A Modest Proposal

The lessons of COVID-19 will be with us for some time. We have learned that the world is a dangerous place with thousands of microbes searching for a home—in us.  Thanks to COVID-19, we are now all painfully aware of these perils.

But if we act now we can remain safe.  How, you ask? In addition to protecting ourselves from COVID, we must protect ourselves from other threats. These include but are not limited to the flu, pneumonia, RSV and  C. pneumonia (which can cause  pneumonia), S1N1, MERs, chicken pox, hand foot and mouth disease and human papillomavirus which can predispose to cancer.  The solution is to expand the current nascent vaccination passport program to include all the above, and more as needed. Only then will we be able to keep these pathogens in check.

So, we will not only identify those who haven’t received the COVID-19 vaccine, but also all those who have not been vaccinated against these dangerous microbes.  For example, there will be special seating at football games, not only for the COVID unvaccinated, but also those who have not been vaccinated for these illnesses.  Masks will be required in those seats.

The implications are wide ranging. Only the completely vaccinated may enter a gym. Unvaccinated singers will quit their church choirs and community choruses. You must prove your complete vaccine status to order a coffee from Starbucks.

In the future—we are almost there—you will instantly know if a passerby is clean or dirty, that is, whether they have received the proper vaccinations or not.  Maybe something physical, like a yellow star will separate the unvaxed from the vaxed.   Maybe it will be a wrist bracelet as Israel is now doing to quarantine unvaccinated travelers. But that is only for COVID. The program needs to be expanded.

Remember the good old days when no one asked you if you got your flu shot before they would talk to you? Those days are over.  Now, a person who fails to get that shot, or any other for that matter does not love their neighbor.  As we await the future, know that anyone who gets near you may infect you. Stay away from these people. Don’t talk to them.

How could we have gone for so long oblivious to these threats?  Why didn’t we think of this earlier? I shudder to think of all the hands I have shaken while obliviously unaware of the pathogens lurking on those hands.  How thoughtless we all were receiving and spreading these germs.

If this modest proposal is too socially disruptive for you I suppose everyone in Nevada County or the country could take Ivermectin for a month. COVID-19 cases would continue to pop up but the pandemic would end both locally and nationally.  Seemed to work in the Mexican state of Chiapas where they started distributing it in July 2020.  I bought some for 13 bucks.

Now I will admit that western civilization appears to have thrived in spite of our unhygienic behaviors like shaking hands and violating social distancing rules, but consider how much more healthy we could all be if we implemented this modest proposal.