I was relieved to see that the CDC has not added chronic cynicism or sarcasm to its list of underlying medical conditions that increase the risk for severe illness from COVID 19.

And while the organization has not yet created a parallel list of conditions that might decrease the risk, I would think that chronic anthropophobia, the fear of people, which often results in avoiding social situations, would be an obvious starting point.

And misanthropy, which also leads to a relatively low degree of human interaction, thus limiting one’s potential exposure to the virus, unless you’re a politician, should make the list.

As we await a miracle vaccine that will allay our concerns about the virus, especially if it also saves the environment, we could start trials whereby one group (ala South Pacific) is “carefully taught to hate” (and later quarantined in Kentucky) and a placebo group is shown pictures of babies, puppy dogs, and ice cream.

A similar trial might be developed in regard to the virus itself. While there has long been discussion as to whether viruses are living organisms, that determination should not impact the ability to teach them to be repulsed (think ions of like charges repelling each other), much as we all are by the thought of yet another Batman movie, and therefore want to avoid, human beings.