Most of us weren’t around during the influenza epidemic of 1918 when the nursery rhyme in the header of this post was well known, though I hestitate to call it popular. We also weren’t here when the stock market crashed in 1929 or when the dustbowl ravaged the southern plains of the 1930s. The people of my generation often said our parents and others of their generation acted a certain way or had an indentifiable world view because they suffered through one of these upheavals.
In the future, people will look back on the western wildfires and, perhaps, speak of them in the way we refer to the dustbowl now. And perhaps analysts of the future will find parallels between our current pandamic and the dark times of 1918. People are already writing books and essays about their experiences that may form the foundation for how people in 75-100 years believe we’ve handled these crises.
In the middle of this dandemic, what I see is confusion, most often described as science vs. personal opinion. The arguments fill the days’ news. In some ways, the arguments boil down to an us-v-them clash, on hand that nobody should be able to force us to get vaccinated or take other precautions, and on the other hand, those who won’t get vaccinated are threatening the lives of everyone else.
As often happens, the Democrats are arguing with the Republicans about every thing from vaccines to masks to lockdowns to re-opening businesses and schools and travel. Why, I wonder, must politics even rear its ugly head in these discussions? The parties should be working together rather that fomenting a fragmentation of views and policies.
In the future, I suspect people will marvel at how quickly vaccines were developed and how people who grew up in a “vaccinated society” came to shun them. When we look back at the pandemic of 1918, we cannot really fault people for what science didn’t yet know. I think, though, that we will be faulted for what we do know and what we said it was our right to ignore.
So far, it looks like those whom the future will award the highest marks are the swamped first responders and the hospital workers. Next, perhaps, those who created vaccines in record time. Last will be the politicians and those who believe their personal “rights” supercede the needs of the nation and their neighborhood.
All of this frustrates me. How about you?
Malcolm's Round Table 
Great post Malcolm,very enlightening but my thoughts are will we now move to Total surveillance and become the order of the day? Only time will tell but the speed and direction of economy recovery will depend on the how the government responds in the time of the pandemic.
Thanks for your comment. We may already have total surveillance via the NSA/CIA/FBI. Let’s hope we don’t need more.
And then there’s Pegasus, sold to all and sundry by NSO – the sine qua non of cell phone spyware! Sigh.
I think the problem with the vaccine is that people have lost trust – for government, pharmaceuticals, media, etc. With good reason, in many cases. And I don’t know how it can be fixed.
I think you’re right, but I don’t know why your right. Millions of people have been getting vaccinated without problems, and now suddenly we’re scared of the medicine.
In the UK I’ve been impressed and, frankly, humbled by the way the most poorly paid workers in our society (eg cleaners, delivery drivers, supermarket staff, care home workers) worked long hours through the pandemic, in the beginning (by which I mean the first lockdown) without any kind of protection against infection. I don’t believe any of them qualified for early vaccinations.
Whether they did not think through the risks they were running, or were content to take those risks for the good of the rest of us I do not know – but I thank them. Every time I met one of them (which in my case means supermarket staff and delivery drivers) I thanked them.