By PAUL NATINSKY
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching my 14-year-old daughter compete in a soccer exhibition before college coaches and scores of weary, but supportive parents. New teams and new parents crowded the hallways and sidelines of the indoor venue waiting for their turns. There was not one masked face in the place.
The next day, I enjoyed the sublime tones of my 18-year-old oboist daughter performing on the tightly packed stage at Orchestra Hall in Midtown Detroit with close to 100 fellow musicians and the customary crowd of assembled parents, some with grandparents in tow. Admission required a current vaccine card and a mask.
I would venture that many parents have encountered such wild juxtapositions of COVID policy during the past few months. That it makes absolutely no sense as a disease containment strategy should not come as a surprise. And it has little to do with the politicization of the current pandemic.
Take, for example, the initial response to AIDS/HIV as it boomed into the national consciousness in the 1980s. In the early days of that virus it was thought to be a death sentence. There was no vaccine (even still) and early treatments like AZT were thought by some to be nearly as bad as the virus.
When Magic Johnson contracted HIV in the early ‘90s, the disease went mainstream and lost a bit of stigma in some quarters while generating controversy in others. The NBA immediately developed strict protocols to protect players, staff and medical personnel. A drop of blood from a scratch stopped a game immediately and medical staff were gloved, masked and goggled.
Meanwhile, north of the border, professional hockey players continued to bleed on one another and bring their not-completely-blood-free bodies right back into the action.
Eventually, science prevailed everywhere. Universal precautions eclipsed heretofore barehanded and barefaced health service encounters, especially those that are body fluid intensive, like dentistry or on-the-spot first aid. Patient interactions became a glove, mask and goggle affair.
While the search for a cure and a vaccine continue, HIV has become endemic. Treatments have improved and continue to improve and many regard the virus as a manageable chronic condition.
While the stigma of HIV/AIDS has not completely dissolved, it has greatly eased.
Magic Johnson is still regularly in the headlines, but never seemingly for HIV-related issues. The crazy quilt of conspiracy theories, moral judgments and abject policy failures have levelled off and in some cases greatly reduced.
To be sure, they are still there. Not grabbing headlines or preoccupying the general public, but nestled deep in the psyches of a portion of the population.
In the main though, science, common sense and education characterize lasting changes as HIV/AIDS continues to imprint its legacy on our society. For those with short memories or of tender age, rancor, misinformation and paranoia were every bit as intense and diasporic during that crisis as they are now with COVID.
Perhaps we can all take a breath as we navigate the middle stages of the current challenge and work toward making COVID and one another as manageable as possible.