Where Are We and How Did We Get Here?

I keep hearing, “When this is over….” or “When we get back to normal…” I may have even uttered this myself a time or two. There will come a time, when regular folk decide the risk to “breaking the shutdown” outweighs the benefits of not passing a virus. We’ve been passing viruses amongst ourselves for thousands of years, but this one, it has been deemed as the “mother of all viruses” which will dwarf all pandemics heretofore. No event in American History has led us to take the measures we are currently imposing, nationwide, whether upon ourselves, or by mandate from a government authority. Not the Revolutionary war, not the Civil War (when the Constitution was suspended and Martial Law declared), not WW1, the Great Depression, Spanish Flu, Pearl Harbor and WW2, not 9-11, H1N1, or MERS. Nothing even comes close to what we’re doing now. When this Covid 19 pandemic, becomes endemic (it’s never going away, folks) and is routinely passed among us, just as the flu has been for centuries, we will, as a population, have built up what is being called “herd immunity” by journalism and medical professionals. That is, a natural immunity acquired from exposure by either vaccine, or by viral contact. So then, what happens when the next “pandemic” occurs? (And there will be another! There always is.) Precedence, people. Precedence has been set. “Normalcy” of January 2020 is never to be seen again. So what are we bowing down to? Science? Caution? Fear? Tyranny? Are we going to shut down everything every time this Covid virus comes back around? Will we cower in our homes when the next foreign biological threatens us? Can a periodic shutdown of our economic engine be endured and restarted repeatedly? Every year? Economics doesn’t work like a car engine…Fire it up at will when I want it, and turn it off when I don’t need it. It’s more like the old steam locomotive: Fill the boiler with water, fill the furnace with fuel, light the fire and wait for hours until steam pressure builds, add more fuel to the fire, watch the water level and make sure you have a water tank somewhere along your road to pick up more water and fuel for the fire. It’s a process. How long until the busted economy causes ill health to our health care system, and our citizens, whether by lack of proper nutrition, lack of medicine, or by increased substance abuse, criminal activity, domestic violence, or all the above? How long? Are you ready for the answer?