I am confused by the reluctance of some Arizonans to be vaccinated. It's a tiny prick in the arm. It takes a minute. It keeps you safe and people around you safe and stops you getting sick or dying.... all of which should convince a rational human being that it's a good thing. In the Great Plague of London in 1665, when there was no vaccination, the whole city was shut down, and people were misguided enough to think that it was the dogs which spread the disease, so they killed the dogs who were actually killing the rats who were carrying the fleas which spread the infection. Ignorance can be universal and inter-generational and fatal. We have fewer excuses now because of science. The ignorance then was understandable. Not everything is the same. They had to witness the corpses, when the cart came round to pick up the dead. Our sick are whisked away into the privacy of hospitals. Church bells tolled the dead, now we have sirens. The houses of victims were marked with red crosses. Families were locked in and died together and sometimes starved to death. Naturally the rich and upper classes got away to the safety of the countryside. Some things don't change.

If the benefits of vaccination are to be appreciated and the dangers of infection mitigated, should we have simple signs outside the houses of the infected like they did? Red could stand for a death. Yellow for sickness. Green for safe. Those worried about the safety of vaccines should understand that statistically getting vaccinated is safer than driving in Arizona where many compete to get to the next set of traffic lights as a matter of life or death. Over a thousand Arizonans die in car accidents every year. No one to my knowledge had yet died from vaccination. An additional roadblock requires some genius whereas to develop a vaccine against the variant strains of "trumpestis electus frauditus." In medieval times there were old soothsayers like Mother Shipton, who spread lies and weird prophecies. Now we have Old Mother Gosar, and Taylor Green stirring their magic pots. Unfortunately once a person becomes infected by their misinformation, they are beset by hallucinations and starts imagining strange plots like the "dog" idea. Media organizations are happy to exploit such sickness.

Because the virus cannot be seen without an electron microscope, many don't understand or believe it exists and they worry they might be taken advantage of. Even when dying from COVID, people deny its existence or are happy to take horse medicine because they have been told it can cure or protect them. People are confused. 21,653 people have died from this plague in Arizona, a third of the number who died during the London Plague, but the political leaders are not perceived as having responsibility for that toll. That they ignored timely measures and policies which could have saved lives is not even discussed as an issue. The bodies are shoveled quietly off into the grave or incinerated and the only public protests have been about the increased smoke. No marches, no mourning, just a silence. Native Americans, a marginalized population got to work and did far better. We seem to shrug our shoulders and turn away. So the New Zealand, Australian, Singapore governments did so much better and proportionately lost far fewer of their population. Who cares? The dead don't vote. Have we become de-sentitized?

Thinking about how we have coped with this pandemic, forced me to think of the Londoners back in 1665, of the terror and confusion they must have felt, the smell of burning sulphur, quack doctors in strange hoods looking for money and ready to exploit your death. No sanitation, no hospitals, the possibility of a terrifying and ugly death, your glands turning black. You were told it was the judgement of God for your sins or just original sin. No mercy from a disease scything its way through the population, no quarter given to children. Now we know better, or should. We can prevent infection and death. We are so much luckier but the question remains. Have we done enough to save the lives of our fellow citizens? Did we care enough? Does our behavior and do our actions or indifference reflect who we are? How will we be judged in 2265? We all have choice. We can decide to avoid sickness and death through vaccination. Londoners in 1665 had almost none and died in their houses doubtlessly questioning and doubtlessly confused.