Spit and snot

I think there’s something wrong with me.

Sadly, my post-retirement chillax attitude, which took a good bit of time to re-learn, has quickly devolved from hopeful optimism to growing skepticism.

Sometimes, I swear, I am downright cynical. Old journalist habits die hard.

For example, I’m starting to believe a good chunk of people from 2020 will be remembered as the “Un-greatest Generation.”

A far cry from the “Greatest Generation,” coined by TV newsman Tom Brokaw for his 1998 book of the same name. Those upstanding American citizens born from 1900 to the 1920s lived through and experienced hardships of the Great Depression.

They fought in World War II or worked in industries that helped win the war.

They learned how to survive, make do and solve problems.

They told extraordinary stories that defined the words courage, sacrifice and honor.

They gave so much and asked for so little. They were my mother and father.

They were the parents of baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964.

And, now, quite frankly, these aging boomers are the ones most likely to find themselves on the wrong side of history. I am, of course, talking about anti-maskers who refuse to cover their faces in public.

Like wearing white after Labor Day, it’s just not a good look.

When will the COVID-19 death toll be high enough for these pro-virus protesters to wake up, shut up and mask up, if not for their own health and well-being, then for the rest of us?

Clearly, with nearly 294,000 lost American souls, we’re not there yet.

This week, a cable news chyron glared at me in bold white letters across the bottom of our kitchen TV screen: “3,103 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. Wednesday, the most in a single day.”

A single day. That’s equal to another 9/11 terrorist attack.

At this rate, we’ll easily reach 350,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 by year’s end.

Enough of this nonsense. We’ve heard you, anti-maskers. Loud and clear.

And your message is wrong.

No amount of foot-stomping, pouting or faux-patriot temper tantrums is going to make you right. Even if you believe the claim (read: misleading Facebook meme) that “COVID-19 has a 98 percent survival rate and people shouldn’t panic.” Or wear masks, I’m guessing.

In March, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before Congress that the COVID-19 mortality rate may be as low as 1 or 2 percent when accounting for people who are infected but don’t develop symptoms severe enough to be tested. To Fauci, however, that was a very dire figure.

A 1 percent mortality rate “means it is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu,” he said.

Further, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before a Senate committee in September.

“These face masks are the most important, powerful public health tool we have. And I will continue to appeal for all Americans, all individuals in our country, to embrace these face coverings. I’ve said if we did it for 6, 8, 10, 12 weeks, we’d bring this pandemic under control,” he said.

The “Un-greatest Generation.” Don’t be part of it. All you have to do is give a damn.

The moral and social fabric of this country has been torn, and with each passing day, it becomes more threadbare.

Let’s bring back the days when Americans showed empathy and compassion for each other. The days when we gave so much and asked for so little.

When we trusted the science.

Which brings me to Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” who put one unsubstantiated theory to rest last week in a video he shared on TikTok that already has 4 million views: “There’s a perception that a virus can travel through the fibers of a mask. But viruses don’t travel by themselves. No, they travel in droplets of spit and snot.”

“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but … #maskswork. Wear one. Carry on,” he wrote as the video’s caption.

“This is not that hard to understand, everybody.”

No, it’s snot.