Hello T. A. Gardner,
We've had pandemics with those other diseases. We didn't shut down the country or economy, make everyone wear a mask 24/7 everywhere they went, and didn't change our lives near irreparably over them. This time around, many--even most--did. I didn't. I haven't done one damn thing different than I did before Chinese Disease and will continue to do so. Hell, parents regularly used to have chicken pox parties to get all the kids deliberately infected and get them immune at an early age.
I will add this: My faith in government health institutions has been seriously degraded. I no longer think these groups like the CDC, NIHS, etc., can be trusted to know or tell us the truth with any reasonable degree of accuracy. I no longer listen to their advice. They've cried 'wolf' one too many times now.
Watch Fox News much?
Here's why I ask:
Nearly every single person who watches Fox News has lost confidence in government. It is the purpose of Fox News to cause distrust and division in our country.
Trust in government was fairly steady until the advent of Fox News, after which it has declined precipitously.
That model of sewing distrust and division gets viewership and sells product, makes the owners rich, but it is corrosive to our country. Roger Ailes built Fox News to be a mouthpiece for the right, and Roger Ailes was also a total sleaze with no morals. The model that he built was very successful for making lots of money, spreading hatred, and dividing our country.
I would suggest that instead of expecting perfection out of government that it is more practical to recognize that government is made of people, people make mistakes, people learn from mistakes, people should be forgiven, and that our government is working for us, we the people, and none of us is perfect. Not even the people among us who work hard for our government.
I would also point out that pretending there is no threat from the pandemic is unwise, and the best course of action is to recognize the threat; and to modify interactions with other humans, because prolonged close contact is how the disease spreads, and it does cause death in far too many cases.
Anyone who has compassion for others should join the efforts to prevent transmission of the disease.
There are multitudes of stories of people who have blown off taking any precautions, refused masking and vaccines, and found themselves fighting for their lives on a vent in the ICU. They beg for the vaccine when it is too late, and their final words are advice to listen to the CDC.