Tag Archives: disease

Pandemic Fatique

Our recent pandemic exposed a lot of the inefficiencies in our government as well as our broader society.

Our healthcare system is too privatized and fractured to effectively respond to a broad, nation-wide crisis.

Our education system does not teach adequate media literacy skills (much less science literacy) so Americans do not know how to properly sort through sources of information throughout the media landscape. As a result of that, we have different factions of Americans who have their own go-to news sources that simply confirm their own biases. (This is also a result of the balkanization of the media ecosystem caused by the digitalization of the media but that is another conversation).

Our political system is too polarized and fractured to be effective in a nation-wide crisis because crises are politicized for partisan agendas. Also, the two political parties that control the processes and infrastructure are essentially bought off by corporate oligarchs and do not represent the average American. This is why they use marginal, “social issues” to keep Americans divided and ignorant to real issues that actually matter to our common interests.

America is a clusterfuck of unregulated capitalist greed.

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Go vaccinate yourself!

I caught the flu last weekend.  I could have easily avoided it by walking a block away to my local pharmacy and paying for a seasonal flu shot but I had become complacent in my health, I was taking my health for granted as do most modern humans.  I paid the price for my complacency (and my laziness) with lungs full of mucuous and the temporary loss of two of my physical senses.

Vaccines really are a marvel of modern healthcare, an invention that has saved millions of lives from what are now preventable diseases.  Diseases that were once feared as potential plagues are now confined to history books thanks to vaccines (some of those diseases are unfortunately coming back thanks to the spreading of some mis-information but that is another topic of discussion).

Fortunately for myself, I still have a relatively strong immune system and my good health is returning but I should make more of an effort remember the new flu season every year.  I don’t want any new influenza mutations to infect my body again.

Go vaccinate yourself!