Everyman Common Sense and COVID

My mother-in-law was born in San Cristobal, Venezuela in the early 1950s. The city is located in the mountains of western Venezuela, about 35 miles from the Colombian border. The area prospered in the 1950s due to extensive trade with Colombia consisting mostly of agricultural products and textiles.   

My mother-in-law didn’t go to college, and I don’t know if she finished high school. She met her husband in Caracas when she was a contestant in a beauty pageant hosted by a local military installation. My in-laws were married in the late 70s, and my wife was born about a year later. My mother-in-law had three children in total, and as best I can tell, she has never had a job beyond raising her kids.

In 2020, my mother-in-law (with my father-in-law) traveled from Venezuela to visit our family of three in Miami just before the outbreak of COVID hysteria. Then, international travel was shut down. With three generations living in our small apartment indefinitely, my mother-in-law, according to the news, faced grave danger.

While other seniors followed CNN’s instructions to retreat into their homes and not touch anyone, my mother-in-law never gave any consideration to avoiding hugs. She also saw the coming vaccine for the scam that it was. Perhaps her intuition around the vaccine came from her experience with tyrannical government, or her fear of the devil, or plain street smarts — but she wanted no part of it.

Among my own parents’ peer group, I heard the story of a man in his 70s who got very sick with COVID. Despite his rough experience with the virus, he credits the vaccine with saving his life. My mother-in-law, when she eventually returned to Venezuela, caught COVID too. She got very sick and received daily visits from her doctor at home (still a thing in Venezuela). She prayed intensely to Jesus, and credits Him with saving her life. In both cases, it seems that the key to recovering from the coronavirus was faith.

At some point in 2021, despite having natural immunity, my mother-in-law was forced to submit to vaccination to cross international borders. I’m told she cried during both shots. The tears rolled not because of the pain of course, but because regular people weep when governments force them to participate in medical experiments.

And now in 2024, here we are again. To qualify for her Green Card, the U.S. government requires that she get another COVID shot. The corruption is so transparent that I’m surprised there’s no option for individuals to just cut a check to Pfizer. Thousands of illegal aliens pour across the southern border each day with no vaccination status. Nevertheless, the U.S. government insists on tormenting the tiny trickle of people still following the rules.