Turned a deaf ear
September 21, 2021 (solstice)
Another in a series of observations of life as I know it.
For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost, For the want of a rider the battle was lost, For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.
- Benjamin Franklin
~~~~~
In the cold light of day, the view over our shoulders of history, is often unforgiving. And repetitive. Data informs us that Covid deaths today are now roughly equal to those of the 1918-1919 Spanish Influenza pandemic. Yes, we’ve done it again.
My grandparents were fortunate survivors of the influenza pandemic, which is sort of a miracle, considering that there was no vaccine available to them. Just raw courage and washable cotton face coverings. My Nana was one of ten siblings. All contracted influenza during one of the three surges. What I have always found curious is that of her ten brothers and sisters, only my Nana was able to carry a pregnancy to term. And she and my grandfather just had the one child, my mother. Was the flu responsible? Hard to say. But I am not a big believer in coincidence. That toxic pandemic was ruthless. It killed vast swaths of the population, which was far smaller than ours is today. So the percentage of death was statistically more grim. Survival, in turn, brought its own sorrows.
I have a valued friend who is a fierce anti-vaxxer. It pains me no end and frankly, I have no idea how to cope. I can’t simply throw the baby out with the bath water and toss the friendship over the railing. I can’t. But it is a strain. It’s a subject we cannot broach without acrimony and hurt. So we set it aside, keep a healthy distance, and soldier on. Life has become a series of painful choices. I will, of course, take the booster vaccine whenever the FDA gives the official nod. It just makes good common sense at my age. The other day I marched into Walgreens for the extra strength flu shot. One down, one to go. For me, it’s a no brainer. Why? Well, at age 10, I contracted measles coupled with strep throat (because my body was weakened by those vicious red dots). A fever crept up to 106 and caused a two day delirium. It wasn’t pretty. In the early 1960s, there was no measles vaccine, nor mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough or other common “childhood diseases”. Parents actively hoped their kids would get these and in doing so, establish lifelong immunity. I wasn’t so lucky. The high fever caused by measles severely damaged my auditory nerve, effectively causing permanent hearing loss in my right ear.
This isn’t a story awash in self pity. No. It’s a cautionary tale. Had the measles vaccine been available in 1962, things would have been different. I had mumps and chicken pox without incident. And then vaccines were developed about a decade later. I remain grateful to this day that every kid who enters elementary school must now be vaccinated prior to entering her or his classroom. Ditto polio and small pox, diphtheria, pertussis and a whole range of diseases that used to cripple and kill children. We have come so far in fifty years, wiping out these scourges. Science is a remarkable miracle. We have all benefited from it, often daily. History teaches us that the largest death toll in the Civil War was a result of sepsis, not bullet or bayonet wounds. The discovery of penicillin slowed infection and stopped morbidity. Today, pneumonia is not a death sentence. The list of medical triumphs is long and growing. We are the beneficiaries of it and often take for granted that our lives can and should extend well into an eighth decade. If we adhere to science.
We will surpass 675,000 Covid deaths. By the New Year we are on track to reach a grim total of 776,000. Why? Because a significant percentage of our nation’s community eschews a simple Covid shot in the arm. I am dumbfounded. The deafness in my ear reminds me each hour that for want of a vaccine, my hearing was lost. It could just as easily been my life.
Caption: Precautions taken in Seattle, Wash., during the Spanish Influenza Epidemic would not permit anyone to ride on the street cars without wearing a mask.
Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division