Have you heard enough about Coronavirus yet? If not, feel free to tune in to the Coronavirus
News Network, also known as CNN.
I have zero medical experience in virology and public health,
so read no further if you are looking for a Whistleblower travel advisory or if
it’s safe to pet Scruffy if he develops a fever.
I’m also not here to gripe about our nation’s response to this
incipient pandemic. Although we have a first class team in place
now, even they admit that they stumbled initially. I'm more interested in making progress than in racking up debate points.
My observation is that there is no issue or event that is
immune to politicization, a reality that depresses me. We all agree that prior to the virus’s
emergence from China, we were already rabidly hyper-polarized and hyper-partisan
in the zero sum game that now defines our political landscape. I won’t add to this sentence so as not to
waste readers’ time in reading what we all know and agree on.
On many issues we should expect differing views
from our two main political parties that are philosophically distinct. For example, changing income tax rates, border
issues, health care policy, funding our defense department, trade policy are examples
that will give rise to spirited policy debates. This is as it should be. During normal times, meaning decades ago,
these differences would be debated and a solution forged by resorting to the diabolical
technique called compromise.
But, or so I had thought, some issues should hover above
this chaos in the rarefied region of the stratosphere where reasonableness
prevails.
Illustration of Coronovirus
Is it Democrat or Republican?
To offer an absurd
hypothetical, if a lawmaker offers a bill declaring cancer to be evil, would
this pass unanimously? It seems
non-controversial, but who knows? Perhaps, the opposing party might be suspicious of the
motive, or fear that this is the entry point to the slippery slope that will
lead to Medicare for All. Or, the opposition will agree to vote for the
bill only in exchange for votes on some unrelated issue. We all know how this works.
I have hear many pundits and partisans in recent days who
can’t resist taking political shots at their adversaries when they are
questioned about Coronavirus issues. These crass responses give this gastroenterologist heartburn. Let them save their partisan venom for an
appropriate issue. Coronavirus is a potential
global health crisis and, as a medical professional, I assure you that it is
non-partisan. It will infect anyone. So, when a salivating political hack is asked
about it, he should be telling us how he intends to help rather than angling
for a cheap political dividend.
I wonder how my patients might react if I queried them about their political leanings as they were about to be sedated before undergoing a procedure.
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