(Image courtesy of CNBC. Dr. Fauci noted in his remarks that “I don’t care if you’re a far-right Republican or a far-left Democrat, everybody deserves to have the safety of good public health and that’s not happening.”)

This was a tough morning at the Writer’s Section. We normally enjoy Mondays. As mostly retired people- retired from the normal mild irritation of Getting Ready For Work routine. You have made it to the office, those of you still hanging onto that regular paycheck. That meant the usual immersion in the Water Closet, scraping whatever parts of the epidermis that need tending, brushing the other things only the Dentist is supposed to scrape, and then turning attention to the closet to select professional garb.

The pandemic changed some of that routine. We are amazed at what people appearing on broadcast television are permitted to wear. We recall the various rituals. Uniforms were easy, since they were supposed to be…uniform in appearance. After retirement, and liberation from enforced standard attire, things got a little more complex. Like what color or pattern of neckwear, the right pattern and tone of fabric on suits and an assortment of mostly leather things to put on the feet before the traditional ‘Search For Keys and Cars,’ and the delightful trip to the office.

A lot of people are like us these days. They may be “working from home,” or just more comfortable wearing more casual styles. So, just to be ready to go out in public have shifted around. It is uncertain when- or whether- the old standards will return.

That is part of the universal experience with the pandemic. There are more significant things in progress, of course. We have the note from one of our old Government employers tacked up on the bulletin board reminding us that even though we have been retired from service for a couple decades, we are still liable for prosecution if we are critical of officers still serving in specific billets named in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ, Article 88).

Let’s be clear on this. We all- universally and uniformly- support the people making these decisions. You can imagine the reaction if you received an unexpected letter from some office that did not exist when you were on active duty. And the painful and expensive process of having to retain private legal counsel to defend yourself against the Federal Government. They apparently have plenty of lawyers on staff and could spend anyone into bankruptcy.

We are generally opposed to that, and supportive of decisionmakers who had not quite finished puberty when we left the service. The Chairman recognizes the potential problem, and doesn’t want to get yanked into long disputes in court. He asked us to consider the consequences of getting people stirred up who read the products issued by Socotra House, and we happily complied.

There is the matter of being entertaining, though. The pandemic times certainly provided a lot of that, but several people in the public square are saying things like “the pandemic is over,” and “masks didn’t work,” and “What the heck is a social distance?” We are concerned about that and eager to support the officials specifically named in the UCMJ. So we are keeping discussion of some aspects to a respectful and compliant minimum.

The problem with that is the apparent prohibition on speech about some of the more peculiar aspects of Public Health Policy. We would like to address some of those insurrectionists out there who are critical of several aspects of the vast health establishment. While being completely supportive of our government and all the edicts that were issued to make us all safe and secure in the time of panic and sadness.

As you know, Buck is a career academic and not subject to the provisions of military justice. We asked him, as a free citizen, how he was going to do things like question some of the policies that went along with defeating the virus. He shrugged. “You can’t get me to take a public position that would put me in opposition to Government policy. Like the commotion about the vaccines. My official position is that there was a lot of stuff going on. Circumstances required swift action. Granting immunity to the Pharmaceutical companies only made sense, given the times.

We understand and sympathize with the government. There are those like Buck who think they have a right to blather whatever they think, whether it is correct or not. Buck smiled.

“I am not a denier of anything,” Buck said firmly. “It is too bad if some of the drugs we were told were safe are actually lethal to some parts of the population. Or that sending infected older folks back to nursing homes they came from might cause some of them to perish.”

“Mistakes might have been made, but they were understandable.” We all nodded, since it is possible someone was recording the conversation for later use. “The whole blood clot thing is just an unfortunate association. It is too bad that (REDACTED) got that clot right after getting both doses of the vaccine. It almost cost “them” a leg. The surgical intervention and the time in the hospital to have it removed wound up costing almost a half million bucks.”

“It was just a demonstration of solidarity with our Public Health System. Like Dr. Fauci’s research in China on the SARS-1 virus twenty years ago that was intended to improve the ability of the virus to reproduce. Who knew it had the possibility to go wrong? Or that masks didn’t work right up until there were enough of them produced to make everyone wear them. Then they worked. And then the vaccines that apparently work best for the people who don’t take them. And the booster shots that actually decrease our natural immune reaction.”

We couldn’t tell who said those words since we were all intently looking down at the parking lot to avoid inadvertent attribution in legal affairs. We did have a general sense that some denialism might be floating around, dangerous misinformation right out there in public, unapproved by responsible authorities.

Thankfully, we are determined to remain supportive and compliant with public policy. One of the reasons we moved from The Farm back up to Arlington was better access to medical resources. Even if some people claim they are wrong.

We support everything we are told to support. It only makes sense, you know?

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com