Like a lot of you I’m interested in the latest news about the coronavirus pandemic, when it might end or taper off and what I should be doing in the meantime. For instance, should I wear a face mask when out in public?
Apparently, experts disagree.
Some say, yeah, it couldn’t hurt; others say the most likely way to avoid the virus is to wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face and people who wear face masks tend to touch their face more often.
The World Health Organization says they don’t generally recommend healthy people wear face masks because that hasn’t been “associated with any particular benefit.” Meanwhile the Centers for Disease Control says they’re reviewing their face mask guidelines because they’re concerned about infected people who have no symptoms walking around getting other people sick.
And these are people who know what they’re talking about.
There’s a lot of bad information out there and a lot of it has been provided by our president. (Man, I wasn’t going to take another swipe at Donald Trump, but it’s very hard not to.) He’ll say one thing, events prove him wrong, then he denies he ever said something we have video of him saying.
OK, I was about to give some examples of Trump’s latest BS, but I’ve got myself back under control and will finally get to the point of this piece.
Dr. Anthony Fauci.
When I’m not watching episodes of Breaking Bad (never watched a minute of it until two days ago, so now seems like a good time to catch up with the rest of America) I have my TV muted and set on the news and if I see Dr. Fauci’s face I turn up the volume and listen to what he has to say.
Just in case you didn’t know, Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and has been described as “pragmatic” and “data-driven.”
Which means he actually has some evidence for what he says; an increasingly novel concept.
Anyway…
The cartoon above was drawn in appreciation for guys like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Sanjay Gupta who are doing their best to keep the rest of informed with the latest information and don’t appear to ever sleep because I see them on every damn news show I watch.
When people complain about political cartoons being negative – and they mostly are, that’s the nature of comedy – they’ll ask, “Why don’t you ever draw anything positive?”
Well, here’s a positive cartoon.
But don’t get used to it, I’ll probably draw something negative about Trump tomorrow.
Unfortunately, a lot of “science” can be bought; something I learned from a Michel Crichton novel, “State of Fear”, which is probably pretty relevant right now. As far as the Dr. is concerned
it may still be early days. As you said there is some conflicting opinions and certainly some contradictions as how the authorities attempt to manage the public.
And speaking of the Donald l read today he’s going to repeal some of the constraints put on gasoline by the EPA so that he can lower fuel costs for everyone. Great! Cheap gas but don’t forget to stay at home. No contradiction there.