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PREACHINGTOTHECHOIR? AUGUST 7, 2020
AIKEN-AUGUSTA’S MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED IN 2006
Here at our sprawling Medical Examiner world headquarters campus in Augusta, we would like to think that we have sufficiently and correctly educated our readers about various realities of the historic pandemic we’re all trying to survive. For instance, we have written many words about the wisdom of wearing masks, and in other ways cooperating with the recommendations of public health experts. On these pages we have also tried to offer sound reasoning against some of the wild conspiracy theories that have sprung up and spread with a contagion all their own. Hopefully we are indeed preaching to the choir; we hope you’re as convinced as we are about the value of hand washing, physical distancing, mask wearing, and avoiding large gatherings, as well as rejecting most of the outlandish theories about this pandemic and its origins and eventual demise (example: “Just wait and see! This will all disappear right after the election! Mark my words!” People, please. Get a grip.). A logical question, then, if we suspect we’re preaching to the choir, is: why do we keep doing it? There are a couple of main reasons. First, we realize that not everyone does agree. Opposing viewpoints are regularly posted on the Medical Examiner’s Facebook page (Facebook.com/ AugustaRX). There are still people out
there — and some of them read this newspaper — who think wearing masks is for idiots, who think Democrats and liberals engineered this whole crisis (or are at least happy to take advantage of it), who believe the numbers of cases and deaths are wild exaggerations designed to promote panic, increase ratings and sell ads, and who believe the best thing all of us could do around the world is ignore this virus and all the mandates and get back to normal living — and do it yesterday. We still want to talk to those people. A second reason is that none of us, not even members of the choir, are exactly living in a vacuum, even though it would probably be beneficial if we were. We all hear things every day — this doctor says masks are unnecessary; that doctor says he has found the cure but no one will listen; kids can go by the thousands to school, but a dozen people can’t sit here and there in a spacious bar? — and those news flashes raise questions in our minds. We’d like answers, and we want to be able to intelligently agree or disagree with the latest developments. We might even occasionally try to point out the error of someone else’s thinking, although in most cases that’s a pointless endeavor. But it’s so hard to resist! We have fallen into the trap ourselves. Within the past week on the NextDoor app, we noticed a lively exchange of ideas — sure, let’s call it that; it sounds better than argument — about the pros and cons of wearing a mask. One lady, the self-appointed advocate that masks are not just useless but also dangerous and unhealthy, was single-handedly taking on all comers. She offered no evidence or credentials, but it’s much more likely that she’s a nail tech than a physician or epidemiologist. She did offer plenty of dogmatic statements that were completely at odds with the world’s medical community, and they were delivered with total assurance.
AUGUSTARX.COM
Not a shred of doubt or uncertainty. Rather than wade into the public fray on the app, we sent her a private message with one simple question: why are you doing this? Everyone has the right to ignore medical advice, even life-saving medical advice, we wrote her. Cancer patients refuse chemotherapy treatments all the time. That is their right. But can you imagine someone doing so and then loudly and publicly campaigning for all other cancer patients to refuse chemo too? Why would anyone do such a thing? In the context of the Great Pandemic of 2020, if you feel mask wearing (etc.) is foolish, feel free to embrace that belief and put yourself and others at risk. But as if that isn’t self-centered enough, why are you then going another step and trying to convince everyone else? Why have you appointed yourself as the spokesperson who opposes public health experts all over the world? If you want to act AMA (Against Medical Advice), so be it. But please, stop trying to infect others, literally and figuratively. It’s unhealthy. +
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