Taking Risks
March 8, 2023
What compels people to take risks?
That was a line I heard recently. It was said in a financial context with respect to the stock market, but I couldn’t help but think of it in a medical context, given how many lined up outside pharmacies for the past two years and willingly rolled up their sleeves to take multiple shots of an experimental drug that had been rushed to market. A drug that carried and still carries a warning label for heart-related side effects and that the manufacturers have no liability for should something go wrong.
What compelled them to take such a risk? To set aside your paranoia and doubt and take a leap of faith in science, in the words of a former colleague.
It wasn’t the fear of dying from this so-called virus. If such a thing even existed. Even according to official government figures, the vast majority of those who perished were seniors and those with compromised immune systems. Those are people who die of colds or minor respiratory infections all the time.
It wasn’t because you wanted to protect others. If they wanted “protection,” they could line up and take the shots themselves. It was “free” and no one was turned away.
It wasn’t because you trusted the government or the politicians who keep parroting the “safe and effective” line. Politicians are habitual liars. It’s probably a prerequisite for job. It reminds me of an old joke. How do you know when a politician is lying? When his lips are moving.
It wasn’t because you trusted public health officials who also kept parroting the same “safe and effective” line. I mean, does anyone take anything Theresa Tam says seriously after she suggested married couples should wear a mask while in bed together?
It wasn’t because you believed what you saw on TV. They don’t report the news. They are the news. Everybody knows it. They lie more than the politicians do.
It wasn’t because you trusted your family doctor. The same family doctor whose income is undoubtedly being supplemented by the manufacturers of the drugs he prescribes to you.
It wasn’t because you really believed in the efficacy of the drug. After all, you dutifully kept wearing your mask and maintained a six-foot distance between you and any other human being even though you and most everyone else around you had taken it.
I don’t know what compelled anyone to take such a risk. To put their life in mortal danger.
Future generations will be just as curious.
And they won’t have any good answers.
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