RCS Posts: We need to be a we before we can be an effective we
We have experienced a new viral disease vector among us. We have called it Covid-19 and know that it is an effective contagion. It has spread among us by watery droplets and particles of a variety of sizes, many to small to be seen by our unaided eyes.
Speaking of eyes, Covi (as we affectionately call it in Colombia), may enter our system through our eyes.
Covid can also be transmitted to us as aerosols so is a bit airborne, but is born down by the water which carries it. There may be disease vectors which are more effectively airborne.
A more fully airborne vector could infect a larger portion of Earth with more deadly effect than Covid. Such a situation could be met with a well organized, well prepared public public response. A more generally organized and effective response than the people of Earth have practiced within memory is possible. That is, a lot of us could be called to practice a co-operation, organization, and understanding to which we have not yet become familiar. Who would make that call? Who would respond to it?
We are the public and we are the responsible for our public health system. It is up to us to organize. We have been reminded that a healthy public health system and a well educated corps of public health journalists could help us greatly. When we do not take responsibility for our public health system and our public health Journalists who might? With a little more support and co-operation, with a little more support our public health system could be better prepared to support our health and to stand with us effectively.
However, the people of that system may not be the best to keep enough of us well informed. Many of the specialists and professionals of our public health system are much like many of our doctors. They often speak a language we do not readily understand. They have a language which appears to serve them well, but does not serve us very well.
For a little while, at a time when there were fewer of us, a significant number of us were kept better informed by news paper journalist who specialized in public health issues and sometimes had dedicated columns. There are now fewer news papers per-capita and they not as well funded and the demand for specialized columns is low. No new public health specials are be employ by papers or magazines and we are less well informed. New journalist to specialize in public health are not being trained or educated.
How can we get an ongoing stream of important public health information which we can easily understand? The answer to that question seems to be up to us.
I have done little to support a good and improving public health system or a good public health information distribution system. How about you. You or I can't do a lot alone, but perhaps there is a larger we willing to do a bit together.
We have a lot to learn and a lot to. We might do well do begin some of that learning and doing right now. Its a good thing that we can be so very many.
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Thank you for reading this little essay.
rcs