OUR UNEASE WITH DISEASE

Nothing like a plague to get people face to face with their disease phobias. And COVID-19 is no exception.

The fear of disease is hard-wired and functional. Being incapacitated by a disease, even in our First World safety, brings a descent into a life of complications and unplanned expenses. Those most devastated by this are those who have had considerably lucky lives, free of disability or trauma. In our generally sanitized and prosperous society in the U.S.A., that healthy population is probably the largest it has been in history. Or was, before COVID-19.

"Modern plague" sounds like an oxymoron, but it isn't. We have seen relatively recent outbreaks of Ebola and SARS, which had pandemic potential. HIV/AIDS has killed millions worldwide. The minimization of the potential for all human beings to be exposed to any deadly disease has been a political model globally. Why? Because panic and desperation are far deadlier than any virus or bacterium in our densely populated world. The violence of mass hysteria is not easily treated without increasing the death toll considerably.

Mass communications have proven effective in a new way with COVID-19. The threat of militaristic control to diminish the range of epidemic has been proven unnecessary in the U.S.A.. A wise use of broadcast, streaming and social media has employed a public-education model effectively. However, I give credence to some critics who say that the CDC has practiced overreach in lieu of developing a strategy whereby the country could still function at better partial capacity while screening and individual quarantine are in place. 

Our unease with disease may make us more likely to buy into this public-education initiative and public-health approach. At least, initially. However, our unease with the consequences may eventually measure much greater. We have already lost much of the hard-work ethic in our developed nations. We have turned to immigrants to do that hard labor in many areas. Paying people not to work in an unproductive economy makes no sense financially, even if it does politically and sociologically. 

Like The Great Depression of nearly a century ago, this crisis will yield inevitable hardship. The lethality of that hardship is now incalculable. It will be measurable only with time.