Column: COVID-19, Tuscaloosa & The Parable Of The Drowning Man

*This is an opinion column*

TUSCALOOSA, AL — My Grandmother loved the "Parable Of The Drowning Man" and while I admit I heard the same preachy story over and over dozens of times, only until last night did I have any real-world application for its moral.

In the most common version of the story, a pious man is trapped in his house as flood waters rise, certain that God will protect him. Over the time it takes for the flood waters to inundate his home and force him to seek refuge on his roof, he turns down rescuers in a row boat, a motor boat and lastly, a helicopter, before the flood waters drag him under.

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Before meeting his death, his response to each rescuer had been "my God will protect me."

But when the man makes his way past Saint Peter and on through the pearly gates, God is confused and disappointed when the man asks the Almighty why he didn't protect him.

I always loved when my Grandmother would exercise poetic license telling her version of the story to say: "You damned idiot! I sent you two boats and a helicopter!"

I'm sharing this humorous aside because I think it's more appropriate than ever in trying to understand the current surge in the coronavirus pandemic in Tuscaloosa. Our hospitals are rapidly filling up with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, which comes in concert with a massive influx in population and social gatherings as school starts back for the fall semester.

ALSO READ: Citywide Mask Order Unlikely As DCH Logs 115 COVID-19 Inpatients

The University of Alabama is even going so far as to offer students cash for getting vaccinated, but only time will tell if this made any difference. And last night, The Tuscaloosa City Board of Education became the second major institution after UA to implement a temporary mask order.

But the common denominator here, at least by my observation, is a general unwillingness on the part of a tired public to do what is necessary to maintain this fight to its end. Indeed, we have more tools at our disposal to fight the coronavirus at present than ever before, along with a year and a half's worth of knowledge in living under this pandemic.

Are we taking advantage of this, though? Absolutely not.

Instead, as we saw with some at Tuesday night's meeting of the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education, the knee-jerk tendency, even now, is to attempt to discredit what is widely accepted as fact across the political spectrum. It's called confirmation bias, and it represents a pervasive social pandemic working in tandem with a deadly public health emergency to bring us to where we're at today.

It was disappointing, especially considering the current state of things, to once again see conspiracy theories and junk science peddled out like some tinfoil hat science fair at last night's meeting. At one point, a concerned citizen compared the coronavirus vaccine to compulsory sterilization and euthanasia in Nazi Germany — while completely overlooking the fact that he was speaking to a visibly stressed city school board faced with much bigger concerns.

In his words, the Nazis "vaccinated the Jews to kill them off" — which I guess is true if your definition of vaccination applies to preventing someone from reproducing or living ...

But there stood an even more stark juxtaposition that I can't help but note, so as to underscore the gulf separating what can only be described as right and wrong in this reporter's view.

One highly-public physician, who I refuse to give any publicity to, but who has drawn praise and ire alike for his rogue hucksterism of cure-alls and pharmaceutical panaceas, also brought a pointed attitude to Tuesday's board meeting. I have watched on several occasions as this particular doctor becomes combative, overconfident in his unsolicited assumptions and vastly skeptical of anyone's opinion but his own when propagating information that few people — for whatever reasons — seem willing to publicly endorse.

It has been discussed ad nauseam that while drugs like hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir have indeed shown promise in treating symptoms related to the coronavirus, the only accepted method of combating the actual spread of the virus remains the widely available vaccine and taking protective measures such as masking and social distancing.

Yet, time and again, he waves his junk science like a flag at the first mention of restrictions — implying that he has something figured out that is otherwise being ignored or covered up by the rest of the scientific community. He is not the first highly-politicized doctor of this persuasion I've covered since the beginning of this pandemic, but it reinforces my belief that the only thing more dangerous than a politically-radical citizen during a pandemic is an ideologically-compromised physician with a microphone.

But again, this physician and his kind are in a loathsome super-minority occupying the fringes of thought and reason in our community. Thankfully, I think it's safe to say this approach is being laughed at and written off by their peers and those in the community, whether they realize it or not.

ALSO READ: Tuscaloosa City School Board Approves Temporary Mask Order

What's worrisome, though, is the aforementioned notion of confirmation bias. I have no doubt this doctor has been quoted by his disciples, citing his words as gospel to others. But he follows a familiar practice of melding political rhetoric and science to forward an antagonistic narrative that is paper thin to those of us who have been keeping score.

Then you have Dr. Bruce Pettit. Now, he wouldn't know me from anyone today, I'm sure, but he was my pediatrician when I was a little boy and to this day is beloved by literally any person who mentions him in Tuscaloosa.

A wonderfully kind and empathetic man who I vividly remember bringing a comforting and engaging presence to a kid scared to get a booster shot, he took a much more practical approach when visiting with the city school board.

He took to the lectern at the meeting Tuesday night and politely used his personal insight with children to provide a measured endorsement of a mask order for TCS. His argument was absent of politics and assumptions of "the other," with his words standing out as a breathe of fresh air among stagnant, worn-out conspiracy theories and political talking points.

We desperately need more of this common sense approach and I applaud Dr. Pettit for speaking the truth in such a responsible and cogent manner.

So who are you willing to believe? A disrespectful physician more interested in slinging wonder drugs and recycled political rhetoric, or a pediatrician who the community has trusted for decades, as he presents nothing but facts and his own anecdotal evidence concerning children before we send them back to school.

I believe it's high time we take the microphone away from the folks who have so blatantly politicized this pandemic and realize that the solutions we keep praying for are right there in front of us in the form of the vaccine and following basic public health guidelines.

Ryan Phillips is the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. A native of Tuscaloosa, he is an award-winning journalist, editor and columnist. The views expressed in this opinion column are his and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of our parent company or sponsors.