Dr. Kildare on COVID-19

Quarantine, oxygenation, antigen, antibody, incubation, contact tracing, PCR and PPG have all become the lingua franca of everyday discourse. Household kitchens have begun to sound like emergency rooms. Trump notoriously opined about Hydroxychloroquine and bleach and even elementary school students know about the regimen of Remdesivir that was administered to the president at Walter Reade. Everyone has a different opinion about the meaning of "social distancing." Some have used the occasion of the pandemic to recuse themselves in silent retreat while others have taken an astronomical view of the term, insisting on looking at their friends at a distance of 25 feet when they’re not getting together for dinner over Zoom. Then there's the old “free love” crowd who travel everywhere and do everything and look at "social distancing" as simply occupying an aisle seat on the plane. Their masks are always falling below their noses so they can be sure that the aerosols which don’t make it out of their mouths have somewhere to go. This is not a time for oratory since an impassioned speaker is likely to infect you. The quiet silent type, like the character Clint Eastwood played in Dirty Harry is probably the best bet if you have to be in the vicinity of someone who isn’t wearing a mask. One wonders what old-fashioned TV icons like Dr. Kildare or Ben Casey would have said about all this?