<p>In the modern media climate, you either agree with the government or you’re a conspiracy theorist. If you say “Hey, wait a minute – a novel coronavirus is spreading throughout the world and killing thousands of people. That’s alarming. But, we know for sure who is most likely to die from COVID-19. We know the telltale symptoms. We know what medical equipment we need to combat it. So, why are billions of people virtually locked inside their homes by their own governments? That seems suspicious.”</p>
<p>Governments across the globe issued lockdowns and stay-at-home orders to their citizens. They acted under the guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO), who advised that the only way to curb the spread of this novel coronavirus was to minimize contact between people. Some people contract the virus but don’t experience severe symptoms, such as children, but locking them up was deemed necessary to prevent the virus from ravaging more vulnerable groups, such as the elderly.</p>
<p>If you say (or, God forbid, publish) anything along the lines of “Well, shouldn’t we keep sending the kids to school, but cancel field trips to the nursing home? Maybe prohibit visits to Grandma, screen visitors upon entering the assisted living facilities, and disinfect the floors and doorknobs a few extra times each day?”</p>
<p>But if a person expresses this type of sentiment, oh boy – he or she is labeled as a cruel, heartless individual who hates Grandpa. I love my grandpa, and he isn’t concerned about catching the coronavirus. He lives in southern California, so he probably should be cautious, but the man is 82 years old. The love of his life died 30 years ago. He is retired and legally deaf. My grandpa lived a long life. He drove logging trucks on primitive mountain roads, served as a volunteer firefighter, raised three kids, drank a lot of Coors, told a lot of tall tales, and took his grandkids fishing. He refuses to live the last part of his life in fear of the coronavirus or anything else that will cause his demise. I hope Grandpa is washing his hands and wiping down the cart handle at the grocery store, but I respect his decision to not take extra precautions.</p>
<p>My grandfather’s opinion seems to be shared by many others is his age group. The Punching Bag’s Larry Horist is a few years younger, but his writings show that this generation seems confounded by the extreme measures taken to stamp out the coronavirus. Overall, they don’t support widespread business closures and think they should be allowed – along with all other Americans – to make personal decisions regarding the extent they wish to protect themselves from this disease or any other.</p>
<p>I sure wish politicians embraced this line of thinking. It’s a fact that 80% of people recover completely from COVID-19 without hospitalization. It’s a fact that the majority of people who die from it are not children or young adults. It’s a fact that the new virus will always be with us at some level, and it’s a fact that repercussions from this global shutdown will negatively impact people mentally, socially, and economically for years.</p>
<p>All these facts make me want to find a brick wall and beat my head against it. I’m sure the liberals are hoping I will, because then there will be one less dissenting voice to oppose their strategy of global lockdown and fear-based federal obedience.</p>
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