CARLTON FLETCHER: Of conspiracy theories and the reality of COVID-19

I’ve listened to them for a while now, these people who insist — because the man they put in the White House told them so — that the coronavirus is some kind of hoax perpetrated on the nation to keep that man from winning a second term in the White House.

“It’s the greatest deception in the history of mankind …” one said. “All this coronavirus stuff will end on Jan. 20 when Biden is sworn in as president, then he’ll be a hero …” another insisted. “The science that’s being put before the American people is a lie, a fabrication perpetrated by the deep state …”

(A pause here: This “deep state” bogymen that I keep hearing about from conspiracy theorists is about as nonsensical a pile of tripe as I’ve ever heard theorized. I’ll tell you right up front, I have no idea what the “deep state” is because all the theories I’ve read or heard people explain contradict each other so much, it reminds me of Fletch’s pronouncement about avionics: “It’s all ball bearings now.” There … I had to get that out of my system. … And another thing, since when did people reading made-up hogwash on the internet become the source of a growing group’s belief system?)

Meanwhile, Georgia and the nation just set records for numbers of positive COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths in a single day. Experts are saying that, minus a real quick in a hurry rollout of an effective vaccine, this country is in for the worst health care disaster in American history.

And yet … 

“You can’t make me wear a mask; it does no good anyway … I’ve got inside information on the real science …”

I’ve been chastised for putting out “false and misleading information” because I, repeating stuff I’ve heard from people like doctors and officials at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and other health care facilities, recommended that people wear masks. Even if it’s an empty gesture, as some who obviously know more than said Phoebe doctors and officials have suggested, I feel better when the people I interact with have their noses and mouths covered. Maybe its just the gullible wimp in me, but I feel that our area has seen its COVID numbers reduced to a fraction of the early days of the pandemic because people have been following guidelines established by medical personnel, not internet conspiracy theorists.

And while I am not one of those people who accuses people who do not wear masks — or politicians who try to dissuade mask-wearing for political gain — of murder or manslaughter or any other crime, I do know a few things that have helped me determine that attempts to get people to wear masks are not political or world-domination plots. I know people who contracted COVID and spent several days fighting for their lives. Some who have come out the other side of the disease still have not fully recovered.

I listen to these people tell of how this insidious virus impacted them, and it makes me angry to hear someone with no basis of knowledge proclaim the virus a hoax. I’ve even heard — and this came from a person who is a nurse — of people, defiant for no apparent reason, declare there was no such thing as a pandemic, even as they were struggling to breathe what would be their final breaths.

I don’t really care what you think of me for suggesting you wear a mask in public. I don’t have any super-secret inside information, only the recommendations of people I trust. I’m way beyond that. But I do have to bite my tongue (in this case, hold my angry fingers back as they attack this computer keyboard) when I think of Travis and Dakota Page, two talented musicians — and two fine young men — in the very prime of their lives — 21 and 23 years old, respectively — who are battling for their lives after testing positive for COVID.

Here’s what I wish all these people crying hoax would do: Get in touch with the Page Brothers and ask them if the pandemic is real. Ask them if all the talk of the impact of COVID-19 is a hoax.

People like that can keep showing everyone what a proud rebel of an American they are by not wearing masks and spouting some made-up science that proves their conspiracy theories. I’ll be saying a prayer for the Page Brothers — and the people and communities I love — and just hoping that they survive.