We read that so far around 459,000 people worldwide this year have died from a single virus, Covid-19.
Nearly 9 million have contracted the virus. Probably all of them wondered whether they would survive or die. Most survived. Their family, loved ones, associates and medical staff will have faced or continue to face the immense challenge of addressing sickness and death.
The figures grow daily. Nearly half a million have died. The number will not stop there.
More than 300,000 people in the UK have contracted the virus – the worse casualty rate in Europe.
More than 42,000 people have died – often painful deaths without their loved ones present. Hospitals and homes for the aged had to refuse admission family and close friends to the bedside of the dying person in their final days and hours.
Between birth and death, life moves in predictable and unpredictable ways.
We have no clear guidance. There are no captains on the ship to guide us through the heaving storms in the sea of life.
The so-called ‘experts’ prove to be fallible gods who keep crashing down to Earth.
Change, transitions, processes and unfoldment of change in the mind-body condition impact on all of us.
Contact with sickness and death challenges our deepest emotions, especially when the encounter with Covid-19 impacts on a loved one.
Many have lost faith in the biological scientists, medical scientists and social scientists. The scientists cannot agree among themselves.
Who do we choose to agree with?
Who do the politicians choose to agree with?
This pandemic reveals the vulnerability and fragility of human existence.
Science? What Science?
The commonly held view that scientific evidence provides the truth of the necessary steps to handle this contagious disease has taken a nosedive.
Dated knowledge, personal history and political/economic priorities help shape every major decision about the virus. More and more citizens lose confidence in the daily briefings of the experts.
They appear terrified to admit that they can only offer an informed guess.
Our politicians claim they take ‘scientific advice’ yet hide from us the names of those who give the advice. Their advice can affect our mental and physical health.
Name the scientists. Name the laboratory. Name the conclusions. Let the scientists speak directly to us the result of their research.
Let them to use the scientific evidence without our political masters watering the ‘evidence’ down. Politicians need to get out of the way.
We ask rock singers about rock music. We ask gardeners about gardening. Why on Earth do we ask politicians about science?
There is still a problem. With all the scientific/medical expertise, these experts cannot offer a single, unified truth.
We listen to explanations, reasons and viewpoints born of interpretation of the ‘evidence.’
Scientists, experts, economists, epidemiologists, alongside the support of computers, charts, data and apps, show no consistency of agreement on the major issues surrounding the virus.
Where is the consistent scientific evidence on important features of this contagious virus? We have an endless production of views concerning or ignoring:
- Aged people
- Business
- Cause of the virus
- Colour of skin
- Death toll
- Diet
- Drugs
- Economics
- Exercise
- Future
- Face Masks
- Immune systems
- Lifestyle
- Lockdown
- Mental Health
- Quarantine
- Social distancing. 1 metre? 1.5 metres? 2 metres?
- Spikes
- Tracing of the contacts of infected people
- Vaccination
No wonder the public experience confusion, upset and anger with the experts and the politicians. The endless references to ‘scientific advice’ confirm endless streams of inconsistency.
Our experts and politicians find themselves way out of their depth. We want solutions to see the end of this epidemic but solutions remain out of reach.
The system of society that we have set up has let us down.
Big time.