In the Movies
We’ve all seen a movie like this. The world is faced with some incredibly awful crisis, say, a global pandemic or alien invasion. At first, we struggle to find a way to work together, and it looks like the entire globe will be consumed. Funeral pyres burn in the streets – the ancient nursery rhyme of plague, “Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posey, ashes, ashes, all fall down,” has immediate meaning.
Then science finds an answer, and the world joins together to end the crisis. The final scene, looks like the last scene from “Independence Day”, where folks all over the world celebrate the victory over the dark forces they faced.
Can’t we just skip to the end of the movie?
Science
The science is simple. However COVID 19 came about – whether from some bat meal in the wet market of Wuhan, or a more nefarious mistake by the Chinese lab there, it’s out. Over 152 million cases are confirmed worldwide, probably only a tenth of the real number of infections. More than 3.2 million have died, with more being added every day. Here in the United States we suffered the worst casualties (so far) at just under 600,000 dead, but we seem to have “turned the corner”.
The vaccines are near miraculous, something from “a movie” where what normally takes years is compressed into minutes – like the 1995 film “Outbreak”. They work: 95% effective against catching the virus, and near 100% at keeping the virus from causing hospitalization or death.
And they are out here in the US – readily available at your local pharmacy, grocery store, or Wal Mart.
Politics
There is the answer – we should be smoking the big cigars like Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. Everyone gets vaccinated and the virus stops spreading. The big risk isn’t the current virus, it’s a future virus that could mutate from the current strains of COVID-19. And how do we stop those mutations?
If there are fewer people with the virus, there are fewer opportunities for the virus to mutate. So if we can vaccinate a high percentage of humans (not just Americans) we can control COVID-19 – period.
This is not a question about “personal freedom”. And it’s not the stupid comment often made: “well if you get vaccinated then I don’t have to, since you can’t give me the disease”. COVID-19 did not have a candidate for President in 2020, nor does it favor Republicans or Democrats today. It is an equal opportunity virus and you can get it regardless of your political ideology. Basically, like the measles, if we don’t want COVID-19 around we have to take care of it. WE ALL NEED TO BE VACCINATED.
Vaccines
Like the measles vaccine, there are a few who cannot tolerate vaccination. Those few need the rest of us vaccinated to protect them. But more importantly, at least 80% of us need to be vaccinated to reach “herd immunity”, when the virus stops spreading and, (to quote the President, “This is the big f**king deal”) has less chance of mutating.
So, when do we get to the part where we unite as a world to put the now-known science into effect? We know there are four vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Astra-Zeneca, that work well. There are others we aren’t so sure of. We don’t have the studies to determine how effective or safe Russia’s “Sputnik” and China’s “Sinovac” are. But all the vaccines are out there, and there are more coming.
Save the World
What’s stopping us from the world-saving, cigar-smoking moment? Well here in the United States, it’s not science. It’s the use of fear for political benefit. And it’s also that the Trump plan, named for another heroic show, “Operation Warp Speed”, was to make vaccines for AMERICA. We didn’t prepare for the world. How was a vaccine (Pfizer and Moderna) that needs storage at 70 below zero going to be used world-wide?
So the “plot line” of this particular disaster film is far from completed. We have reached that turning point in the movie – when the heroes figure out how to stop the catastrophe. But now we have to deliver, to actually save the world and earn the medals and the cigars. That hasn’t happened yet. Sure we in the United States can go back to restaurants and ball games, and even concerts. But the funeral pyres are burning now in India. And we can’t stop COVID-19 unless we stop it everywhere.
Otherwise – “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down”.
