To Prepare or Not Prepare? (Should that be a question?)

I’m sorry to hear that you humans are under the threat of a dangerous virus spreading throughout the world.  We chickens have experience with a deadly virus, too and it is not a good one.

Marek's disease is a highly contagious viral disease in chickens that causes paralysis, weight loss, and a collapsed crop that leads to death.  Your Coronavirus has a lethality measured at 2% so far.  Marek’s has a 100% death rate and there is no treatment.  It is spread by wild birds and it can lie in wait in the soil for years until a young chicken happens to come by to scratch or bathe in the dust.  The only way to prevent a chicken from catching this disease is to have an inoculation as a baby chick within the first 48-hours of life. The vaccines are not easy to handle and can be very costly so many hatcheries do not bother with them.  Baby chicks are very cheap in a feed store, but if you spend the money for a vaccination, it may double the price of the young bird.  Many birds die each year a terrible death from this deadly disease simply because people didn’t want to pay the price to keep them healthy.

From what I’m hearing from my farmer, your government is much like those hatcheries and buyers of baby chicks - trying to save costs and not making the containment of deadly viruses a priority.  Monies have been cut and people fired so instead of being ready to combat a new virus, they have decided to weather the storm and simply let people get sick by being unprepared and untreated. If you ever see what these terrible diseases can do to a bird or person, I think you will want to keep it from happening again, at whatever the cost.  As always, peace and good luck; you will need it.  Ollie

The news regarding Covid-19 (a coronavirus) is scary.  I agree with Ollie that we should have been better prepared.  “Draining the swamp” has destroyed the agencies of government that were in place to help protect Americans from deadly diseases such as this one.  I have argued in previous articles that there are some things in our society that need a government that is strong enough to protect its citizenry.  Call it socialism if you will, but there are things that are bigger than all of us and the only way to have protection is to have a government focused on being prepared to do those things that are needed in order to fight the bigger fights.  Yes, it will cost money (taxes).  Yes, it will mean larger governments (jobs).  Yes, there may be waste and inefficiencies (swamp) but when things go bad (Fire, hurricane, floods, and viruses) the victims will always wonder if something more could have been done to protect them.  They will turn to the government, no matter if they were for it or against it, and say, “Where were you?” and “Why were you not better prepared?”

A virus of this magnitude strikes quickly and with deadly force.  The preparation against this attack cannot be created overnight.  It takes years of training and preparation to establish a network of professionals that are able to react immediately and quickly when a virus arrives… and the viruses will always arrive, eventually. 

What Trump did in 2018 to decimate the CDC and other agencies preparing for this Covid-19 event has thrown the U.S. back into the 19^th century in terms of our ability to respond and resist dangerous viruses.  At this time we do not know how this will play out.  Will it be a dud and all of the media play and public controversy nothing more than a ramped out of proportion hysteria? Or will thousands of people become sick and die as a result of our lack of preparedness?  Only time will tell.

However, when the dust settles and this virus is a thing of the past, one question remains.  Will we be ready for the next one?  If not, which candidate should we put into the Oval Office this fall that will best lead this country into a safer and healthier future? 

Trump has already proven that he is not that person.