Posted on 03/14/2020 2:33:05 PM PDT by Fai Mao
It’s now clear that COVID-19 is a deadly serious global pandemic, and all necessary precautions should be taken. Still, C. S. Lewis’s words—written 72 years ago—ring with some relevance for us. Just replace “atomic bomb” with “coronavirus.”
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays
“It’s now clear that COVID-19 is a deadly serious global pandemic,”
I disagree - I think the mass hysteria and overreaction to this is far more deadly and damaging than the virus itself.
Those who did get it recovered unless they were old and sick to begin with.
I call it Corona Cra-Cra...
Kills more than COVID19.
I’ve heard about someone who got tangled up in bedsheets upon waking up. Fell and broke an arm. Ouch.
“Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases and vaccine specialist, says that the threat of the coronavirus is real, but the seasonal flu still remains a bigger issue for most people.
“Right now, seasonal flu is causing many more deaths than COVID-19, and the tragedy is that many people die because they consider it ‘just the flu,’” says Dr. Poland.”
Dr. Poland continues...
“Right now, the number of COVID-19 cases pales in comparison to the number of flu cases,” says Dr. Poland. “Unlike COVID-19, seasonal flu is in every state and every community in the U.S.
Even though the symptoms are similar, reliable clinics like the Mayo Clinic understand the difference. People need to relax and read non-hyped facts from dependable sources like the May Clinic.
The Delusional Lying Left is at it again. They really WANT America to fail and here’s another chance. But the LEFT are LIARS.
I disagree - I think the mass hysteria and overreaction to this is far more deadly and damaging than the virus itself.
I agree with you, Skywise and DISAGREE with Fai Mao.
5,819 people have died in the world of the corona virus.
There are 7.53 billion (2017) in the world.
Those numbers are from Google, so they are fairly close to the truth.
HENNY PENNY: THE SKY IS FALLING!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!
Well, no, it's not.
The deceased physicians in China, among others, were not "old and sick to begin with".
And you believe what the Chinese publish on their media, don't you?
These numbers come off the Internet, from Google, so they are probably close. But GO AHEAD, HennyPenny, THE SKY IS FALLING!!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!
5,819 people have died in the world of the corona virus.
There are 7.53 billion (2017) in the world.
“It’s now clear that COVID-19 is a deadly serious global pandemic, and all necessary precautions should be taken.” Usually it is leftists that start with a false premise.
Bkmrk.
It is my fond hope that this “mass hysteria” gets people to socially isolate for a few weeks, and this thing die out without killing very many people at all.
I will then gladly listen to you saying that you told me so, over and over again, for as often and as long as you like.
Agreed on this. The Fear is causing a great deal of economic damage that is all self-inflicted. May sanity return soon and our economy bounce back from the irrational chaotic panic.
“It’s now clear that COVID-19 is a deadly serious global pandemic,”
Of course you are correct, and of course, the head-in-their-arse crowd cannot tolerate this.
It IS a global pandemic. No one knows how many will die, but I’m sickened by the ones who pretend to know with certainty that which cannot yet be known.
They were being treated in poor facilities and less than stellar healthcare facilities. All factors are not equal.
Every time I read CS Lewis I find something I totally missed the first time. He is a master of analogy.
If only mini mike would have given every American a million we could’a had some fun and money left over for some lunch...maybe ‘rat/bat soup. Too bad the props don’t frenzy the 23 trillion of debt like this. Maybe some elitist, uniparty heads would roll after seeing a more direct cause/effect. Nefarious nabobs of negativism.
Breathe deep the gathering gloom.
Watch lights fade from every room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3jJpGw_K2Y
So which was it: "poor" or "less than stellar"?
lol proofreading catches dumb sentence construction mistakes.
Actually, their colleagues naturally did everything that could be done to save them and were not missing any technologies that would have been available here.
Those are good numbers...unless you’re one of the 5,819.
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