Can Covid-19 teach us to respect Mother Nature’s power?

Can Covid-19 teach us to respect

Mother Nature’s power?

A good friend told me that at our age we’re all dodging bullets. The big bullet we’re dodging today is, of course, the Coronavirus or as it’s called Covid-19. We’re told that those people 70-years old or older are especially vulnerable if they are infected by the virus. 

And if you’re over 70-years old and have underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, lung, and heart problems or are overweight, you are especially vulnerable if infected by the virus.

I’m 81 years old. I haven’t been diagnosed with diabetes or lung problems. But when I was 76, Aortic valve stenosis was the bullet I was dodging. Open heart surgery corrected that problem. 

I have not asked any medical professional if this qualifies as an underlying medical problem that can put me in a special risk group. In my mind, I don’t qualify. Of course, the threat of Covid-19 has affected me. Nonetheless, I continue to live life as well as I can, considering the circumstances. 

I've cycled more than 1900 km this year, I read the NY Times every day, I write the occasional article about things I regard as important, I clean the house, I study Italian online and I cut the grass. What I don’t do is attend meetings because they’re all canceled as were our planned trips in May. And my social life is limited. All this because of social distancing.

I don’t ignore the coronavirus. I think of Thomas L. Friedman's substitution of the word He with She in the popular song, "He has the Whole World in His Hand" and the core problem we face is defined. For the first time in many years, She, Mother Nature, has the whole world in her hand. The entire planet faces the same challenges from the same coronavirus at the same time."

Friedman continues: “Mother Nature is just chemistry, physics and biology, and the engine that drives her is one thing: natural selection. That is the quest of all organisms, to survive and thrive in some ecological niche as they engage in the struggle to pass on their DNA to their next generation.”

Mother Nature is not only all-powerful, but she’s also unfeeling. She can inflict her virus on your grandmother on Monday and blow down your house with a tornado on Wednesday and come back on Friday and flood your basement. But she can also give you a warm hug in summer or give enough snow for pleasant skiing in the winter.

Mother Nature will not stop spreading this virus until either we come up with a vaccine or 60 percent of us get the infection to give us herd immunity.

This brings me back to my original point. The big bullet we’re dodging today is Covid-19, and people who are over 70-years old face greater risks from it than younger people. Therefore, we need to develop strategies that protect the most vulnerable in our populations and let the least vulnerable return to work. But! Let’s be careful that in returning to normal or the new normal, that in doing so we respect Mother Nature’s power.

One last thought from Thomas L. Friedman: “We can’t challenge Mother Nature to a duel. That wouldn’t be smart as she hasn’t lost a duel in 4.5 billion years.”