May you live in interesting times

“May you live in interesting times” funny enough a Chinese wish, and yes, they were right: we do live in interesting times.

A lot of people ask me what I think about the situation and to put my thoughts on paper.  I don’t really worry about this virus itself. There are different things related to this virus to worry about.

E.g. the economic, social and political impact in the coming years. And not to forget the next pandemic, which might be a lot worse than this one.

The most contagious aspect of this situation is not the virus, but the anxiety and fear, the fake news, the conspiracy theories, the conflicting information presented by medical science, the confusing statistics showing or proving whatever you want. Indeed, common sense is not that common and even rare in this period.

A thing that worries me more than the virus itself is the lack of knowledge and the nearsightedness of the medical community. So far medical science has not come up with a solution in such as a medicine or a vaccine.

But when Chinese doctors give Chinese herbs to their patients, when otherdoctors work with IV vitamin C or when they are repurposing medications like chloroquine, methylene blue or ivermectin, they encounter the doubt and criticism of their colleagues. Even if they have never tried or even heard of these possible solutions. Which is an insult to these colleagues who do try, and their patients who have at least a better change to survive.

If I would be infected and have a choice between dying from the infection for sure or take a chance of even 10% of survival by taking one of these well-known, but unproven substances, I would certainly do so.

And here is my observation: doctors who often advise their patients not to take medication or supplements as effect is not proven (yet) or because of safety reasons, are taking them themselves or giving them to their family when their health is in danger. This I find incomprehensible and inexcusable.

The virus has been around for a long time, longer than we and we always have been in a continuous conflict with viruses and microbes. Sometimes we have the upper hand, but now a virus has. Sometimes we are at the top of the food chain, now we are below the virus. A different biological view is that the human species is a virus or parasite itself. Don’t bother thinking about this, you might run into some truths.

Think about this though: no matter what we think of ourselves, God’s greatest creation or the ultimate product of evolution, nobody will miss us when the human species has disappeared, most likely by our own behavior. No animal, plant or tree will feel sorry for us not being around anymore.

I came to this thought by looking at the bright side of it: pollution is down (look at satellite pictures before and during the lockdowns and the minimized air travel, the canals in Venice are cleaner than before, animals are getting into the city during the lockdown, the crime rates are down, terrorism and wars stopped, even if it is temporarily, less people die from (car-accidents).  All positive right?

But what will happen when the lockdown is over?  I am afraid, it will be business as usual and we will try to pick up where we left. The virus learns quickly, human beings do not. I am not a preacher of doom, but we always tend to neglect the warning signs that something major is going to happen: the Pearl Harbor attack, the fall of the Berlin wall, nuclear accidents like Chernobyl or Fukushima, 9-11 and now this. None of the so-called experts have seen this one coming.

Or it could be this is a bifurcation point. We will not be able to continue in this way, so things will be a lot better than before or a lot worse than before.

Some time ago, I was with a good friend and mentor of mine, Carmelo Bosco. And after working hard on the development of the vibration platform, we were sitting in a restaurant in Rome. The waitress, who wasn’t the prettiest girl in the world, wore a T-shirt with a great statement.  We both started laughing about the deep truth in this statement. And if one statement becomes more applicable than ever in this period, it is that one: “what you don’t have, you don’t need”.