FEATHERS ON THE WIND

Airborne Coronavirus

There’s a lot of debate out there right now about the efficacy of wearing a face mask out in public to help slow the spread of COVID-19 virus.  A retail health greeter who recently asked a customer to wear one was stabbed in response!  There’s still a lot we don’t understand about how this virus spreads, but scientists now believe that viral particles encapsulated in a droplet of saliva or mucus can attach to a host cell and infect the person.  Unseen tiny airborne bioaerosols simply released through exhalation can spread the disease—like opening a bag of feathers that randomly scatter in the air.  It would seem that these masks are more useful to keep infected people from spreading the virus.  How much virus a person must breath to get infected isn’t known.  Infection from touching surfaces in now considered not to be a major risk and the virus primarily moves from host to host.

The very nature of this relatively unseen and still not totally understood virus taps into the human psyche as something to be feared, challenged or worshipped.  It would seem that the older generation rightly fears the consequences while the “immortal” younger generation challenges it. 

David Eagleman in his book, Incognito, relates the story of a man who wanted to record for posterity some of the most important music ever to come out of Africa using a tape recorder.  He got into immediate trouble when he played the music back to a native who thought his tongue had been stolen!  The quick-thinking man saved his own life by producing a mirror to confirm that the tongue was still intact.  Eagleman notes that “A vocalization seems ephemeral and ineffable: it is like opening a bag of feathers which scatter on the breeze and can never be retrieved.  Voices are weightless and odorless, something you cannot hold in your hand.”    

This virus, like our voice, is unseen, but unlike our voice that moves to others’ auditory systems, the virus moves to others’ respiratory systems and can be deadly for thousands of people on the planet.  And even though many remain skeptical due to its unseen nature, they need to understand that like our voices it travels on our breath like feathers on the wind.