Dr. Sanjay Gupta, I presume

One thing to be gleaned from the distant past is that it's neither better or worse than one thought it was at the time; it's a gnomic progression as witnessed by ancestors who guide us thoughtfully through piles of truths, half-truths, and lies. Daniel Defoe sifts through the misery of mid 17c London and takes notes, then writes a book--The Journal of the Plague Year--only to find that the great fire of 1666 sanitizes the city by destroying 400 acres at its center. We should find this fascinating and take heart, seeing how one disaster often cancels another in a sort of macabre dialectical process. Dr. Livingstone in his journey to discover The White Nile in the 1840s, instead discovered the source of the Congo. Hoping also to covert the locals to Christianity, he managed to convert only one African, a tribal chief named Sechele who quickly found the Christian rule of monogamy too constricting, hence lapsing into previous primitive behaviors.

One can only imagine what comfort Christianty must have provided adherents at inception, and then once again, a second wave, when churches were built all over Europe, churches that are now mostly vacant of both local parishoners, (and now, the American tourists that once populated them), but still stand as beacons of civilzational hope, hand-built as they were with mortar and stone. But the churches here are now closed to anything but curbside service, except in a few privileged, defiant, southern states, or gatherings at once defunct now re-purposed drive-in movie theatres. The great epidemiolgist in the sky looks over us with loving eyes.

We live as we've always lived, as if discovering great truths once again, encouraged by those who know to wash our hands in soap and hot water so as to avoid pestilence during the 24-hour news cycle. Follow these simple steps: 1) Wear a mask while looking down at the faucet 2), turn the faucet on 3) grab soap and permit it entrance to the places between your fingers and under your fingernails 4) rub hands together vigorously 5) rinse and repeat. Such advice is good for personal advancement, not to mention tv ratings, and should any of these current broadcast stars who purvey such essential advice have political aspirations the grateful nation will no doubt be at their feet.

What to do with all this new information? The history of Influenza! The economic consequences! The newfound social and cultural exposures! The end of democracy!  Might I be infected by the summer breeze? Is listening to Frank Sinatra or Miles Davis a possible curative? 

The answer? Read more books! Perhaps? Of course, the old bookish solutions still apply, especially those that weren't solutions to begin with.

The new debate among readers: the book vs. the audiobook? The subject of a two-hour townhall on CNN or MSNBC. This reader prefers to actually read a book and listen that way, than listen to an audiobook and not read.