My oldest son (22) is in the coast guard and getting over covid. He basically had a scratchy throat. A former student at the high school I work at (24) is on a ventillator and at one of the best hospitals in the state and not looking good. A family friend lost his mother today. She has been on vent for a month. You could flip any of those people I just posted and have completely changed my world. It impacts everyone differently. That is probably the biggest problem with the illness. If you aren't impacted, you won't see it as a big deal. If you are, then you can't figure out why people are being so casual about it. If our players play and everyone has a scratchy throat, we'll say " I told you it was no big deal." If one of our players dies, "What were they thinking putting those players together?" The question is, how much life do we lose by not living and how much freedom do you sacrifice for safety? There is always a balance. (Side note: I just can't figure out how we are propping up the economy right now to even have a choice.) I guess I said all that to say this: People have fear when they walk out the door of their home and make choices that impact their life everyday. These players are playing football in college for one of 3 reasons. They love the game, they are attempting to make a career of it, or they are just trying to pay for an education. They will all have different opinions and they are all right and wrong at the same time. Be respectful and understanding of others regardless of your own opinions. Apply that to all aspects of life and remember that you never know what kind of day someone else is having so just be nice.
You have covered a number of subjects and the answers to these subjects have different solutions. From the beginning of time as we know it, humanity has faced may different problems. During the last 8,000 to 10,000 years, humans have faced major caused of almost mass extension.
We have major deaths from pandemics which have killed as many as half of the population. Millions have died from war and others millions have die from starvation. Humans used to roam the earth living alone or in very small gatherings. As humans progress, they learned how to live their lives in harmony and they began to live to live in villages and then large towns and cities. As this happened, people how had the same idea of how they wanted to live together tended to gather together. However, as these cities, town, countries grew and became larger, some people in those lacations began to kill, rob, cheat and used other means to take advantage of other people. This resulted in choosing people to become leaders of their communities, ans societies where formed. These societies passed laws to protect those who suffered from the actions of those who's acts conflicted with the majority of the society. We learned, through medicine, how to protect and treat people from many of the many diseases and how to save others who beome infected from disease. The fact is, some people are unwilling to agree to the rules and laws of living in any society and choose to rebel. Wars result and the societies with the most advanced military weapons become the rulers of those communities /countries. Through out history, this method has ruled most countries. Dictators are still in power in many areas of the World. We are very fortunate to live in America with our Republic from of Government. However, we still face the problems of disease, war, and a poor population of nearly 30 % of our population. We still need to have laws, rules and other ways of benefiting our population. We live in a society wher we care about the health and well being of our fellow man. We have learned to rely on those who are experts in certain areas of our society such as law, medicine, management, manufacturing,pluming,farming, etc. to allow us to live safe and productive lives. Sometimes we face unusual events which test our way of life which may affect different segments of our population. In the case of a pandemic caused by a new virus about which we have no data about the epidemiology of that virus, it is impossible to know how that virus attacks our bodies, regardless of age, sex, race or economic status. In these conditions. our society requires us to do what ever is necessary to protect all members of the world where possible. To do less, is a crime against our modern society. Otherwise, we can revert back to prehistoric societies which preceeded modern man. I realize this is a long and maybe confusing post , but I think one can realize the point which is important to our way of life.