Okay, spring has already arrived — at least based on calendar theory, as some of us can look out a window and see a dusting (sometimes very heavy “dusting”) of white blanketing our yards. However, spring has historically been a time of renewal, and since the shutdown just over a year ago, we’ve taken steps (although excruciatingly slow ones) to get back on track. A huge factor in that is the increasing number of vaccinations in the populace, which not only helps those individual persons, but also substantially reduces the risk of a mutated version of the Covid virus taking hold.
I’m old enough to remember going to public buildings — in my case, it was a high school gym in 1961 that was converted into a makeshift clinic to administer the Sabin polio vaccine, which with the earlier Salk vaccine, was hugely successful in eradicating that terrible disease. Clearly, a global vaccination effort can work as long as everyone gets on the program, but it’s hard to preach a scientific approach to someone who actually believes the Covid vaccine carries brain control nanoprobes linked to Bill Gates.
Some things never change. In fact, it was just 388 years ago this month (April 12, 1633) that astronomer Galileo (ironically, also the father of the scientific method) faced a church inquisition for his belief in the Copernican model of the Earth rotating around the Sun — rather than vice-versa. He lost the case, was convicted of heresy and spent the next nine years under house arrest. Yet, regarding Covid vaccines, hopefully science will win out this time, we can put this behind us and finally return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Meanwhile, stay safe!
