Winsome Sings Love in the Time of Corona

When the big Covid scare began in earnest about the middle of March 2020, the media did what it does best. It took every scrap of bad news, every dark projection, every negative statistic and splashed its doomsday headlines over every news outlet it had. On top of that, its commentators (notice I did not say experts) urged everyone to go out and buy toilet paper, paper towels, canned and dried beans, rice, flour etc. as if the world may end tomorrow.

These are snippets from an NPR News Article March 14, 2020:

Across the U.S., hand sanitizer, toilet paper, sanitation wipes, and canned goods have been flying off the shelves as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to climb... panic-buying gripping shoppers...cleaning surfaces such as checkout lanes and touch screens at least every 30 minutes... placing sales limits on products like hand sanitizer, toilet paper, disinfectant wipes, and bottled water...diapers, household cleaners, and packaged bread and rolls.

Chains have also begun rolling out new hours of operation in order to clean stores and restock supply.

The politicians, following the lead of the media, (I know, the "leaders" doing the "following") did what they do best. They took absolute control and placed as many restrictions upon the people, businesses, schools and churches as they could think of "for the good of the people." As Ronald Reagan once said: "The most terrifying words in the English language is 'We're the government and we're here to help.'"

In my perfect world, the media who suggest inflammatory practices such as rushing out and buying, leading to panic and unnecessary hoarding of available goods, would be fined billions of dollars for the damage done to the economy. If we had all just bought what we needed as usual, there would be plenty on the shelves, the manufacturers would not be overwhelmed, and the regular supply lines would be speeding along our highways as usual.

Also in my perfect world, politicians who summarily bring to a crashing halt the small businesses (who create 90% of the income to the government and 90% of the jobs) without first thinking of creative ways to do business in a safe way should be forced to be without a job themselves and forced to stay home without any promise of a job in the future.

In my imagined world, we could create safe haven communities that have all the necessities of comfortable living. Those living there could go through a quarantine period and then all coming to the SHC (safe haven community) would be quarantined before coming in and if residents leave, they also would go through quarantine before returning. Imagine. Movies together, church together, parties together, sports together and best of all, NO MASKS. Life in the SHC would be pre 2020 carefree.

If there is no cure for this thing, then it is probable that every person on the planet will eventually contract it and the numbers will be the numbers. If that is true, some say we should treat the virus as a more dangerous case of measles or chicken pox and everybody get it and get through it and get over it. They believe there would be less deaths that way than the prolonged version we are all going through. Then the economy could right itself, life would go on as before and the world would enter a new, prosperous and creative era. What do you think? If the numbers are going to be the same, would you want to have it all happen at once and get it over with or live a masked, distanced, prisoner kind of life and have it happen over a period of years?

C.S. Lewis wrote an essay about mass fear in 1948 which eerily resembles our present time. I merely replaced "atomic bomb" with "coronavirus."

In one way we think a great deal too much of the coronavirus. “How are we to live in a pandemic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids (terrorism), an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the coronavirus was discovered: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have discovered one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by the coronavirus, let that sentence when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about the virus. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
— CS Lewis “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays