Chinese Death Virus again.

I think the thing I hate most about this terrible virus from Wuhan, besides what it does to people who contract it, is how it makes us all look at our friends and families as harbingers of doom, monsters crawling with death. It makes the simplest in-person human transaction into a threat.

Of course here in the southern stretch of the Empire State, where a combination of a large and close population and corrupt morons for leaders has led to the worst outbreak in the nation, we have more reason than other Americans to feel this way. I mentioned we had dinner guests on Saturday; they showed up wearing masks, not presuming to go maskless until we assured them we didn't mind. It hadn't occurred to me to make the same offer to them, but that's where we are. On Sunday I was at a church group meeting in person for the first time since late winter, and we sat around, spaced apart, masks on and hand sanitizer near the door. I can't get used to this and I hope I never do. 

I told my wife I'd just as soon get the damned disease and get immune to it, but she pointed out that that was A) stupid and B) possibly no help since there was a reinfection case in the news and C) definitely no help because things were not going back to normal just because I got sick and recovered. 

I'm trying not to look at this in any political way, but of course it's hard not to, because since the Baby Boomers preached that the personal is political in the sixties, every goddamn thing has to be political. People lash out with political messages about this and hide behind science, unaware that the science about this disease is far from settled and changing frequently (a blind spot I see even in the medical press). The most common memes I've seen of this variety are stoopid Trump supporters who refuse to mask up. Well, you can't attack political opponents and then pretend it's not political. 

On the other hand, many people think the whole mask up / quarantine / damn the economy / close everything movement will end the day after Joe Biden's election to the presidency. I suspect not, but who knows. Public health professionals certainly did not inspire trust by claiming that bigotry was more dangerous than the virus; not only did they veer out of their lane by making a public health statement outside their area of expertise, they ran right into the guardrail. Why the hell should anyone trust them now? The personal is political, because people like that made it so.

"Trust me. I wear glasses."

I guess what bothers me the most is that everything, every single stupid thing, that comes down the pike has to be a means for Americans to attack one another. This is not confined to the Left. But I have noted before that the only historical Americans that the Left likes are Americans who fight other Americans, not the enemies of America. It's one reason we don't get many war pictures anymore, but there always seems to be another freaking Joe McCarthy movie in the works.