I don't write with connection to religion often. It feels hokey more often than not. There are always too many efforts to twist the meaning of old works into new forms that require too big of a send-up.
But this is Advent in the Christian church, and we do anticipate something this year that isn't hokey and not a send-up: Rescue from a pandemic. That is enough of an anticipatory set to make note of.
Word has gone out: The pharmaceuticals have found vaccines. Instead of working together, though--imagine that--they are racing to be first so that people take only their brand. Selfishness would triumph over the common good, but too much is expected and required too soon. The vaccine manufacturers will collide despite themselves.
If you think that competition is superior in these circumstances, make a sideways adjustment into journalism. You know, the fake news. We perpetually run the risk of absorbing new information too quickly in the name of some media source getting it first. Rumors are "confirmed" before being confirmed. They sometimes cause paranoia and avoidance, sometimes excessive reliance. But it's not always the media's fault.
The next time--and there will be a next time; people who are not gathering will again someday soon, and there very recently was one at Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee, probably the number one place in that city for Christmas shopping--there's some kind of shooting not far from you and the shooter hasn't yet been caught, see if you don't react with some trepidation. The police (a.k.a. government authorities) try very, very hard to put a lid on excess information until they have what they think is a sufficiently thorough story to release to the press. In the meantime, everyone trying to file a report is just supposed to stand there and wait, I guess--for days.
But that never happens. Bits of news emerge, if only because reporters will not, in all likelihood, just stand there. They'll talk to bystanders, they'll try to get pieces of information from the periphery of the investigation. These are interesting stories. They may be merely odd. They may, or may not, be germane to the situation.
Now come back to the vaccine distribution. There will be quirks associated with it. Some of them may discourage people to wander out of doors--like "information" about a shooter. Some of them may discourage vaccination, when that's the last thing we should be doing.
When the vaccine arrives, a serious and sincere effort to get everyone to get the damn shots should get underway. There should be public service announcements. They should sound patriotically cooperative. They should remind people that if they care about their loved ones, they owe it to themselves to overcome whatever hesitations they should have, get the damn shots, and encourage them to do the same.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that for vaccines to become effective, even at 90 percent or so, 75 percent of the entire American population will have to have the shots. That's a heavy lift. Salvation will not be sudden. It will be like a fog lifting.
Joe Biden has pledged to require the wearing of masks where he can, in federal buildings and on airplanes. That will help set a tone. But he will have to pound away at the idea that masking is still the number one thing people can do to arrest and slowly bring down the disease. A one-time speech won't do it. He has pledged to get 100 million shots out there in his first 100 days. Good luck with that.
The C.D.C. should also repeat its disavowal of hydroxochloroquine, or injection of bleach, or anything else our stupid, grandstanding, outgoing president has said might work against the virus, because people who are addicted to him are addicted to his misinformation. It should wipe away any pretense that that had anything to do with curing this pestilence. It should begin doing so the morning of January 21, the day after we are finally finished with having to listen to his nonsense. His repudiation should continue.
Meanwhile, we wait. We wait for the truth to, finally, emerge. We wait for science to get back into control. We wait for rescue. It is the season, like Advent. Religion will not save us; only science can do that. But it's also true that faith in science is also faith in what the universe has placed on earth; in fact, how the earth and each of us actually exist. What has been there to destroy us is also there to save us if we want it.
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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