I See Dead People

#192

Despite strong, some might even say compelling, evidence that we are on the verge of a pandemic; almost no one is paying attention.


It isn’t that the newspapers haven’t covered the story; there are reports about pandemic summits and preparedness meetings nearly every day. And even the major news networks have, from time to time, reminded us of the potential of a pandemic. But few take notice. It is lost in the overwhelming roar of a thousand other stories, all hyped as the latest `crisis’.


And so no one takes it seriously.


After all, the World Series in on TV, football season is well underway, North Korea has a nuke, Iraq is a mess, and the fall elections are but a few weeks away.


Otherwise intelligent people are turning a blind eye, and by doing so, they are risking not only their lives, but also the lives of their loved ones.


Sure, maybe it won’t happen. Maybe the virus will never find the genetic key that allows it to become a pandemic. But damn few reputable scientists are willing to bet on that. Most see the H5N1 virus as a real, and possibly imminent threat.


So everyday I see people on the street, in the stores, or driving down the road and I know they are oblivious. They are going through the daily motions of life, confident that nothing will abruptly change. After all, this is America. We aren’t some third world country, we have modern medicine, and we are civilized. Those sorts of things don’t happen here.


Of course, I try to tell people. But few want to hear it. It’s too inconvenient. Too disturbing. And doing anything about it, preparing for it . . . well, that requires both a financial and a psychological commitment few are willing to make.


When I was a paramedic, one of the most common stories I would hear would be from the spouse of someone who died of a heart attack. They’d tell me their spouse had complained of severe chest pains for hours, sometimes days, but had refused to call an ambulance.


At first, I was astonished. How could someone go for days with chest pains and not go to the hospital? How could anyone ignore such an obvious danger signal?


But after awhile, I understood the answer was rooted in fear.


For most people, the idea of dealing with a heart attack is so overwhelming, they would simply rather ignore it, and pray it goes away.


And so it is with a pandemic. Unbridled fear is what stops people from taking the basic steps they need to do in order to improve their chances for survival. If they ignore it and do nothing, maybe it will go away.


On average, the world sees a pandemic every 30 years or so. We are coming up on 39 years since the last one. We are overdue. Maybe it comes this winter, or next summer, or the year after. I can’t tell you. No one can. It could just as easily start tomorrow.


And when it comes, in this world of easy travel and international airline connections, it will likely come swiftly. It could easily be here within a week of showing up anywhere in the world.


There will be no time to prepare, once it breaks out. The grocery store shelves will be emptied overnight. Millions of people may find themselves with only a week or two of crucial prescription medications, life sustaining drugs, and no way to get more. Weeks into the crisis, many may find the power, water, and sewer systems failing, and they will have no backup for these essential services.


It takes months to adequately prepare for a pandemic. Food, medicines, alternative cooking, heating, and lighting; they all take planning, and logistics. You certainly wouldn’t want to have to try to acquire these things during a pre-pandemic panic.


But far too many are counting on it never happening, or are placing their faith (and lives) in the hands of a Federal Government that has already stated, repeatedly, that they cannot help individuals during a pandemic.


It is a terrible gamble.


If the scientists of the world are wrong, and a pandemic doesn’t happen, all these people would have risked is a few hundred dollars in basic preps. If the scientists are right, and a pandemic erupts in the next couple of years, these folks will have risked their lives.


The last time we were this close to having a pandemic, we were in a pandemic.


And yet, Americans ignore the threat, filling their shopping carts full of Christmas gifts, expensive trinkets, and instant gratification instead of canned goods, rice, and beans.


I see dead people.


They just don’t know it yet.