COVID – The Movie
I feel as though I’ve been living through a movie shown at the theater of the absurd. COVID19 has been treated as everything except what it is: a really contagious and nasty common cold virus.
We had the “Coming Soon” teaser in January 2020, when Taiwan closed its borders. This is significant because no other nation on earth has a large population of Han Chinese able to blend in with the mainland population and thus appear unthreatening. It is simple for the Chinese security state to monitor closely the activities and contacts of European, African and South Asian visitors simply based on appearance. Some of the people of Hong Kong and Singapore are also able to “pass” as Han Chinese, but rarely have the cultural fluency to be able to withstand anything beyond surface scrutiny.
Then we had the early mixed reviews based on the virus’s name. The Wuhan Virus was based on the long-time practice of naming significant or pandemic illnesses based on where they were first discovered. I lived through the “Hong Kong Flu” of the mid-1950s, as well as MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome), Marburg (named for the city where it was first isolated and defined), and Ebola (named after the closest river to where it was first isolated). Since Lord Voltemort incarnate referred to it as the Wuhan or Chinese Virus, it had to be renamed using a novel naming convention which was immediately abandoned. I say abandoned because we had the Brazilian variant, the UK variant, the South African variant, etc. But I digress.
Next, we saw the argument about who wrote the script. Dr. Anthony Fauci supported a jump from a pangolin or bat to humans from the Wuhan wet market, claiming that it was impossible to manipulate DNA in the manner asserted. His friend, the corrupt Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director General of WHO, elected by Chinese bribes, supports that position. However, Dr. Fauci appears to have sent money to the Wuhan lab to do gain of function research, later denying it until e-mails were made public. Dr. Ron Paul, also a U.S. Senator, has clashed with Fauci repeatedly over the lab leak hypothesis. China refuses to participate in any investigation. Dr. Paul is a practicing physician, Dr. Fauci is a medical bureaucrat.
Next, we have the omnipresent dispute over the director. Voldemort invoked the Defense Production Act to get major manufacturers to build ventilators and bypassed FDA protocols to get vaccines created and shipped throughout the country. Malfoy sat on the sidelines and threw stones.
Then there is casting. The unsophisticated Voldemort put in lions and tigers and bears (oh, my). Malfoy used the entire cast of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, which produced statistics based on studies of absolutely nothing, and picked recipients of help based on race essentialism.
Finally, there is editing. Voldemort left it to the public to judge; Malfoy jumped fables, winding up in Sleeping Beauty, where he picked Sleepy.
Nearing the end of Act II, I am a bit worried over Act III. Please do not leave the theater early. Not sure about the intermissions, we do have a few (some I missed). I was able to attend to necessities during one and get a glass to calm myself, but now am becoming concerned about a next intermission. The audience seems to be quite fidgeted, don't you think?
I am probably the only one that has not read any of the Harry Potter novels, but I was able to follow along.