Yes, the epidemic is real. However, the rate of coronavirus infection, Covid-19, is dwarfed by the rate of infection with the less publicized seehowworriediam virus, Goo Goo-12. Like others in the Goo Goo family, the pathogen is spread by listening to conventional and electronic media.
Some people are already saying that social distancing should become permanent – not just while the coronavirus runs its course, but forever. If it's good for the coronavirus it's good for the common cold, right? While we’re at it, let’s ban large public gatherings permanently. Someone might get sick. Holiday festivals, musical concerts, political rallies, worship services, sporting contests – mass events are just superspreaders of disease. Who needs them?
Maybe the agoraphobics have been onto something all these years. Popular culture is just another name for germ culture. Ugh.
I obey the law, and I am pretty careful. I could tell you about people who are demonstrably less cautious about infection than I am, but who are convinced that I must be reckless just because of my attitude toward public panic. My sin isn’t my behavior, but my beliefs. Since I have suggested that some of the most extreme and inconsistent social distancing rules reflect agendas having nothing to do with public health, they think that I ought to be isolated.
Some people think it is okay to visit all friends and relatives except those who think it is okay to visit friends and relatives.
Many writers have commented on the incredible level of hypocrisy among journalists and public officials who stand to gain from mass hysteria. But what does this hypocrisy tell us? Consider just two of the many examples.
What does it mean that a big city mayor threatens to put people in jail for congregating, shuts down a variety of businesses including beauty parlors, and then goes out to get her hair done? It means that she doesn’t believe the rules are really necessary.
So we must ask: What does she gain by imposing them?
And what does it mean that public officials in three of our largest states moved coronavirus patients into nursing homes, even though their hospitals were not overburdened? It means that they don’t much mind deaths among the weak and elderly.
So we must ask: If not protecting the most vulnerable, what could their objective be?
Reluctance to suspect bad motives without evidence is right and good. But refusing to pay attention to the evidence is merely blind.