Dear Editor:

There is not a single one of us who pines for the days before the pandemic disrupted our lives with the need for masks, vaccines, social distancing and tests. We have all grown weary of keeping up our guard against the threat of infection. We need to beat this thing.

And we can beat this thing. We beat polio, measles, chickenpox, smallpox, whooping cough, mumps, diphtheria and many more horrible and deadly diseases that now show up rarely if at all. We did it with effective evidence based medical science and coordinated community effort.

While medical science has made significant headway in providing the tools and knowledge for the prevention and treatment of our current pandemic scourge, our social response has been hampered by the retrograde politics of denial peddling the illusion of personal freedom. This is the primary reason we are locked in this pandemic’s grip.

Here we have two freedoms in conflict; the freedom from this pandemic, and the freedom to act irresponsibly. The latter is an illusory freedom because when people feel they have no responsibility for  the health and welfare of others, they place themselves at risk as well. It is like throwing garbage down the well that we all drink out of. This is not freedom, it is a fool’s paradise.

But you cannot teach a fool to be wise. As the ancient proverb says, “Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.” or as the modern colloquialism paraphrases “There is no cure for stupid.”

So as the pandemic foolishly drags on, we must tolerate certain mandates and other limitations now so we can enjoy the eventual real freedom from this pandemic. But what we should not tolerate are fools who pretend to be wise.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay