Letter: For most of us, it’s probably better to get the virus
To the editor:
It’s easy to see that within the past few months there have been some profound changes in our society — on a large scale and on a personal scale — and the greater part of these changes are due to our response to the coronavirus, not to the virus itself.
A great many people are walking around swathed up and avoiding one another like the plague, thus taking away much of ordinary human engagement and banter as we go about our ordinary business; this absence sinks deeply into people, more so than we are aware. Many people continue to stay alone in their homes and apartments without visits from friends or loved ones. An elderly man sitting with his ailing wife in the hospital is told he has to leave. A younger lady says, “Since being laid off three weeks ago, I’ve had sleepless nights and anxious days.” And more than a few people have been watching years of work or their life-work wilt away, not knowing whether it will rise again.
Along with these changes, a subtle element of fear has become mixed with the usual currents of community life. It does not help that TV and radio use the word “death” so often. The news media don’t mention that in the last 10 years, familiar problems like the flu, automobile accidents and drug overdoses greatly overshadow coronavirus fatalities. Nor do they mention the far more important point that death is a part of life, that we lose well over 2.5 million people every ordinary year in America and it really is OK. It is the nature of things. We don’t like to see people go, but this is life.
All of these reactions are causing varying degrees of harm, quite independent of the virus itself. And circumstances that depress one’s mental spirit also depress one’s immunity.
Remember that “flattening the curve” means prolonging the curve. The two curves as drawn represent an equal number of cases. I now ask what may seem a silly question: Is it better for you and I to get the virus or not to get it? It is human nature to say, “No, I don’t want any virus!” But human nature is not always wise. For the majority of us, I maintain, it is probably better to get it and be done with it. The great majority of exposed people have mild or no symptoms. The usual pattern with epidemics is that once an epidemic passes through an area, a large part of the people have resistance.
In the fall of 1918, as the flu pandemic of that year continued to pass around the world, it kept changing and became much more lethal. Therefore, as it turned out, most of the people who caught the virus earlier were fortunate. The 1918 epidemic was far worse than our current affair, but even in that event, as John M. Barry pointed out, the overwhelming majority of people recovered quickly and fully.
David Ellis
116 Cliff Ave.
Portsmouth
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