Taking antibiotics, then, even poses risks to others in the long term. Clearly, long term effects are worth considering rather seriously. There are many allopathic tools that can go either way. Some are saved by surgery, some die during it. What is safe for one, is not safe for another, even things as seemingly benign as milk, eggs, fish and aspirin - all in the top 5 of anaphylactic triggers.
Might losing freedoms - any of them - be a greater risk than keeping them and the costs that come with them? Even when the cost might be lives? The 2nd amendment comes to mind for example. So long as people have guns, they will be used by people to harm other people. It's inevitable. The amount of lives saved by firearms must be calculated in as well, though not so easy to provide data on. The heart of the covid issue is the quest for perfect solutions in an imperfect world, without wanting any trade offs. Sometimes, solutions are worse than the problems they are supposed to solve. Gun laws are often debated after a school shooting, but drowning accounts for many more fatalities in kids (about 4,000 vs. 54 per year). Should pools and beaches be banned? Dr. Thomas Sowell once said that 'the mark of maturity is being able to weigh one thing against another, in an imperfect world'. In the case of DDT, after Rachel Carson's infamous book, countries around the world ceased to employ it, even those that had been using it in relatively small amounts. Ending the use of DDT may have been a good thing, it may have been a bad thing - that isn't the question or answer. The fact is it was the means by which malaria was being controlled in Africa and ending the use of DDT ultimately resulted in the death of
millions of people. The death toll has been so high, that in 2006 the WHO (no matter what you think of them) began recommending the use of DDT once again for use in people's homes. Even more, the WHO now states that DDT never posed any risk to human health, or the environment. That kind of switch up gives one pause, considering the lives that were and are at stake. And brings to mind the idea of powerful institutions imposing solutions on people that seem good & righteous, but may be incorrect, or dangerous. Institutions that pay no price for being wrong. Solutions that 'feel good' may have consequences that don't.
For anyone interested in the topic of 'dangerous safety' here 's an interesting article written in 2002.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2002-08-02-0208010717-story.html
:
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but perhaps we have topped out on the new case amounts, we'll see what the next few weeks bring...
