It has been a little more than eight months since COVID-19 insinuated itself into our lives, upending our local and global routines, and forcing (most of) us to take a real good look at ourselves and the culture and the world, and really consider our place on our planet. It has been an extended come-to-Jesus moment, this novel coronavirus that’s been our constant companion in 2020, and we are nowhere near a vaccine, and any potential inoculation that might protect humanity might well come at the cost of another species.
Shark livers, evidently, produce a key oil that is an essential ingredient for the production of flu and malaria vaccines, as well as beauty products. Should a COVID-19 vaccine containing this oil be a go, about half a million, and likely more, sharks reportedly would have to perish for our asses. This on top of the 2.7 million sharks that are killed every year to make cosmetics.
The more you know…is a double-edge sword, sometimes.
I mean, what…are we meant to do with this information? Root against us in favor of the jaws of the ocean or damn them, too, to extinction?
The thing about a vaccine is one is probably coming – but we cannot afford to put all of our eggs in the wishful-thinking basket.
Again: I am not a scientist and I don’t play one on TV, but I can and will say that the best vaccine against any ailment is to take care of oneself. You gotta eat right to get right. You gotta exercise. Ya gotta talk to someone, preferably a professional (especially if you are a cop in America in 2020), for you simply gotta try, at least try, to exorcize your inner demons and exalt the glory within you.
You are your own key.
Nothing’s gonna change, and no one else is gonna make it better or what it should be. It really is up to us, so while we continue to wait for a proper vaccine and, I dunno, crazy notion, some leadership, we have to do what we can to stay alive – and if that means revolutionizing how we live on this Earth, then so be it, already.
The time is right now.
King of Cups 