Anybody Out There?

I sit down in front of this keyboard with the intent of writing something that will unequivocally change people's minds about masks, COVID, and vaccinations. I look for proof that will be undeniable, and then I realize the well into which I am shouting. This is not a subject which allows rational discussion or debate. 

Because we are afraid. We are all terrified. We are nearly two years into a pandemic that has changed the way all of us view the world and those around us. So much of the sickness and death could have been avoided. And it still could be, if only we weren't so scared. Fear and ignorance are great friends, and can usually be found wandering the earth side by side. The perfect storm of the 2020 census and a plague has white folks in America chilled to the bone. For the first time on record, the white population dropped in the United States. No matter that white folks still make up sixty-one percent. That's down ten points in a decade. 

It's only a matter of time. Never mind that non-white people are twice as susceptible to the disease as their white counterparts, the fear is already here, and each right wing radio host that succumbs to the virus just makes the fear grow. 

What is the solution? Get vaccinated? Wear a mask? Follow federal guidelines? Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? All you left-wing multicultural "scientists." It's a trap. You want us all to be magnetized wi-fi transmitters for the coming invasion. Trump is our president and there is no such thing as climate change. Don't make me look at science or math. It will only lead me back to the conclusion that our time at the top is ending. 

The most difficult part for those outside this bubble is not falling prey to the fear ourselves. The threat posed by large assemblages of anti-vax/mask/reality abusers is a potential threat to us all. Each new infection is a dozen possible contacts. A hundred possible transmissions. A variant that is more resistant to the vaccines and countermeasures we already have in place. Worse yet, denial is almost as easy to pass along as germs. Bad information travels faster than good information because it's almost always easier to digest. Being a martyr for a cause that no one understands is preferable for some. 

And the hits just keep coming. 

Wear a mask. Get a shot. Quit living in fear.