Rant #2,363: Manic Depression

"Manic depression is searching my soul
I know what I want
But I just don't know
How to go about getting it. ...

Manic depression has captured my soul."

--"Manic Depression," Jimi Hendrix Experience

I kind of condensed the lyrics of this classic song, but I think that the world, as a collective culture, is going through "manic depression" right now over the coronavirus.

Actually, I don't know if it is a collective panic or manic depression, or a combination of the two, but we are all going through it, whether we like it or not, and there seems to be no end to it, with it getting that much worse each and every day.

I woke up today to do what I do, and my newspaper tells me the following things:

1) President Trump has banned trips to Europe;
2) The State Department is asking Americans to postpone or cancel trips overseas;
3) The NCAA has whittled down its March Madness schedule; games will probably go on, but without any fans in the stands;
4) The NBA has postponed its season, as one of its players has tested positive for the disease; roughly one-fifth of its schedule is affected.

We are in complete and total panic mode now, and I still have my doubts about this situation. I am not downplaying it in any way, shape or form, but I do think that we are beginning to lose a grip on what this thing is while we try to combat something that is already in the air, and that people are going to get no matter what measures we take.

Again, that is not downplaying anything, but our lives are complicated enough without this added into it.

I wrote this yesterday on Facebook, and you can take it at face value. I am not a doctor, so I was speaking as a citizen of the United States, and as a world citizen, too:

"This coronavirus mania is reaching epic proportions, and we, as a world society, have completely gone over the edge.

Look at the stats. The coronavirus has existed in humankind before, and even with this new strain, the numbers suggest that its virulence level.is similar to the common flu, which we can contain, somewhat, but we have not fully eradicated.

I think the main thing here is that this breakout has brought to the fore the one subject that is still pretty verboten: personal hygiene. Not everybody takes care of themselves correctly in this regard, and now, we are told for safety's sake, we must do what needs to be done, personally, to keep ourselves as clean as possible.

The media needs to sell newspapers and get clicks on their stories on the Internet, and TV newscasts need to grab viewers. This is the perfect story to boost their usage.

Be smart, which you should be doing anyway, and use your brains. Barring people from large public events will NOT stop the virus. Once it is in the system, it is there, and will grab onto those who simply cannot fight it off, for whatever reason.

Be smart ... this is not the plague ... we will get a hold on this and it will pass, to a certain degree."

No one is saying that the virus is something we should not be paying attention to. But I think in our verve to conquer this thing, we might have gone a bit overboard.

From what I have read, most people who get this malady recover from it after anywhere from a week to two weeks. Others who get it have a longer period of sickness.

And yes, there are others, who do to compromised immune systems and other reasons, can die from this.

It all sounds eerily like the flu, and disease which seemingly develops new strains each year, and when we get it--even with vaccines--we get it.

I think the unknown is getting to us. Most people have never heard the term "coronavirus" before, even though it has existed--and been in the lexicon of some of us--for generations.

We are being hit left, and right, and in the center, with reports everywhere related to the disease, and like any disease or malady, it puts fear into people.

This time, it is putting fear into people--the younger generations of our country--who have never had fear, and like most things, they do not know how to deal with it.

Look, past generations had to deal with polio, measles, mumps and a whole variety of potential fatal diseases while cures--or at least stabilizing efforts--were ongoing. The world did not stop while these measures were being taken.

I can remember as a kid, I had measles or some remnant of it. Yes, I could have died from it. I was put into my room, and the only people who could have contact with me were my grandmother and mother, both of whom had the disease when they were younger.

I was a toddler; I don't remember much about it, but I was able to recover and move on with my "Larry the Menace" life.

I remember just a little later on, when my mom was pregnant with my sister, the woman next door had visited by mother, and soon after, got German measles. Since the contact was so fresh, and there was nothing my mother could do, my family prayed, and prayed hard, that the growing fetus would not be affected. My sister was born, 100 percent healthy, thank God, and that was that.

And yes, even later on, I remember lining up in school and taking the sugar cube which I think was our very first prevention of polio. I can barely remember that, but I do remember that sugar cube.

My parents had a friend, who has since passed away from other maladies, who had polio as a child. He did not let it stop him one bit. He did everything, played everything, married and had children and grandchildren. He was successful in business, and the only way you knew that he had polio was that he had a limp. It never stopped him from doing anything.

Generations younger than Baby Boomers have absolutely no understanding of such things, because they have never had to face polio, measles, mumps and other such maladies head on like older generations have. They simply were given a shot, and they were protected.

This is the first such malady they have ever had to face with fear, and it is making them feel uneasy with their lives for perhaps the very first time.

(As an aside, personally, it is affecting my job search, because with so many workplaces closing or going on hiatus, hiring new, unknown people is not at top of mind right now.)

As I said, people are working on a vaccine to try to combat this latest horror. They are working here, in Europe, and in Israel, and they are doing it cooperatively. In fact, I read a story that other day that as a vaccine is being developed in Israel, the country is actually working with its own citizens and the Palestinians to find a cure.

Yes, I repeat, Israel is working with the Palestinians. They have a common goal of eradicating this menace, so they will put down their animosities toward each other, even for a little while, to do what is right for them and for society as a whole.

Incredible, to say the least.

Right now, we must all be vigilant, but we also must all calm down a bit, try not to waver from our daily routines, and do what is right. Take personal care seriously, and do what we can to live a normal life.

This is not the current rendering of the plague, although many people think it is.

We have the world's great scientific minds working on this thing, and we have to put our trust and faith in them to come up with something to at least slow down the disease's spread.

Let's all be vigilant, but not stupid, about the coronavirus.

Let's take all the precautions we need to, but let's not go overboard with fear.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

--quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first inaugural address