Proudly on the fringe
I’m part of the “fringe” that a handful of journalists speak about with such derision. That’s because I believe governments across the industrialized world have failed to treat COVID-19 with the seriousness that it deserves.
I am one of those who wears an N95 or C99 respirator when I go to the grocery or drug store. I also do this if I attend events with large crowds. I am convinced that if I don’t, I’m far more likely to contract COVID-19 through the air.
There have been times when I’ve been the only person in an auditorium or movie theatre wearing an N95 or C99. I stick out.
At those times, I console myself by thinking of people far greater than me who’ve been castigated by the mainstream for being on the “fringe”. Like the astronomer Galileo Galilei. Or civil-rights heroes Viola Desmond and Rosa Parks. Or Nobel Peace Price winner Malala Yousafzai. Or William Wilberforce, who opposed the transatlantic slave trade. Or environmental educator and broadcaster David Suzuki.
They were all on the right side of history and weren’t deterred by ridicule or, in some cases, violence and/or imprisonment.
Why am I on the fringe with regard to COVID-19? It’s because of papers that I’ve read by very smart scientists and which have been published in various journals.
Over time, I suspect that my views about the need to monitor indoor carbon dioxide levels, the dangers of Long COVID, and links between COVID and brain injuries and heart disease will move into the mainstream. When that happens, more people will wear respirators at crowded events if scientists haven’t found a cure for this disease.
It took about three decades before the mainstream fully appreciated that Suzuki was always correct about the impact of rising greenhouse gas emissions.
Back in 2007, I commissioned an article by environmental writer Mitchell Anderson about the incredible number of climate-change-denying articles appearing in Canadian newspapers. Anderson’s cover story carried the headline “Trust us, we’re the media”.
When it comes to COVID-19, I’ll trust Canadian media commentators who pontificate on this illness when I’m convinced that they are actually reading the research. A good start would be to search for papers published by Eric Topol, Trish Greenhalgh, Jose-Luis Jimenez, Serena Spudich, Avindra Nath, and Ziyad Al-Aly, among others.
Until that day comes, I’ll remain proudly on the fringe.