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Opinion

Did you know that the media is the virus?

That was the word on Saturday at the freedom protest in Chatham.

That’s right, reading this newspaper, we guess, could make you sick, according to protesters.

In reality, that’s not the case, unless you dramatically disagree with an opinion, a story or an editorial cartoon. Then, technically, your personal angst could make you physically ill.

Another item also gleaned from the Saturday protest: Mask wearing is the first stage in establishing a new world order, and they can make you sick, according to protesters.

We aren’t sure how the new order would come into being from masking up, however.

If you don’t wash your mask, like any poor hygiene practise, there can certainly be some adverse health effects as bacteria could build up.

But in regard to combating COVID, our own medical officer of health has long said social distancing and frequent hand washing both trump masking up, but when you can’t remain six feet apart, then a mask can help protect others.

The effectiveness of masks has been backed by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Canada, and the WHO.

The one-per-cent elites are profiting from COVID; another claim from the protest. In this case, with the likes of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pocketing an additional $48 billion in personal fortune during the pandemic, there are certainly some elites becoming even more, well, elite. Corporate greed is indeed alive and well.

It is true that people are dying and will die as a result of other illnesses during the pandemic. That is a sad reality. Surgical procedures were delayed, and people’s mental health is taking a beating.

But letting COVID run rampant would have meant overtaxing our health-care system and watching the virus ravage our senior population.

We don’t envy those in government these days. Decisions on how to respond to the ever-changing pandemic are under a microscope, with one group saying too little is being done and the other saying it’s too much.

There is no COVID guidebook, but there are guidelines. If more people followed the guidelines, there would be fewer people suffering through this illness, and we’d have squashed the curve by now.