It’s interesting how some movie lines stay with us for many years. One such line that has come to mind recently is from the 1976 movie, Marathon Man. Sir Laurence Olivier asks Dustin Hoffman, “Is it safe? Is it safe?” The context for the question is that Olivier is an ex-Nazi coming to New York City to retrieve diamonds hidden away by his brother. He believes that Hoffman has that information and proceeds to torture him to garner what he needs. Olivier was also a Nazi dentist, so I won’t go into the details. If you have an aversion to dentists, you may not want to watch the movie.
So I started wondering if many people feel if, “Is it safe?” in the current Covid-19 climate. It is natural for people to seek out safety in their lives. The Covid-19 pandemic has made us safety conscious in a powerful way. To have security, you have to give up something, and that is freedom. Life is a balance between liberty and security.
From the time we are born, there is a certain degree of risk. Throughout our lives, we experience dangers in varying degrees, and we try to mitigate those risks. Even if you are into sky diving, a risky endeavour, there are safety procedures to make sure that you have a great experience despite the risk.
The COVID Crisis has created such intense fear in many people that they will give up all sorts of freedoms in the name of “safety”. So when does the yearning for safety become a danger in itself? Fear can be imagined or real. It is a belief that in the future, you will experience more negative than positive, more pain than pleasure, or more loss than gain. Fears can be rational, or they can be irrational.
Long term, irrational fear releases stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. It activates our sympathetic nervous system, which is our fight or flight system.
The pandemic has brought out the worst and the best. It is wise to wash our hands, stay home when sick and keep a distance from others, particularly when unwell. However, when we start locking down society or destroying businesses, then the fear and obsession with safety become destructive.
How much safety is enough? We get into a car every day. When you step into the car, do you think that you have a chance of being maimed or killed? In Australia, the death rate on the road is 6 people per 100,000 people. Cars are definitely safer than 50 years ago, but the risk is still there.
According to the Children’s Safety Network, an average of 945 children a year drown in the USA. So far in 2020, 26 children have died of Covid-19. Question; why aren’t swimming pools banned? After all, if we want to keep children––who are precious to us––safe, wouldn’t it be prudent to ban swimming pools and prevent them from going into the ocean?
Now you may say, that’s ridiculous, COVID is an infectious illness. Okay, so let’s compare the statistics to influenza. In the 2019 flu season, there were 144 pediatric deaths, in 2018 the number was even worse at 188. Compare that to 26 so far in 2020 from the Coronavirus. Locking children down and closing schools is irrational.
We have created an environment of perpetual fear. It’s almost as if we are at the mercy of an invisible virus. I am reminded of another movie line uttered by Clint Eastwood, “Do you feel lucky?” As far as the COVID virus itself, we need to have little fear, and this is why:
Under the age of 50, you have a meagre chance of dying from COVID, even if infected. The rate is lower than the flu. Even if you are over 50, your odds of surviving are overwhelming great unless you have some underlying health condition such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease. The good news though is that current treatments are much more effective at overcoming the illness so that the death rate overall is akin to that of influenza.
What is coming out more and more is that the worldwide attempt to hammer this virus by locking down societies and economies has been a bad idea. Many health professionals are speaking out about the devastating effects of what governments have done, and continue to do to the population at large.
Read the Great Barrington Declaration:
So it begs the question, how much freedom are you willing to give up? Ultimate safety is to be put in prison, preferably in solitary confinement. You will be totally safe, have three meals a day, even have access to the internet, but little freedom.
I put my trust in maintaining a strong and healthy immune system. I also have the knowledge that if I were to be infected, my odds of recovering would be pretty good. So I’ll take my chances and err on the side of freedom.
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