Skip to main content

COVID ISN'T A GAME

 



The Russians invented it, we're playing it.

Do you remember Christopher Walken in Deer Hunter, the epic film about the absurdity of the Viet Nam War? That classic scene when Walken was forced to play Russian roulette for the entertainment of his captors had me flinching in my seat as he pulled the trigger.

When your life depends on chance, in Walken's case, 6 cylinders in a pistol chamber, one loaded, five empty. The chamber is spun around like a casino wheel, you aim the pistol at your temple and pull the trigger. 

You're playing the ultimate game of chance, if you win you live, if you lose you die. The odds are 6 to 1, not bad in Vegas, but are you willing to bet your life or your good health on it? Remember, in a game of chance, the odds favor the house.

Why am I going on like this? It's simple, I have family and friends who are rationalizing their protection against COVID, they're thinking that with such a small fraction of the community getting sick that I'm not likely to get infected any more than the common flu. This reasoning is fallacious, the common flu is not likely to kill you but COVID is like that bullet in a 6 round cylinder, and the odds are stacked against you.

Why play that game when the alternative is so simple; Masks-Distancing-Hygiene. The real danger is crowding, the numbers in support of avoiding crowds, aka super-spreader events, are staggering! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

CHAOS REVISITED

  " a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order." Isn't four years of this enough, seriously? The constant media drumbeat, TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP, dominating the headlines, the news shows, and our conversation. This did not happen by accident, this was a calculated strategy by a certified narcissist. "Narcissism:  a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others." The Trump supporters say that "this is just Trump being Trump" that, my friends, is precisely the problem. Now that he's lost the election and his sycophants in Congress have replaced their horns with silence, if not acceptance, wouldn't you think the man would suck it up, acknowledge the inevitable, exhibit a modicum of humility and devise an exit strategy that would highlight his accomplishments not feed his  addi...

A NEW NORMAL, OR IS IT?

The more things change, the more they stay the same,  “plus ça  change , plus c'est la même chose “ – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849 COVID-19 is raging across the country, case counts are setting new records day after day with deaths a lagging indicator. President-Elect Joe Biden is on course to put the nation's health #1 on his agenda with the appointment of a new commission to advise him on mitigation and containment strategy. Joe knows he's not a medical expert, much less a trained scientist, COVID is not a political issue it's a national health issue, it's an economic issue, it's a jobs issue. An election will not control COVID-19, science and leadership will.  We'll have a new administration but the same problem, what's needed is public acceptance of a strategy driven by science and common sense.  "Ah, is it just me or does anybody see The new improved tomorrow isn't what it used to be Yesterday keeps comin' 'round, it's just...

WAKE UP AMERICA

 Wake up to the crushing wave of new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths raging across America with abandon. Be honest, we, none of us, are taking this 2nd and more deadly wave of COVID-19 as seriously as we did in March. It was then that we scrambled for home delivery services, that we self-quarantined, that we stopped church, sports, concerts, movies, bars, restaurants, and in-store shopping.  The pandemic slowed and almost stopped in places like NY, NJ, and CT. We stopped seeing our Doctor, delayed elective surgery, testing, and hospital visits. We discovered the ease and efficiency of online shopping and Zoom for family facetime. In a word, we changed our lives to preserve our physical health at the expense of our financial health. Now, what, we're entering the critical winter season when flu hits its peak, the forecast for new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are staggering and we're barely emerging from an economic recession if not a depression. The question rema...