Has the World Gone Mad?

It has been several months now that Coronavirus/COVID-19 has been identified and the world seemingly is going mad. This is the most wicked pandemic we have been a part in my lifetime. But this is not the first mass hysteria event that has taken place. We’ve gone through terrorist attacks on 9-11, market crashes in 2008 and 2020, SARS, Ebola, etc. and in all cases, we got through it. But out of them all, this coronavirus is the one that scares me the most. I have enough respiratory type issues and am currently fighting drainage getting into my lungs and making me cough. Then I hear that the expectation is 100K to 200K deaths from this before they believe they’ll have something that can fight and possibly prevent it in the future.

Throughout the years there have been many warnings of this very event, but like in most cases, our governments are reactive and not proactive. People are mostly lacking trust in what is being said and can you blame them? With a president that from day one touts that the major news media outlets are fake and with his uneducated, believe everything they hear from those feeding the so-called truth, we get a massive dose of madness around the world. You only have to look at how fast toilet paper became a premium commodity. Hard to believe that wiping my ass has something to do with coronavirus. The reality is that it is an opportunistic few that are hording and then selling for grossly inflated prices on the internet. Even with stores such as Amazon and Walmart cracking down on price gouging, you still can’t go to the grocery store and buy a package of TP. This is insane and typical of nonrational minds either scared or evil. On the day that our county was put on shelter-in-place orders, people ran to the bank and began pulling their money from the banks. Why, who the hell could know, but throughout the history of man, this same hysteria drives people to nonsensical reactions. The stock market is down, and is being compared to crashes such as the great depression and the market failure of 2008. Both of which were driven by market banking failures, but this one is not. In fact, the market was largely very healthy before coronavirus outbreak in China, but the damage to trade has driven the markets to lows only seen like the great depression. Most people are just not knowledgeable enough see the difference nor are they understanding that the very reaction as pulling all your money out of the bank is actually what causes collapses. I saw less of this in Colorado, I don’t totally understand why, other than I do feel there is a larger amount of uneducated and don’t want to be educated, and have no use for those that are educated and living in Texas. It doesn’t take much to see this either, just listen to conversations as you pass by folks at the grocers, or maybe sitting and listening to those behind you at jury duty, or the absurd questions asked by those that can’t actually have a personal thought about current events. Instead of contemplating information, it is just easier for a large amount of folks to listen to those that they think are smarter and honestly just react to whatever is said. Sadly, many of these are the conspiracy theorists, dooms-dayers, and apocalyptic endorsers of the world.

We have been holed up since getting home from California a few weeks ago. We have ventured out with mask and gloves and endured the glares, laughs, and shaking of heads by those believing all of this is just a democratic hoax as their national leadership touts that it is surely cannot be his fault and certainly holds no responsibility that the country is in the midst of a pandemic. Even when he finally came to understand that he can’t encourage businesses to open and for life to return to normal by Easter just because he wants to boost his reelection possibilities in November. The believers still think he is bowing to the evil opposition and that he doesn’t really believe it, so they don’t either. This is madness in its highest form. Following blindly behind someone says whatever is needed and will put every resource available into being an election banner for himself. I just hope the normal people of this country come out in mass in November and put an end to the Trump era.

You wonder sometimes if things like pandemics and plagues are God’s way of natural elimination, but like the cockroach, we lose to many people innocently that are out battling on the lines of defense and the cockroach just survives no matter how dumb it has become. I pray for this to end, I beg for a logical mind, and hope this doesn’t touch my family in a way that we have to look back with fond remembrance.

We will continue our vigilant isolation and pray when we have to go out in public and do something amongst others. I’m sure many feel the same way and hopefully we all just start taking the same precautions to not only protect ourselves, but to protect those around us.

Update end of March 2021, Trump lost the election. The Senate is tied which means reconciliation is the only viable stand to get Democratic initiatives passed. Don’t take my earlier thoughts and think I’m a Democrat, I’m not, I just always vote my conscience which is somewhere in the middle most of the time. I’m humored by the political firestorm that is ablaze in America. The world is happy Trump is gone. But are really better with Biden? Time will tell, but I can tell you this, he will never take the stance that there is a civil war brewing and stoke the fire to make it happen all in the name of pledging fealty to him. Everything the last four years preyed on the delusional fears of a few.

The USA is nearing 600,000 deaths. Can you believe it, that is three times higher than the sensational predictions made a year ago? Trump did accomplish one thing; he pipelined the ability for vaccines to be approved in record time. Dad, Jen and I all were vaccinated in January. We have eased up some about things, but we still fear about how long a vaccine will be good for. Flu has a season, Covid is a year long battle now. SO, if a vaccine is only good for 6 months, we will know before it is too late? They are working on boosters and also focusing on the many variants that have spread faster than the original virus. They promise it will be available in the Fall. We are about to head off to Hawaii again. We were there a year ago when the virus started hitting the USA shores and travel restrictions were flying faster than we could keep up with. We cut our stay short last year, but at least this year we can stay the entire time. We got our first COVID test today and both were negative and then went through the online ordeal about uploading or results to a travel site for Hawaii government that will allow us not to be quarantined.

Tahoe trip planned in May with a swing through Denver before and Los Angeles after to see the kids and grandkids. We would like to go to Scotland in the Fall, but are still watching to see if travel restrictions will be lifted to allow us to go. Little moments of normalcy are appearing here and there. We tested the waters of restaurants, but are cautious. We are travelling, but with some trepidations. We are freeing ourselves to hug and kiss family members knowing who has and hasn’t gotten the vaccine. A slow move to normal for sure. We will get there, I know it, but will the craziness end? I hope so, but I’m prepared to shake my head, use my vote, and pray for the best outcome. But I will continue to mumble under my breath about the kooks, the mindless, and the avid sheep following their leader over the cliff. Never questioning if it was the right thing to do until they realize their leader had a parachute and is giving them the thumbs up prior to the splat.