Part of the process of becoming a mature adult is developing the ability to see nuances and shades of grey – understanding that few problems have a simple, black and white answer. As adolescents we are sure that the world would be much better if everyone just did things our way. My mother, of blessed memory, had a sign on her fridge that advised us to leave home and make our way in the world while we still knew everything. 

The mere concept of a magic bullet or universal panacea shows how much we yearn for simple answers that would fix everything. Alas, reality tends to be complex, even though we kick and scream and don’t wanna. Trauma has a funny way of making things difficult that maybe don’t look that way to people with privilege. Learning about trauma, especially of the systemic kind, should be on the curriculum for all adults. 

As an example, I recently heard a (Conservative, of course) government official in this province declare that some people think that safe consumption sites for addicts are “a universal panacea” – of course nobody is claiming that, they are merely one facet of keeping people alive long enough to access those touted treatments and maybe even gain the ability to “just quit”. Affordable housing and culturally appropriate counseling go a long way, too. 

The same is true of layered disease protections such as vaccines and masks. It is unfortunate that many people did not understand that they were seeing science development in action – scientists being unsure, making mistakes, changing their minds, fighting among themselves on Twitter. This is how it happens in the real world, it’s just usually not so public. Vaccines are amazing tools of modern medicine and have the ability to make life much much better, especially for the world’s poor, who bear most of the burden of disease. But they are not a magic bullet, or an invisible shield that makes people impervious to viruses. All they can do is provide a layer of support and protection. That’s why, when we have a surge, such as now, it’s important to add more layers – masking, better ventilation, open windows in places where that is feasible. Societies that have decent sick leave provisions do better because people can stay home when they are ill instead of coming in to work and infecting everyone, because they will not be able to pay their rent if they don’t. 

There is no magic bullet, but there are lots of layers of mitigation we can do – if we do the work. That’s the hard part, but we can’t skip it, if we care.

This is Black Friday week, and the company I work with is having some great sales. Drop me a message if you’d like to learn more. Wishing all my USAmerican readers a safe and happy Thanksgiving.