We have a Jeep Liberty that has been parked for a couple of years. But we are finally making a move with it, getting some new tires and taking it to someone who can fix a few things that are wrong with it.
So, I think I will take it to my dentist.
Is that not a good idea? Well, how about I take it to Starbucks to see if a barista can fix it? Maybe a cook, or a shoe salesman?
Of course, none of these ideas makes any sense. Who in the world would take a vehicle to a dentist to get it fixed?
No one would. But who would listen to a TV talking head about the seriousness of a pandemic? Who would let a politician who is not a doctor or scientist and who doesn’t seem to listen to them tell you what can make you safe, or how serious things are?
I’m sorry, but during this COVID-19 crisis, I have been and will be listening to the doctors who actually know what they are talking about, and the scientists who have spent their distinguished careers studying viruses.
I will not listen to crazy people on social media, or pillow salesmen or even TV doctors who have apparently forgotten everything about medicine.
I will listen to the CDC director who said a second wave of this virus could be more devastating than the first, and not the Lt. Governor of Texas who said there are more important things than living.
Let’s be completely clear here: COVID-19 can kill you. It doesn’t care if you scream about your freedom and wave your flag and gather with your buddies to drink beers and hate on your governor. It can kill you.
But more importantly, you can spread it to other people and it can kill them. Even I am shocked by the groups of people who are protesting staying inside for a number of weeks to keep people from dying. This is not about your freedom – this is about life and death.
Can we just, for once, not make this about politics? This is not about left vs. right. This is not about teaching the cons or owning the libs. If you are looking at the pandemic this way, you are being played by screaming radio people and TV talking heads and politicians with something to gain.
Let’s be clear: This pandemic would be much, much worse if people were going about their normal daily lives. If you don’t understand that, you are listening to the wrong people.
The numbers change daily, of course, but more than 40,000 people have died from the virus and about 800,000 have contracted it. About 35,000 people in our state alone have it. Imagine what those numbers would be if people went about their business?
Thankfully, it does not kill most people who are infected. That is great news. But do you want to take chance of getting it yourself, or infecting your child, or parent or grandparent? Do you want to be responsible for their death because you feel like you are secretly being oppressed?
We live in a society where we have to rely on each other. We have to try and work together for a greater good. Going out and protesting in large groups during a pandemic is not being a responsible member of society. It is being a selfish and potentially deadly.
There has been a story in the news last couple of days about a man who complained on social media about this lockdown trampling on his rights and said only idiots would believe there was no “political agenda” behind all of this.
Less than a month later he was dead from COVID-19. He is not the only example of this, and that just makes me sad. If they had listened to what the experts were saying, they could be alive today.
Please, let’s be smart and listen to the doctors who study these types of viruses and who actually know what they are talking about. It can and will save an untold number of lives.
