CAUSE or EFFECT
Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020
Epidemic is the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period.
Flu season isn’t generally an epidemic.
Colds, measles, whooping cough, etc. --- these arrive and leave in various places. Sometimes they appear in local news when there is a higher than usual number of cases. We are, as a society, substantially immune or insulated from epidemics.
Not immune to those infections, but we’ve grown immune to thinking about them much or worrying.
But our sense is aroused when we see people in the NEWS wearing face-masks, we learn of quarantines and the spread of the causing virus sense concern through those who are listening and watching. Those who are out of touch, remote, or children – they are both ignorant of the news, they aren’t shuddering with concern about where they might go, what flight they might take, or who they might come in contact with. Why would they? We live in a very safe word.
They say, whoever they are, the first casualty of every war is truth.
History proves the severity and importance of things held-back, swept under proverbial rugs and obfuscated with mathematical precision wrapped in Hollywood-style hype.
Subject du jour?
China, in real-time, telling the world the current spin on how much they knew and when they knew it – and giving evidence daily that the shut-down of large areas/populations from interacting with people outside the virus ‘ground zero’ area in Wuhan is containing the truth from the rest of the world.
The virus, though experts give broad parameters in their predictions, is that it will be contained better and faster than the SARS epidemic.
Truth, on the other hand, has been shut down, caught, and killed.
In the future, will we wait for governments to tell us the truth, or will technology tell us everything before any politician can issue a press release? I know that begs the question of whether the media as we know it will survive itself – or be eradicated by a faster algorithm?
Dr. Li Wenliang, 34 – died. He was an early whistleblower of the Wuhan virus news – shut down by the Chinese government. The truth he wanted to spread was stopped, delayed, and distorted by the Chinese government. Just as they have captured and distorted news of his death.
To date, more than 638 people are dead, 31,532 people are infected. The world population is 7.8 billion. Millions of people are born every week, millions die every week – and we usually aren’t mainly concerned. Still, now we have every newscast leads with the latest news of something being done to curtail this, every newspaper has a front-page story daily …
The world is awake, paying attention, and many people are scared. Not just for themselves, friends, or family members who are exposed or infected – but out of fear this virus is coming to your community, to your shopping mall, to your airplane, to your hockey arena, to your street, and it’s coming in the door with the next breeze. I don’t think I’m overstating the fear or the risk. Still, compared to 1917, this is a blip. It is being contained. It is being prevented from spreading more widely, but it is spreading nonetheless.
Nothing any of us can do about it.
Or can we?
Reader feedback:
Thank you, Mark, for your wonderful articles! So glad you focused today on men and their shame. Whilst the shame may come for a myriad of reasons, 1 out of 6 men has been sexually abused before the age of 18 and very, very, very few men seek help although healing is possible. Dr. Palfy’s new book - Men, Too – may help the adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse reading your column. https://www.peaksandvalleyspsychology.com/Men-Too , Cheers, FW, Calgary, AB
We all carry some shame if we are over 10 years old. It is best kept inside so others won’t get hurt . Stick it in a compartment and don’t let it hold you back, AN, Calgary, AB
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