The Owner says she will be going to work as soon as her Virus is gone and her Stitches are Dissolved Away. (Squeaky Cat is rather alarmed by this as he is now Mainly Stitches and Hopes they will not Dissolve as he will Go With Them.)

What will happen to the Moral Dog if you go to work? I ask.

The Lovely Day Care People will look after you, says the Owner.

So what Exactly will we both be doing for the next few weeks? I ask.

You will go to Daycare with Houdini and Caspar and Bercow, says the Owner, and I will go to see Poorly People and Do My Best.

That seems a Little Disproportionate, I say. This suggests that whilst you Save Lives I will merely be Entertained. (The Moral Dog, as Readers may know, has an Alter Ego as Superdog, the Caped Crusader, and does not Take Kindly from being Excluded from Morally Relevant World Saving Activities.)

I do not See It that way, says the Owner. The Best Way for our Community to Come Through this whilst losing as few people as Possible is to let the Virus Pass through the Healthy 60% as Safely as Possible whilst we hide away those who are less Healthy.

But the Guardian says if we do that 1% of the Healthy 60% will die, I say. That is terrible. How can that be right?

It would not be right, says the Owner, it would be Terrible, but I believe it is Incorrect. The American public health research and information base, the CDC, says that the chance of health under 60 year olds dying is extremely small. It is not 1%. That is the percentage of Everyone, if Everyone has the virus.

You are nearly 60 I say, carefully as one never knows how such Comments will be Taken.

As I have said before, says the Owner, the Moral Dog’s maths is Rubbish if he thinks 58 is the same as 60. The report says there have been no deaths at all among people younger than 20, which is wonderful. They show that whilst the risk of dying of Covid-19 is about 10% for those in the over 80s, and about 5% in the 70s, and 1.5% in the 60s, it is only 0.37% in the 50s, including those with underlying diseases, and even less in younger people, falling to zero in Persons under 29. So if only the Under 60s who are not Otherwise Unwell catch the Disease we may not lose even 0.37%.

I understand that, I say. But what does that have to do with the Moral Dog Doing His Bit by spending the day on a Trampoline with Houdini?

Why do you play on a Trampoline with Houdini? Asks the Owner.

I do not want to say, I say.

This is because we watched Colditz isn’t it? Asks the Owner. You are trying to Bounce him over the Fence aren’t you?

We might be, I say.

Look, Hergest, says the Owner, now is not the time for Houdini to Challenge the Dog Pound to a Race through Hertfordshire. The Moral Dog could help reduce transmission across a whole County by keeping Houdini under control.

This is true, I say, although Houdini does not respect County Boundaries. He has his sights set on Yorkshire. He has heard there is a Place in the Dales with a dog bowl AND free Kibble outside, and it is Straight up the A1. Why do you not come to Day Care and do the same? I ask.

Because I am a Doctor, says the Owner. There is work for Doctors to do. If we can truly keep the Virus in people under 60 without Other Illnesses, we could lose very few people to this World Tragedy. And then most of the Country will be Immune and it will not Come Back in the Same Way.

That does not tell me why you want to spend all day in a Hazmat Suit, I say.

That is because, says the Owner, those figures are Dependent on a Working NHS. This working NHS depends on those who can looking after those that become ill. It needs Huge Team Effort. Because the people that will not die may nevertheless need Intensive Care in Significant Numbers. Because even the Young can be Ill, and if they are not ill and do not Stay Home they are Deadly Weapons to the old. I do not see a Better Option.

I suppose I cannot work in the NHS, I say.

Not really, says the Owner. There is a Small Matter of the Training. It takes many hours to Become a Doctor, and very little Cheese is offered. To become a Moral Dog, however, requires very special qualities of Dogness which make the World a Little Better for Moral Persons.

So we must each do our Separate Tasks to Pull Together as a Whole.

That is Right, says the Owner. That is what a Huge Team Effort it. The NHS is a Big Part of it, but it is still only a Part of it. Who knows, we may be a Better Community at the End of it.

That would be Something, I say.

Indeed, says the Owner. It would.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm?s_cid=mm6912e2_w

Categories: dignity dog dog philosophy

Tagged as: Covid-19

Hergest the Hound

I am a dog of many thoughts.