COVID-19 has been ravaging the human family for over a year. December, 2019 was the time that it was officially known to be active, and the period since then has been fraught with all types of assaults.
Worldwide to date, there have been 124 million cases with 2.72 million deaths. In the United States there have been 29.9 million cases with 542 thousand deaths. The United States has more fatalities than any other country on the planet. The country with the next highest number is Brazil with 12 million cases and 294 thousand deaths.
The virus has attempted to “KO” the world, but we are fighting back. Several vaccines have been developed at breakneck speed and deployed in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus. Though there are a number of people who are extremely skeptical about these vaccines, it is generally believed that they are better than nothing and that they are excellent weapons against the spread of the virus.
It is thought that a kind of “herd immunity” will result if a high enough number of people are vaccinated. To date in the U.S., we are in the range of 100 million Americans who have been vaccinated. This has infused a certain level of optimism in fighting the disease, but something else has since happened: variants.
Just when we thought we saw light at the end of the tunnel, it has been announced that there are more than three variants of the virus. Some of them are considered to be more easily transmitted than COVID-19, and there is no information about how effective, if at all, the current vaccines will be in fighting them. This complicates matters exponentially.
You would think that faced with this army of viruses that are in full attack mode on humanity, everyone would be on board to battle against it. This, unfortunately, is not the case.
The virus has human allies. The chief weapons, aside from vaccinations, are to comply with several very simple directives which have proven to be effective: wear masks; social distance; and avoid gathering in large groups. You would think that everyone would follow these simple guidelines since they don’t cost a huge amount of money or require physical effort. But no, an incredibly large number of Americans, in particular, refuse to follow these simple suggestions.
Moreover, in addition, many people refuse to even consider the notion of getting vaccinated. To a certain extent, it is understandable why some people are hesitant to get vaccinated due to the semi-experimental nature of the process. But what has been assured is that vaccinations can reduce the virulence of the infection and reduce the number of fatalities. These points alone should be enough to offset what would certainly be the alternative – death.
One other important adversary in the quest to battle the virus is the meme circulated by people in high positions that the notion of the virus is a hoax.
There are people equating it with the flu, to 5G cellphone tower radiation, or blaming it on a cabal of conspirators whose main goal is that of taking away American freedoms. The result is the creation of a “COVID-19 army” that is serving as allies in the spread of the virus.
They are eschewing all prevention protocols and are endangering others. It is as though they are hypnotized; they don’t seem to know, or WANT to understand, that the measures that are in place are there for the protection of others as well as themselves. They refuse to acknowledge the connectedness of the human family.
They are the contrarians, many of whom are aligned with Donald Trump and his cadre of anti-science sycophants. But there are also others, including some African Americans, who for some reason have joined the COVID-19 army by helping it to spread.
The good news is that we have a strong anti-COVID ally in the White House.
President Joe Biden and his team are doing an excellent job in fighting the spread of the virus. They are ensuring that the greatest number of people possible are vaccinated and are spreading accurate information regarding prevention measures.
According to research from the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, for the pandemic to end the virus must reach a point where it cannot easily find hosts to catch it and spread it further.
This is why it is so important for as many people as possible to comply with prevention guidelines. Those who have joined the COVID-19 army, however, need to be either convinced of their wrongdoing, OR be avoided! A Luta Continua.
