On COVID-19 and ourselves

“An average of 1,033 people have died every day since the first known death in February. … Nearly 80% of deaths occur in people over age 65.”
As I watch the pictures on TV of the young people enjoying themselves on beaches and in bars part of me slightly envies their freedom. I am 68. I am in that group with a high death rate should I contract COVID-19. They are free to carouse because they have such a low chance of death. And, they do not care if they pass it on to others.

On the other side are the older people who argue freedom and refuse to wear masks. Some of them have a fatalistic attitude, but most of them, like the young, assume that they will not be part of the percentage that dies. They also do not care if they pass it on.

But, this is the Bible Belt. The percentage of people here who are pro-life is higher than in other regions of the country–with some exceptions. What I have found out through this is what I had already strongly suspected. The people here are not truly pro-life and willing to be ascetical for several months in order to flatten the curve. How many of you remember that now impossible concept?

The people here are merely anti-abortion; and, as in many other parts of the United States, they are pro-me. As soon as the pressure of the lockdown got to them, they caved and cared not for others. Now it must be admitted that in part it was because the government support programs lavished major money on businesses rather than families.

What I did not see were any of the storied behaviors from the time of the Great Depression. Neighbor helping neighbor has not really been seen, except in a few cases. All those feel-good stories that were told to say that poverty may not be as bad as some say went right down the drain when “we” had to feel that pain. Why, as the stories went, poor people do not really need telephones or cable TV or microwaves! Except that when it hit us that we might actually have to live that way, we caved and we began chanting “freedom” as fervently as any demonstrator on the street.

And, so, COVID-19 has begun to expand. As of this morning, 128,000 have died in the USA of COVID-19. That is 25% of the deaths in the world from COVID-19, but, of course, we no longer care. At least we no longer read those who were saying at the beginning that this is no worse than the regular flu. And, little by little, we are hearing less from the people who played with math to show that the vast majority of the world will survive, so there is no problem. I just wonder at the end, when the final death toll is known, whether we will just shrug our shoulders and say that this is merely the price of doing business? What we have shown in this pandemic is our lack of ascetical and moral character. There is no American greatness or exceptionalism to celebrate in how we have handled this pandemic.