Open Letter to the world from an infectious disease specialist about Covid-19

But mostly, I'm scared about what message we are telling our kids when faced with a threat. Instead of reason, rationality, openmindedness and altruism, we are telling them to panic, be fearful, suspicious, reactionary and self-interested.

But but... isn't this the rule for teaching in all our schools?

Not just there, but Homeland Security recruitment. Everyday I hear one of its advertisements with almost all teens and mostly females (and the video version includes a a lesbian couple), exhorting,

"why take a chance, why risk a mistake, why - say something? We all have reasons to ignore the things that give us pause, that seem out of place, that don't feel right...If you see something, why don't you say something?...Report suspicious activity to local authorities." Homeland Security offers a number of videos and audio files of different lengths and languages with variations of the same message and with the young being appealed to as America's watch-persons. But who tend to be the least discerning - and the most addicted to phones and video games).

While the object of this is ostensibly to combat terrorism, you would think the kind of activity to be reported would be such things as taking pictures of LNG tankers, and with mature persons, especially those over 40 mainly being the watch-persons.

Instead, Homeland Security does not target anyone over about 40, these being the most mature, life-experienced discerning, nor ex-military or professionals (save for one young female teacher), as its reporters, but repeatedly shows teens, and in two instances millennials, as its target audience

And in targeting them as reporters, Homeland Security provides a wallet card with a list of activities, many of which that can easily be innocent and require discernment to interpret as dangerous, esp. to national security; (eliciting information; acquisition of expertise; implied threat; surveillance; diversion; probing for security; misrepresentation; materials acquisition; sector-specific incident; recruiting; attempted intrusion; tapering; cyberattack; weapons collection; aviation activity).

In addition, rather than telling parents and seeking advice about what they see, parents are ignored and they are simply told to contact local authorities.

Now what I see as "suspicious activity" is that of the government recruiting the most undiscerning and easily offended as Americas watchpersons for homeland security , while ignoring the older generation, and by-passing parents.

It is not hard to see how this government recruitment of the young and the ignoring parents and the older generation fosters not only frivolous reporting by an increasingly paranoid generation (especially those raised as only children and spoiled) , including that of politically incorrect activity, but that of marginalizing the older generation reporting, while increasing reliance upon the government.

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