There is an ancient proverb that states “In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.”

It is in this flaunting that those who, amid this coronavirus pandemic ignore the advice of the experts, I would like to nominate for the Darwin Awards.

According to their website, ”The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it in a spectacular manner!”

One might quibble that the potential deaths resulting from this insipid folly are neither accidental nor spectacular. But I would argue that these potential deaths are accidental because these nominees have failed to anticipate the danger; as saying goes “Fools rush in where angels dare to tread.” And it is spectacular only in its scope, as in the myth of lemmings running over a cliff.

The first nomination is for the people who do not believe evolution is real. I grant that it is not as obvious as light, heat or gravity, but it is proven science and the reason why we have new viruses and have to invent vaccines for them. Second is for the people who ignore or think they know better than the health experts and seem determined to throw caution to the wind.

The real tragedy is that these people endanger not only themselves but others around them. It is bad enough that we have a President who is as incompetent as he is dishonest, but the harm that the corona virus is doing to our society and economy is being compounded by the above mentioned nominees whose flagrant disregard to public health and safety endangers our families and businesses.

We cannot change some one’s behavior but we can certainly do our best to keep our distance, or as another of the ancient proverbs state: “Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.”

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay