An ode to COVID

A bit of perspective to COVID here. As you dear readers know your old columnist is no medical doctor but here is a brief sketch of what it was like to experience the modern version of the disease, the virus we call COVID 19. The first symptoms of our experience, as Grannie Annie followed me a couple of days later, was a listless feeling of runny nose and uncomfortable chest and lungs. It had all the symptoms of a bad cold. Lots of coughing and very tired. Grannie sent me to call the emergency room and they told me that they don’t do the tests anymore. It was suggested that I go to a local pharmacy to buy an over-the-counter COVID test.

Surprise! My COVID test showed a positive loud and clear so I had the dreaded virus. Yes, I had had the two COVID shots a year of so ago and maybe they served to give me a lighter case of the virus. A visit to our local clinic, for both of us, (surprise that they wanted us to come out!), and a very capable Physician’s Assistant, called us in to explain how the disease progresses. The protocol is to hydrate, get plenty of rest and isolate yourselves from all other people for at least a week. Then for another week stay away from other people as much as possible and do not attend church or any other gatherings of your friends and neighbors. Tough for someone who is gregarious and loves other people.

COVID is no longer the killer that it first was as it has morphed into a virus similar to what we know as the common cold. The term is endemic and means it is something that we all have and will kick back in when circumstances permit. Compare that to endemic or pandemic, which is what COVID-19 was when it first escaped into the world.

My experience is that having the modern version of COVID-19 is about having a bad cold. My chest was sore from coughing so much but the sleeping part came easy. I had already lost my sense of smell and taste but it was a new experience for Grannie Annie. Our prayer is that her senses will return to normal but meanwhile it is easier to abide by our weight losing goals.

One can remember that the whole COVID thing was the result of a Chinese Communist experiment in biological warfare. Sadly our government’s American immunologist and head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Tony Fauci, sent money to China to help fund the research. Millions of our fellow Americans, actually citizens worldwide, died of the wicked disease when the virus escaped the Wuhan Lab. Fauci, and his political associates, then saw it as an opportunity to lock down our entire economy, a devastation that we haven’t recovered from yet. Now he is recommending masks.

This old-time County Commissioner having been responsible for making the yearly county budget is laughing at the latest “suggestion” from Nebraska’s Governor Pillen. Our legislature in creating a state budget sent large amounts of tax money to our public schools to provide budget relief.

Now Pillen has suggested that those school districts use the new tax monies to provide local property tax relief. Somebody is dreaming because that won’t happen.

For any projected revenue increases those organizations will only find ways to spend it. In my experience, the only way to attain tax relief, for those who pay those taxes, is to cut the revenue that they can expect to receive.

Starve them from the top. They will trim their budgets to not exceed that projected revenue or they will have to borrow to meet their expenses. You borrow and you have to pay it back and that will cut down on future revenue expected. Local property tax relief—never happen!

Memories of 9-11 as I write this. Let’s not do it again.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail