First, we had to read the book. Alison read it. Then I finished it a few days ago. So, last night, we finally watched it.
Project Hail Mary.
It was excellent. Very worth the wait. Yes, it was slightly different than the book, but not in any way that took away from it.
A recent Academy Winner (which I am pretty sure Project Hail Mary will be joining that rank) was One Battle After Another. Thinking of that title made me realize that Project Hail Mary is...One Scientific Crisis After Another!
And that's true to the way science is. It's not a straight line. It's discovery and exploration, trial and error, solving and evolving. Every discovery leads to a new set of questions to resolve.
Our handling of COVID-19 was like that. As we gained more experience with what we were dealing with, the advice to handle it became more precise and refined.
Compared to other pandemics, the science progressed fairly rapidly. And that was in large part due to a man who had devoted his life to analyzing infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Millions of lives were saved because of the hard work of Dr. Fauci and many scientists and health care workers.
But we can't leave that alone, can we?
History has to be revised by fools like Senator Rand Paul, the orange conman, and an army of misled MAGidiots.
It was masking, social distancing, and eventually the vaccine that mitigated the extent of the Pandemic. As new information and discoveries emerged, scientists would refine their advice (e.g., how the virus spread less effectively outdoors).
America had a higher casualty number than virtually all other nations, but it DEFINITELY wasn't because of Dr. Fauci. It was MAGA didn't want to mask up. They didn't want to social distance. They refused to vaccinate. They didn't care who else they infected, because it impinged their own rights. Personal "freedoms" mattered more than human life.
This is evidenced by the fact that MAGA red counties had the highest death rates, especially during the time that the vaccine was available.
Last week Senator Paul led a committee whose sole purpose was to denigrate Dr. Fauci and use an unearthed PRIVATE diary to catch Dr. Fauci in a contradiction that could be used to accuse og him of perjury and send him to jail.
MAGA and Paul were trying to put us in the Upside Down. They were trying to turn the heroes into villains and the villains into heroes.
Disgusting.
We are now living in a time when diseases that were under control, like measles, are now roaring back, when lettuce has become feared because it may contain cyclosporiasis, when the corporations' right to pollute supercedes our right to be safe, when the Depatrment of Health and Human Services is led by an anti-vaxxer who swims in raw sewage, eats road kill, and drinks raw milk.
And what happens if the next pandemic hits while this parade of fools reigns?
God help us all.
We are so far from the cooperative, inquisitive, evolving science of Dr. Fauci and Project Hail Mary that it makes me weep.
T. M. Strait
AOC '28
