Foreword: I don’t see how this has become political, and even controversial to the point that I am actually, for realsies, slightly worried that this post will bring me professional grief, but it has. So here goes.
So I’m a science fiction guy. I write it, I read it, I love it. My tastes range from old-school Golden Age stuff to Second Wave to newer things and encompass virtually everything ever written or put to film on the subject. (Here are a few of my favorites, in alphabetical order: Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Arthur. C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer...you get the idea). I’m not quite as deep on post-apocalypse-caused-by-disease fiction as I might be (The Omega Man with that manliest of men, Chuck Heston, being an example) but I know something of it.
In all of sci-fi, there are many works that posit a worldwide epidemic--a pandemic, if you will--where millions of people die from a new disease. Some of the works talk about how such a thing got started, some talk about what life would be like under those conditions, some focus entirely on the aftermath, and some deal with other matters connected to the outbreak. In some of these works, the disease is human-made (a lab accident gone wrong, a bioweapon let loose either on purpose or on accident, etc) while in others it is a product of the environment (or, in some cases, as in The Andromeda Strain, they come from space).
There are none that I am aware of--NONE--that have as a plot development the idea that the human race has a vaccine against the disease but the human race simply REFUSES TO TAKE IT.
You’ve seen stories about worldwide pandemics ravaging the population. You’ve seen stories about people dying or turned into zombies. You’ve even seen stories where only the rich and privileged* have access to medical treatment for the disease. But you have never, EVER, read a story where humankind developed a cheap, easy to administer, safe, effective vaccine and distributed it to everyone but the populace simply turned it down.
The reason you’ve never read that story is because science fiction, unlike reality, has to be plausible.
You accept stories where farmboys wield laser swords against necromantic knights and singlehandedly destroy the planet-killing Death Star. You happily lap up movies where an eager crew of mostly human beings boldly goes--at speeds incredibly faster than light--where no one has gone before to fight other humanoids with weird ridges on their heads. You don’t bat an eye when a time and dimension hopping eccentric Doctor swoops in with his blue police box and saves the day from menacing mechanical pepper shakers. But if I were to pitch you the story that’s playing out in America today, it’d look something like this…
“So there’s this plague, see? It’s killed over 650,000 people just in America in less than two years. It’s a new disease, and no one’s sure where it really came from.”
“Sounds like a scary story. A disease with no cure or treatment or vaccine, and--”
“Oh, no, there’s a vaccine.”
“Ah. But it has horrible side effects? Like it turns people into flesh-eating--”
“Nope. No side effects.”
“Okay, so it’s hard to make, like it requires the blood of Little League kids or something? Or it’s not readily available to all--only the wealthy? And the civil war that erupts over its scarcity--”
“Nope. It’s readily available. Government sends it out for free for everyone. Massive distribution effort that reaches across the country and covers anyone who wants it.”
“That’s ridiculous. If there’s a safe and effective vaccine available to everyone, why don’t people just take it and end the pandemic?”
“I don’t know.”
“Get the hell out of my office. Come back when you’ve got something believable, like a huge black monolith talks to cavemen.”
And that’s why I like science fiction. At least there, things have to make sense.
Be seeing you!
*Yes, I realize that one could count America herself as “rich and privileged” in this little analogy, but I think my larger point stands.
So I’m a science fiction guy. I write it, I read it, I love it. My tastes range from old-school Golden Age stuff to Second Wave to newer things and encompass virtually everything ever written or put to film on the subject. (Here are a few of my favorites, in alphabetical order: Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Arthur. C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer...you get the idea). I’m not quite as deep on post-apocalypse-caused-by-disease fiction as I might be (The Omega Man with that manliest of men, Chuck Heston, being an example) but I know something of it.
In all of sci-fi, there are many works that posit a worldwide epidemic--a pandemic, if you will--where millions of people die from a new disease. Some of the works talk about how such a thing got started, some talk about what life would be like under those conditions, some focus entirely on the aftermath, and some deal with other matters connected to the outbreak. In some of these works, the disease is human-made (a lab accident gone wrong, a bioweapon let loose either on purpose or on accident, etc) while in others it is a product of the environment (or, in some cases, as in The Andromeda Strain, they come from space).
There are none that I am aware of--NONE--that have as a plot development the idea that the human race has a vaccine against the disease but the human race simply REFUSES TO TAKE IT.
You’ve seen stories about worldwide pandemics ravaging the population. You’ve seen stories about people dying or turned into zombies. You’ve even seen stories where only the rich and privileged* have access to medical treatment for the disease. But you have never, EVER, read a story where humankind developed a cheap, easy to administer, safe, effective vaccine and distributed it to everyone but the populace simply turned it down.
The reason you’ve never read that story is because science fiction, unlike reality, has to be plausible.
You accept stories where farmboys wield laser swords against necromantic knights and singlehandedly destroy the planet-killing Death Star. You happily lap up movies where an eager crew of mostly human beings boldly goes--at speeds incredibly faster than light--where no one has gone before to fight other humanoids with weird ridges on their heads. You don’t bat an eye when a time and dimension hopping eccentric Doctor swoops in with his blue police box and saves the day from menacing mechanical pepper shakers. But if I were to pitch you the story that’s playing out in America today, it’d look something like this…
“So there’s this plague, see? It’s killed over 650,000 people just in America in less than two years. It’s a new disease, and no one’s sure where it really came from.”
“Sounds like a scary story. A disease with no cure or treatment or vaccine, and--”
“Oh, no, there’s a vaccine.”
“Ah. But it has horrible side effects? Like it turns people into flesh-eating--”
“Nope. No side effects.”
“Okay, so it’s hard to make, like it requires the blood of Little League kids or something? Or it’s not readily available to all--only the wealthy? And the civil war that erupts over its scarcity--”
“Nope. It’s readily available. Government sends it out for free for everyone. Massive distribution effort that reaches across the country and covers anyone who wants it.”
“That’s ridiculous. If there’s a safe and effective vaccine available to everyone, why don’t people just take it and end the pandemic?”
“I don’t know.”
“Get the hell out of my office. Come back when you’ve got something believable, like a huge black monolith talks to cavemen.”
And that’s why I like science fiction. At least there, things have to make sense.
Be seeing you!
*Yes, I realize that one could count America herself as “rich and privileged” in this little analogy, but I think my larger point stands.
RSS Feed