Uncertainty

I have come to see uncertainty as a cousin of frailty. 

As the pandemic emerged the danger it presented was unclear, whether it was simply on the scale of the flu or something more, it was unclear how it spread, whether by touch or by air, and how we might protect ourselves. This lack of information confronted our hubris by exposing to us the boundaries of our knowledge and understanding. We watched the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise. The stress on our healthcare and our economies laid bare our weakest links, the frailty of our systems: the dependencies we have on our front-line workers, our deep-rooted and essential human need to be interactive, social and relational.

These frailties acted as multipliers of uncertainty. As our systems were stretched to their limits we were faced with that unknown space of total collapse. In the absence of a solution, we thrashed about desperately looking for answers: bleach, UV light, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, among many many others. 

Yet, as vaccines came onto the market, they were met with resistance, elevating various murky philosophical questions around the sanctity of the body and individual vs. social rights. These questions exposed a divergence of opinions that have yet to be bridged, so divisions remain and continue to infect our communities.