A Brief Rant

I'm taking a break from theology to get something off my chest. Last week, Major League Baseball started up again with the NHL and NBA not far behind. Less than a week in and 17 players on the Miami Marlins club have tested positive for COVID-19. This has caused a cascade of consequences, with already two of their games cancelled. Additionally - the next team they are slated to play is now saying they don't want to go to Miami.

I'm so sick of the irrationality I'm seeing with COVID-19 and public policy. To whit:

Here is a list of the currently-active American professional athletes who have died from COVID-19:

- No one

I had to look this up. The first website I came across was this one, that lists 62 people who have died of COVID-19 that played pro-sports in their respective countries. Here's the thing - 44 of the 62 people on this list were over 65 years old, and several people who are included on the list were coaches or league administrative officials. The next one was a list of American pro sports players who have tested positive for COVID-19 (as of June 24th). It lists 43 people, but again, lists pro sports players from every era. The only reported death among the group was a kicker from the 1970s, Tom Dempsey, who was 73 years old when he died.

I looked for over 30 minutes, pouring over the myriad of articles about COVID and pro sports. Many current players have tested positive, in all sports - well into the hundreds, if not close to a thousand current pro athletes among the major sports...not a single death. I couldn't find this data, but I would doubt that we have even seen any hospitalizations among that same group of people. To get to my point - what are the people running these teams afraid of? Potential liability? Cancel culture? Certainly it can't be a fear of the virus itself because the numbers have proven that there is nothing to fear there. So you feel sick (maybe?) for a couple of days and then you're good to go? Sounds like a normal occurrence for most people, including athletes, in any given year.

When will the hyperventilation stop? When will we stop the madness of enforcing completely unnecessary measures on the majority of the population that is not vulnerable to this illness? 6 weeks ago, I stopped watching or consuming news of any kind because I can't do this anymore. It is beyond my understanding why news outlets are so focused on cases while most, if not all, don't give us any information about the increased levels of testing. Additionally - why is no one listening to brilliant scientists like Dr. John Ioannidis (Stanford University professor of Public Health and Epidemiology) who has been speaking out for months about how we don't even know if the measures we are taking are helpful? Not only that - there is clearly a sizable portion of COVID-19 cases that are completely asymptomatic. That means, a person could have COVID and literally not know it. It won't show up in a positive test and the person would have no apparent reason to have themselves tested. Dr. Ioannidis estimates that between 25% and 50% of COVID-19 cases could be asymptomatic given serology testing that has been done in various spots around the world.

Unfortunately - it does not stop there. With regards to where this all ends and how life gets back to normal - Anthony Fauci and many governors in the US are saying that we mask requirements and social distancing requirements won't be lifted until there is a viable vaccine. Rarely do we hear about the improbability of a vaccine, much less something 'quickly'. How long will we continue to do this for something that, for people under the age of 50, is on par with the flu in terms of deadliness? What if there is no vaccine by January 2021? What if nothing by June 2021? We will keep on doing what we've been doing? If so, why? To stop what? To accomplish what? What is the magical date at which point we resume normal life?

~2.8 MILLION people died in the U.S. in 2019. ~2.8 MILLION people died in the U.S. in 2018. ~2.8 MILLION people died in the U.S. in 2017. Do you get where I'm going? Consistently, medical issues (cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, flu, etc) account for 8 out of the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. every year. Accidents and suicide are the only non-medical reasons that make the list, and one could make a good argument that poor mental health is a medical issue. Lots of stuff that you can't prevent could end up killing you. COVID, for a person under 65, is not a likely culprit, not even among the possibilities.

Our immune systems have been doing a great job for eons. Buoyed by modern medicine and science (better diets, an emphasis on regular exercise) we've seen life expectancy rates climb significantly in the past 50 years. There is no reason to think that suddenly, our immune systems will fail us - especially those of us who are younger and leading healthy lives. I'm not insensitive to those people who have autoimmune diseases or who have other chronic medical problems (asthma, etc). But why not devote resources to either a) protecting those people or b) coming up with solutions where they can protect themselves? The same could be said of the elderly community within our nation. Why are we crippling the businesses and livelihoods of healthy Americans, but not focusing our resources on protecting nursing homes and people over 65?

I haven't even mentioned the children of this country who had to endure 3 months of 'e-learning' and who may not even go back to school in the Fall. Children, by all statistical measures you would choose to use, are not vulnerable, in any way, to COVID-19. Yet, we are setting them back in school, stunting their social growth as humans and potentially wreaking untold damage on their futures. The CDC Director agrees!

Anyway - like I said, I just needed to get some stuff out of me. Rant over.

Forced to Face Mortality

I came across an excellent opinion piece today, authored by an anthropology professor at Wheaton College (my alma mater). She talks about how one of the major things that this pandemic is forcing Western culture to face, is death. I was just thinking about this topic this morning, in a quiet moment of reflection, that most of what I see happening, is an overreaction meant to stave off suffering and/or death...two things which we talk very little about in our culture...neither of which we will ever be successful in preventing or eradicating this side of Jesus' return.

I think it's good to have to face death, to have to think about it and wrestle with it. Death, and thoughts about the finite-ness of our lives, has a way of reminding us to focus on what is important. If you're over the age of 15, chances are good that you have attended at least one funeral and likely many more than one. Some funerals are incredibly sad - especially the ones where people died younger, and you have this sense that they missed out on some life that was left to be lived. Also, you feel intensely for their families, who have to deal with the incredible sense of loss they will feel. Some are more joyous, when the person has lived a long life and are now free of the suffering they had to endure at the end. But whether you are attending the funeral of that younger person, or it is of the ladder kind, a funeral naturally forces you to focus, even if only for a moment, on your own eventual death and if you're an introspective type, that leads you to some self-evaluation.

I dare say we need to think about death more, perhaps much more, than we do. I think one of the big reasons that older people seem so much wiser, aside from years of experience, is that as they have gotten older, they realize they are closer to the end. That realization, I think, helps them put things in perspective. Things that used to seem like a big deal, aren't as much, because their sense of what truly matters has been reoriented. Obviously this doesn't apply to all older folks - some only get more crotchety and rough, but that doesn't seem to describe most.

I enjoyed Dr. Jeske's thoughts on how youth obsessed and how production-obsessed our culture is. I have seen myself get wrapped up in the productivity side of things. It is a very easy trap to fall into. "If some is good, more is better." -- and our culture is only too happy to encourage that type of thinking. Anyway - very good thoughts from Dr. Jeske; alot to think about and consider.