Paul's Passing Thoughts

I received some wonderful news while in the process of accepting a hazard contract out of town this week. There is now little or no danger at all to my health as the chances of dying from COVID are now .0000000000001 percent or something like that. So, as an aide, I will be making very generous pay, triple the norm, for very little risk, if any at all. What could be better?

Fact is, in reality, the chances of hospitalization or death would be less at this time because as Dr. Marc Seigel has stated, viruses don’t want to die, and therefore, the goal of the virus is not to kill the host, so the strains adapt and adjust.

I get grief for that also from my conservative friends; that is, for suggesting that a virus has intelligence. Yes, lest I get the wrong idea that a mere glob of protein can have intelligence from the communist propaganda I am learning in physiology classes, I humbly accept their informed rebukes.

I love to write, and I continue to do it regardless of my present time restraints. Hence, my articles could be better stated at times. last week, I wrote an article that was meant to be a script for a video I am trying to make for a school and possibly an agency. I got tired of doing retakes, and decided to put all the information in written form as a guide, and then use that to make the video. In an attempt to demonstrate that COVID should still be taken seriously, I cited the often used statistic of “around” 200,000 deaths in the United States. Really, I used the figure to make a general point and the use of that number was what we call, in a manner of speaking. I think I went ahead and used the figure because those who contest it are not offering any alternative figures.

Oh boy. I am now guilty of being a leftist fear monger. Actually, in light of a lot of conservative mentality of late, I wish I could convert to being a liberal, but there aren’t any left. We now have a choice: radical leftism, or conservative experts who have graduated from Google University.

Due to the fact that leftism is caste, which is responsible for every masse grave presently existing in the world, I will remain a conservative, but my fellow conservatives can expect to be ridiculed and mocked when their arrogance and lack of empathy calls for it. And I am not really concerned with how many people I can annoy, only a few give me the self-actualization that I need. I was a former pastor in the institutional church and am now a pastor in the informal home fellowship movement. This happened because a church I invested 20 years of my life in became a cult. When I walked away, I lost every friend I had and the core of my family.

But it taught me something. Self is your best friend. Invest in yourself, and the life of cake is pretty good. Friends are the icing on the cake, but the cake is still pretty good. You have three perfect friends: God, you, and yourself. You can have four if you marry right. By all means try to get icing on your cake, but never at the expense of your self-dignity. So, if there are only conservatives to choose from, I may soon run out of friends, which is ok, because I still have four always.

With all of that said, this article is not entirely about ridicule, but an attempt to bring a balanced view to the COVID-19 issue. Remember balance? In order to bring balance to the issue, we need to address “statistics.” As my wife Susan stated the other day, statistics can be used to supposedly prove anything you want to prove. That is very true.

But when people cite statistics, or debate you about statistics, listen to their words very carefully; it reveals their heart. Ok, so the 200,000 death rate is grossly exaggerated, and therefore, all COVID ever was…was a bad flu season. In every case, there is no adjusted figure suggested; everything about it is a lie because the death toll has been exaggerated. COVID is “highly infectious with little death.” However, even the contention that COVID is highly infectious is being disputed because 2020 flu statistics are way down. Get it? In essence, the article I wrote last week is deemed little more than hysteria and much to do about nothing. My intentions of preventing my fellow aides from getting the flu was honorable, but my leftist fear-mongering was worthy of severe public rebuke.

I don’t think that is the case, and I will explain why. While COVID may not be as deadly as it was, and that appears to be the case, these pandemics seem to be coming our way every eight years or so. The next time we can be ready. This pandemic, if I may call it that, was not much different from SARS. We should have been ready.

Next, I will say, if I may, that we still must protect our elderly from getting COVID. I don’t see the younger generation running around with the attitude that it is “just the flu” as being conducive to that. And I am glad I am doing the video for fellow aides because we don’t see all of the short-lived COVID halls as “little death.” The fact that a hall is now back to normal because everyone was either sent out to be put on ventilators or dead may be a small statistic in the scheme of things, but not to us. We don’t measure death by the numbers, we measure it by the care relationship we had with those people, and frankly, we rarely know what their politics are.

While, apparently, all of the body bags that were piled up in Long Term Care facilities and hospitals were a mere uptick in traffic accidents, etc., the primary statistic follows, and it is the smallest of all. About 1700 healthcare workers died while working on the COVID frontlines in less than a year. At least 1,350 of those deaths have been documented by The Guardian so far. The figure includes over 200 RNs. LPNs/RNs are my heroes, when I think of them times 200+, it hits hard in my heart. Pray tell, am I the only one who didn’t hear the following? That many healthcare workers die every year caring for people with the flu? I guess I didn’t get the memo. While conservatives are pro military, and pro police, it may be mentioned that this small statistic among caregivers is many more times what total deaths are in the line of duty overseas and on the streets yearly.

So, when conservatives cite statistics to downplay COVID, does that reveal how they really value healthcare professionals? Well, statistically speaking, it’s the only logical conclusion.

For those of you who may want to comment on this post by way of disagreement, it’s only fair to warn you ahead of time…

…the cake is good enough and I am not looking for anymore conservative friends.

Paul Dohse, STNA/MA-C