(The late Christine McVie, noted composer and vocalist. She became famous as a member of the band Fleetwood Mac. Her public obituary cited her ‘passing from a short illness.’ Image courtesy Wikipedia).

Someone rose in the darkness and screwed around with the coffee maker and the bacon. We like the bacon crisp and as flat as possible, which is a reaction to the tangled mass that the messcooks used to serve up when we were afloat.

We did the weather thing for today in Arlington and digitally with the very small group from that Square State out west and down in Tidewater. Some smoked out on the balcony and thought about the parallel issue to the ones of sun and wind and rain: our public health problem.

We agreed the weather wasn’t broken and it would be a chill but reasonable day. Then we turned our attention to the social stuff.

“The Department of Health and Human Services is confronted by an urgent challenge for which it is ill equipped to deal.”

Those words were not about the pandemic. They were from a morning story written 19 years ago. So, not about the last pandemic. They were attempting to describe the pandemic before the last one. Or maybe two before. It is hard to recall at this distance which ones actually rose to panic status. We looked at the summary of what some of us Cold Warriors felt before the COVID thing transformed how we live.

Splash read it with a grim face filled with faux gravitas: “While much progress has been made in preparing the public health sector to confront the threat of the domestic use of weapons of mass destruction, there remains a significant gap in the Department of Health and Human Service’s ability to receive, analyze and disseminate accurate threat warning information. The role of the Department as Lead Federal Agency for public health response pose distinct challenges incompatible with broad dissemination of sensitive information. Our recent experience with COVID demonstrates the problem.”

There was a moment of silence as we thought about problems in 2003 and the ones today. We are still arguing over whether the pandemic is over. We are also in vigorous discussion of how successful our response to the virus was. Yesterday there was an animated response to the news of a beloved celebrity’s death. She was in a famous band, and all of us in the Writer’s Section remember her as a vibrant and talented performer. The short obituary on the radio ended with this: “passed after a short illness.”

That is not a controversial phrase, or at least it wasn’t. You know what happened. Splash threw out the now-chilled remains of the once-steaming coffee in his mug. “See? Another death from those vaccines!” He rose and stalked off toward the condo’s door.

Buck is our resident economist. He smiled ruefully. “See? Telling part of the story is actually part of information strategies. We would have paid no attention to a five-word cause of death. In fact, we would probably have just assumed it was the family’s decision to have a little privacy about a sad event.”

Loma laughed. “Now it is part of a conspiracy!”

Rocket waved his tablet and said “this morning it is not a ‘short illness.’ The experts are saying we could face the threat of three different infections. They are colloquially called a “tridemic.” That means a simultaneous surge of COVID, Influenza and a thing called Respiratory Synctial Virus. You know, the dread RSV.”

Melissa shook her head and her long blonde locks danced across her shoulders. “Do they recommend we run out and take a new shot of something that is supposed to prevent short illnesses?”

There was general laughter with a hint of unease. Buck contributed a grimace. “Only if the companies that manufacture the new one are immune from liability. And are produced here in the US instead of China.”

“Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the more shots and boosters we get reduces our natural immune response?”

“Only for short illnesses.”

“Maybe we just need better information so we can tell the difference between a serious problem and an ordinary one that comes each year.”

“I suppose this means we will have to practice social distancing in the elevator and wear masks to go down to the laundry room.”

“Nah. It could only result in a short illness.”

“Well, it is short. That means it won’t bother us that long.”

“Unless it means something else. Like it kills you quickly.”

Melissa frowned. “Are we going to look back on this conversation in twenty years and wonder why we didn’t do something about telling the truth about what is happening in Public Health?”

Rocket put his tablet down and got up. “How about we talk about going to lunch? One good thing about being back in town is that you can walk to the restaurants.”

“There are hazards associated with walking, you know.”

“There are already three threats being publicized as of this morning, so adding the perils of simply walking around is an overload. The Health Sector information stream has to incorporate information produced by the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the Intelligence Community. According to them, everything in the current season has the hallmarks of a misinformation campaign.”

“They didn’t say Russian, and if it only means a short illness, we should be OK, right?”

“That is certainly one way to look at it. If we all live to happy hour, we can have a drink and see how we did today.”

“I know whose music I want to play,” said Melissa. “Say You Love Me” always works for me. Or “Have mercy, baby on a poor girl like me” It might be appropriate, you know?”

We all give a short nod of agreement, completely alert for any signs of RSV on the balcony.

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com