Ignorance has its price when it comes to COVID. The areas of the country that steadfastly believe that masks are a government plot and that the virus is a hoax are becoming the killing grounds for unvaccinated American fools. How did such a large number of people decide to put themselves and their families at risk? And how does a responsible society try to undo all this damage? As Mark Twain lamented, "How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again."
But before we congratulate ourselves for not falling pray to poorly thought out conspiracy theories and cretin logic, let's look at our own assumptions. Sure, there are backward areas of our country where lots of people will end up dead. A tragedy, but not our problem.
These hotspots, however, also serve as breeding grounds for the virus, allowing it to continually evolve into something possibly more dangerous. Eventually even those who are vaccinated may fall pray to a newer, more deadly strain. It is no surprise that the Delta variant of the virus emerged from India, a country with a vast underclass that can't afford COVID protection.
It's like global warming; we will all end up paying for the beliefs of the gullible and poorly informed who still think that our burning planet has nothing to do with oil. Perhaps that will be the reason why our species eventually fails, our inability to work together for the common good.
Fred
