Colm O'Regan: I'd prefer to be one of the sheeple than a killer
I promised myself I wouldn’t get involved. But I’ve watched people on Facebook putting Laugh Emoji reactions underneath sad news about Covid-19 for months. People with epidemiology degrees from the University of Life, ten years’ experience working Full Time At Mad Bastard. Like a gom, I waded into one pointless coronavirus argument with a stranger on Facebook.
I was not the voice of science. I took the mickey. A cheap shot about his Matrix profile photo. (Some people who’ve watched the film a lot know What’s Really Going On and the New World Order.)
In return, he called me a soy boy. Because I’m one of the rule-following sheeple, I’m apparently less masculine, no doubt because I probably consume a lot of soy. Soy, it is said, by people who say ‘soy boy’, inhibits masculine hormones. It’s a not a common insult in Ireland where cow’s milk is practically the eighth sacrament and about four people eat tofu but whatever. We traded barbs briefly (that’s what you do with barbs). The whole thing was a depressing waste of time.
Could I be wrong to sheepily believe the average scientific view that Covid-19 is very bad and kills healthy people, that social distancing, masks and handwashing are the right things to do and it’s worth the sacrifice? Could the whole thing actually be groupthink, incompetence or a conspiracy that is destroying our economy, preventing early health intervention, hurting people’s mental health?
As regards, incompetence, I imagine scientists have got some things wrong. First guesses at what to do are never 100% accurate. They needed to be refined. I see some dissent from the average expert opinion but no massive groundswell. And if I’m doing a risk analysis, I’m currently working off the broad average. Could there be a Big Pharma Big Government conspiracy? Well, there could. Big Everything has done bad things before so there’s no reason why couldn’t they be up to something now. But I think that most conspiracy theories give too much credit to conspirators' organisational ability and discretion. There’d be a leak. Anyway, many conspiracies are the legal things that happen to those who make your fast fashion and your smartphone components or to the environment.
But let’s say I’m wrong, and you, Person on the Internet are right. Say Big Pharma, Big Mask, and a load of other Bigs are sneakily/incompetently leading us all idiots into a corral where they sneakily/incompetently take all our money and rights?
Lockdown has made us poorer, unhealthier, unhappier. Mental health issues could lead to bad outcomes. Medical screening cutbacks could lead to bad outcomes. These are really bad things that have happened because of anti-covid rules.
So imagine I say “Feck this, it’s fake news. I’m going pinting and visiting”? And it turned out the whole thing was fake? Then I’d be a freethinking legend.
But let’s say you’re wrong and Covid-19 is that bad. Then, eventually, the lockdown damage would happen anyway as health services are overwhelmed and the economy suffers as people live in fear. And if I'd said “Feckit, it’s fake news”, I could unknowingly infect and kill someone. My own mother. Or my daughter who was born with a heart condition. Or a nurse or someone I’ll never know about. Or myself.
That’s the imperfect logic I use for now for my risk assessment. If I obey the rules I’m either an eejit or I don’t kill someone. If I don’t I’m a legend or I could kill someone. Faced with finite gain or infinite loss, for now, this cows-milk-drinking soy boy sheeple, (or is it sheeperson?) is following the flock. At a distance.
