The Golden Age of Stupidity

    I saw a newspaper article the other day entitled “Are We Living in the Golden Age of Stupidity?”  I knew exactly what the article was about and I knew the answer:  YES.  

    Last week when I went to the post office to pick up our mail, there was a letter addressed to me with a snarky yellow Post Office sticker on the envelope telling me that the address was wrong.  This in itself was ridiculous, because I didn’t send the letter, write the address, or even know who sent it.  There was no return address on the envelope, just a handwritten statement:  “From a northern resident.”  It was all very strange.

    When I opened the envelope I found a two page printed diatribe attacking the medical profession, the Canadian Government, and the Covid vaccine.  It was unsigned of course.  I could only shake my head in disbelief as I skimmed through the thing.  It was full of statements about “science says this and science says that”, all of which were false.  One sentence that caught my eye was that whenever a virus mutates, the virus “becomes weaker”. This was followed up by a statement that “therefore the Delta variant is a very weak virus that poses no threat.” 

    I know enough biology and evolution science to know that usually when a virus or any living thing mutates, it is generally harmful to the organism, but every once and a while, a mutation can instill great advantage to an organism.  The Covid virus has gone though hundreds, maybe thousands of mutations, most of which caused no concern to humankind, however a few mutations have given the virus new powers.  The Delta variation is one of those.  It has enabled the virus to spread much more easily and rapidly through the human population.

    As far as the Delta variant posing “no threat”, the author of this fictional document might try telling that to the hospitals around Western Canada that are on the verge of practicing triage (deciding who they will treat and who they will let die) because there are no longer any ICU beds or medical staff available.   The author should try selling this “snake oil” belief to the people whose urgent cancer treatments have been postponed because all the beds in the hospital are full of Covid-infected people who thought they were “too healthy” or smart to bother with getting a Covid vaccination.  

    It is disheartening to see so many people swallowing such disinformation.  They question and avoid the vaccines, but rush off to farm stores to get horse worming medicine to use on themselves in an attempt to prevent the virus they say is not a risk.  Truly, we ARE living in the Golden Age of Stupidity.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca