It’s Always 9/11: You hold the key to love and fear all in your trembling hand

It’s spring. It can’t be legislated, it’s just the way of the world. Days are lengthening. New plants are pushing their green shots through the ground. Last year my zoom yoga instructor referred to our pandemic spring as “so beautiful and so sad”. Now we have another spring, just as beautiful, and I am tired as hell of sad.

Time to push up and out and around. Our essential workers are finally getting the vaccinations they deserve. In less than two weeks vaccinations will be available for all adults. Yet the scare factory is still working overtime. A few of their favorite tropes:

THE VARIANT–sounds like a horror movie, doesn’t it? Fact is, viruses mutate. All DNA mutates. Virus DNA mutates more frequently than human because they are a primitive life form and replicate so fast. At least 10 variants of the covid coronaviruses were circulating in Wuhan before they spread across the world. Some mutations can strengthen their host, most weaken it. We will always have variants; to hold this out as a bogeyman is to propose a never-ending pandemic world. The likelihood is that Covid 19 will mutate eventually into nothing more severe than a common cold. So why are we freaking out about variants? Most studies have shown that the current vaccines are holding up against the most potent of the current variants, also that human antibodies (from the vaccine or prior infection) can fight them off.

NOT EVERYBODY WANTS THE VACCINE–Nope. Not everyone does. That’s the consequence of living in a free world where people are in control of their own bodies. However, if people see that vaccination is safe, AND leads to not only protection from covid but the return of normal freedoms, they are a lot more likely to get the shot. Private entities–sports stadiums and music venues, say– are more than welcome to require proof of vaccination for entry if they choose.

CASES ARE ON THE RISE! —Yeah, because currently only a minority of the population is vaccinated, especially those essential workers and others likely to be out and about in less isolated situations. You can’t open up a locked down society and not expect a temporary rise in positive cases. The key is getting the vaccines out efficiently and equitably and maintaining precautions such as masking until that time. ( However, I will note that so far, states that have relaxed these protocols are not showing higher spike in cases than more regulated ones.)

We have spent way too long letting fear be society’s driver. Corny as it sounds, could we make a minor attempt to all get together (in the real world) and love one another?