In this time of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic – coupled with the ubiquitous social media pressure, postings like this are meant not only to catch our eye but to elicit a response. We are being asked to see how extraordinary the impact of the virus is on all of us and at the same time being urged to somehow take sides. Even the most reticent of us are being asked to offer an opinion. And as the pandemic rages into it’s third (or is it it’s fourth) wave, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to keep our reactions under control.
Until recently I must confess, I did not quite know the difference between the expression liberal or conservative at least to the extent I now know today. Until recently I was not sure if a liberal was left wing or right wing. For the record in case more of you have had the same problem, liberals are generally left wing and conservatives are generally right wing. What has become increasingly clear to me is that the world is polarizing more and more to one or the other end of that left/right pendulum. And with that polarization comes a divide that threatens to break up even the closest of families and tightest of communities.
After the second world war, there was a rise in what was known as the middle class. A group who represented the workers sandwiched between the rich and the poor. A group that was not so much liberal or conservative but mainly plain simple folks. This is not to say the middle class did not have opinions, it was just that their aspirations for creating a good life for them, and their families meant meeting each day and each issue (socially and financially) with a degree of collective caring. This group had a concept that I believe went towards the greater good of the community. At least I think that can be said for much of the Canadian middle class. I know not everything was perfect and not all middle-class people were stellar citizens, but generally speaking, I believe there was a basic sense of the need for day-to-day respect.
I’ve lost the reference, but I recently read a quote from an indigenous source that pointed out that the left and the right wings on birds are in fact joined by the body. It occurred to me that, perhaps likes the birds’ body, the middle class represented, for a number of us, the body of the worldwide civilization. Sadly, as even the middle class seems to be torn toward one wing or the other, it has become pretty damaging to the body as a whole. It seemed to get harder to think of the expression: We are all in this together”.
It was often thought that the Hippocratic oath contained the phrase “first do no harm”. According to Wikipedia there was also a second phrase found in Epidemic 1 that said “practice two things when dealing with disease…Either help or do no harm to the patient. When doctors take their physicians oath, I still believe that one of the fundamental tenants is “first do no harm”. From what I understand, it is meant to remind them that everything in the body has a place and a purpose and that even the best of treatments/drugs, if mishandled, can turn from being a cure for one part of the body to something with a deadly consequence to another part.
I learned this firsthand when my wife was dying of Cancer. I was given a potent drug to inject periodically to relieve her pain. I was asked to manage the dosage wisely or it could kill her. As her Cancer spread and her pain got worse, the dosage, with approval from the nurses, was administered more frequently. It is a fine line to know when the management of pain can turn deadly. And yet with death inevitable, the cause/effect at some point becomes a moot point.
It would seem with the pandemic and the influence of the unstructured, unfettered use of social media, has come at approximately the same time as the dramatic decline of the middle class. With that decline, Covid-19 is forcing many of us to examine our individual opinions and our reactions to the recommendations associated with face masking, hand washing and taking the vaccines. Similar in many ways to my wife’s “pain dosage”, it is hard for us to tell which choices are enough and what choices are too much. And yet with Covid prevention, if not the cure at hand in the form of vaccines, the left and the right, the liberals, and the conservatives, the rich and the poor are arguing about what “dosage” to administer – Sometimes not for the good of the community, but for individual interests. It is as if we believe that we can fly on just one wing.
Perhaps we can agree that by taking the vaccine, we have an opportunity to protect the more vulnerable in our community who are less likely to survive if they catch the virus?
Perhaps we can agree that the vaccines downside, calculated at 0.005% of vaccinated people, does not really give many of us the option to opt out – if in doing so, we risk infecting the rest of their community?
Perhaps we can agree that the doctors and nurses and other emergency caregivers, who have now been working on the front lines for over 500 straight days, need a break? The truth is that their only relief will be a more highly vaccinated community. If we persist in staying unvaccinated then we represent the 99% of the people still being treated by these tired and overworked medical professionals.
Our personal life decisions for one of the first times in our lives, could be about what is best, for not just us, but for our community. Perhaps to that end we should all take a pledge to think of ourselves as part of a larger entity? Does it make sense for all of us to step up. To think: “first do no harm” and if so, get on with getting ourselves vaccinated?
If we cannot bring ourselves to listen to the logic and science, that tells us how to protect ourselves and those around us, perhaps those who can’t, should be prepared to give up many of their rights to participate in the larger community?