There's a Mission Impossible movie marathon on TV today. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed these movies. It's a great distraction from the chaos of the world, so thank you to the FX channel.
I think "Mission Impossible" may end up being what we call our human struggle against the coronavirus. From the very beginning of this situation, back when I heard that China and Italy were struggling, I looked up the science behind the virus and I realized that if it got out of control we would need - at the minimum - 12 to 18 months to develop some sort of vaccine. But that was a hopeful number, because the fact is we have never developed a vaccine against the common cold. We might not be able defeat this thing. And people are in denial of the seriousness of this situation.
People want to think that we can ignore the virus and it will go away. It's not going away. In fact, as yesterday's CNN reports showed, our lack of testing shows that the numbers of infected people could be anywhere from 6 to 24 times the reported number.
That would make the US number, instead of 2.5 million, potentially 15 million to 60 million infected people. That's a lot. I've been saying, just about every day now, that we need new leadership, but it looks like the only way we will get new leadership is through voting in the elections. That means people need to be able to vote in November and we need to make it through this situation through at least January for the change in leadership. Then we need to survive long enough for changes to be made and have impact.
The good news is, the polls make it look like we will get change. The bad news is that polls were inaccurate in the last US Presidential election - and, even if we get change, the worse news is that the change is Biden.
I think it's disgusting that the options for the next US President are Trump and Biden. You would think people would have learned from the last election when neither Trump nor Hillary were popular, unifying choices. But it seems, as the Spanish Flu of 1918 would attest, we don't learn from history like we should.
During the week Jon Stewart made appearances promoting his new movie. When he was on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, they discussed how horrible it was that 102 years ago, during the Spanish Flu, the recommendations were the same as today - wear a mask and maintain distance from others.
With so many bad options around us and a society in denial, with just bad options ahead of it, we definitely seem to be in a "Mission Impossible" situation.
Be safe out there (and I'll be safe at home)!
UPDATE: Protesters are now out there against wearing face masks.
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