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Yes, trust science, consider history, and pull together

We seem to be debating a lot of issues when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic the world has been enduring.

Globally, 4.5 million people have died from it, including 670,000 in the United States, 29,768 in Pennsylvania and 312 here in Lycoming County, as of Friday.

Initially, societal hopes were pinned on a vaccine. Then came vaccine hesitancy, misinformation and a whole lot of debate.

Among the protocols intended to stop the spread was the practice of wearing masks in public places and gatherings of people beyond their own household.

Much debate has persisted around masks from the get-go, and now debate over masks in schools has turned into angry protests.

We hear one day that a COVID booster shot is recommended; the next day, maybe not. This is indicative of the type of waffling we’ve witnessed from higher authorities all along — what’s a person to believe?

How does anyone know with 100-percent certainty how to navigate a pandemic in a manner that supports full survival of the population? Or perhaps a much greater degree of survival than would have been possible in prior centuries, before the advances that have occurred in recent decades in medical science?

Common sense tells us that of course there’s a lot of uncertainty when facing something not faced before.

That takes us back to something we heard at the outset: Trust the science.

History tells us of past health events that have threatened our species, from the bubonic plague 700 years ago to the onset of AIDS in the 1980s. Those are just two.

The world was far removed from the marvels of modern medicine in the 1300s, but had made so much progress by the 1980s that ultimately treatments were developed and AIDS was not the automatic death sentence it was in the early years of the scourge.

Think about it. When AIDS began, there was much fear and a lot of misinformation (no, you cannot get AIDS from a public swimming pool, for instance) but then came protocols for safe sex and medical advancements that allowed for hope and optimism.

Science was put to work. In that respect, we do not see that COVID-19 is much different. If anything, it reinforces the notion that yes, we should trust the science.

Science is where we should pin our best hope to survive this menace. Then, when the world wakes up healthy again, and we have to believe that day will come, there will be plenty of time for debate, perhaps about matters that will move us forward toward better times.

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