Almost everybody predicted that Hillary Clinton would win in 2016. We are now faced with the common perception that we will have a vaccine soon and this pandemic will be behind us. Maybe not. There is more to it than common sense. Still it is helpful to keep in mind that things we all agree on, or that we wish was true, might not be so. And it is helpful to realize that things we all know to be true can be ignored if they contradict what we wish was true. We know that vaccines against polio, smallpox, diphtheria, and others have changed history. We also know that there is no vaccine for HIV, a mostly useless vaccine against the seasonal flu, an everyone knows that despite centuries of study there is no cure for the common cold. Add to that the wild claims for genetically modified antibodies (never before used or tested even on animals) and the millions of people who are reflexively anti-vaccine and we have a long wait ahead of us and no return to normal, ever.
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