COVID-19: Are we focusing on the wrong problem?
There we were, sitting
happily on the conveyor belt of life—when we were handed COVID-19. It’s a gift
right up there with a tinfoil hat for your cat. So far, there is no cure. So,
while leaders do a pole dance while trying to figure out how to put out this
dumpster fire, others pick up the baton of alcohol or watching Tiger King to
cope.
Having attended a
few global dumpster fires myself; I figure we’ll come out of this. It will change
the arch of society, however. Call me foolish, but I’m not panicking. Kudos to
“front-line” workers, and my condolences
to those who have lost loved ones. The rest of us continue to muddle through.
What have we
learned about ourselves so far?
Well for
starters, it’s amazing how many toilet paper jokes can be created in just a few
weeks. In fact, when we’re in a freefall, humour keeps us going like endless
cupcakes at a birthday party. Yum.
While funny videos and encouraging words have kept us buoyant, a long list of rumours, conjecture,
conspiracy theories and false cures promoted by weaponized social media have
not.
The conspiracy
theories are fascinating, intricate, believable and dead wrong. When we have no
solutions, wacky ideas may seem reasonable. It’s frustrating and has me out
front of my house yelling at the
moon in my bathrobe. I’m now a veteran moon yeller.
Cures include
things like making ginger tea, a skill I learned in Nepal, but that’s no cure
for the virus.
Then we have the
future ex-president of the U.S.A. promoting an unproven anti-malarial drug. I still
have some in my bag from previous trips—any takers?
As these folks
dance on the fringe of facts, I wonder if we have been seduced again by the
wrong crisis. Medical people have warned us about the potential for pandemics
over the years. But it seems that nobody listened. Now we have a torpedoed
economy.
It is possible
that Erasmus was right when in the 1400s he said: “Prevention is better than a cure.” But we’ve allowed
ourselves to save money on health-care prevention through cutbacks.
This is not
important just for this virus, but also for a host of other diseases and health
issues that afflict us. Maybe that is the real crisis? At the very least we
could spend more money encouraging Canadians to live healthier lives.
Is it possible
that the social safety net of which we are proud, is just that—a net with
webbing big enough to let people fall through? Like, for example, the elderly,
living in long-term care homes.
I remember
working in Sudan when one of the nurses told me, “We can get money for
emergency food or
disease outbreaks, but it’s harder to get money for overall, long-term
health care. It’s
not as sexy.”
We can blame China for this, but at the end of the day we can’t control others as
much as we can control ourselves. Health care is one way society protects
itself from large
medical bills, suffering and extinction. Or, we can continue the fantasy that
our system is fine.
“I have a dream,
a fantasy, to help me through reality.” – ABBA.
It makes a lot of sense.
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