In Florida this morning, "hell" has frozen over. And by "hell" I mean Florida's reddest, and arguably most gerrymandered, Congressional district. Dropping temperatures and high precipitation means we're under a winter storm warning. Schools are closing in anticipation of snow Tuesday through Thursday.

Across Florida's Panhandle children are hopeful for the kind of snow many of them have never seen. And their parents are wondering how they're going to get to work on icy, snowy roads. It's not like Florida has snow plows or salt trucks.

On local Facebook pages there are people complaining about the weather and claiming that the snow is proof global warming is a "hoax." Part of me wants to dedicate time to explaining how climate change works, but I know deep down it won't make a difference to them. It doesn't conform to their worldview and there's just not much I alone can do about that.

I wonder sometimes about people in the 1850's who agreed with Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis about handwashing. He figured out that doctors touching dead bodies and then immediately delivering babies were probably the cause of the high infant and mother mortality rates. For a little while the hospital believed him and medical staff were expected to wash their hands in a chlorinated lime solution. The mortality rates dropped almost overnight.

But, it wasn't a popular idea. Essentially, the male doctors didn't like washing their hands. So, they made a stink about it and the hospital abandoned the practice. The mortality rates rose again.

I think about all the people who agreed with Dr. Semmelweis. I think about how many times they watched women and babies die over the refusal of these men to wash their hands. I wonder if they too sat around lunch tables overhearing conversations about how hand-washing was taking away their rights. I wonder if they feared speaking up for Dr. Semmelweis, lest they be shunned and mocked as well.

Nearly 200 years later it's hard to imagine a whole hospital full of seemingly intelligent men rejecting the evidence that handwashing saves lives. But, then again, we have seemingly intelligent people rejecting vaccines, climate change, and evidence that the people they keep voting for don't actually care about them. Turns out you can be book-smart, but a complete idiot at the same time. Once something inconveniences you or challenges your worldview, all intelligence flies out the window.

And then people die because of it. Just like those women and babies died because a bunch of male doctors wouldn't wash their hands after touching dead bodies. (It should be noted the mortality rates in midwifery, a field dominated by women, were significantly lower. Probably a coincidence.)

In two hundred years some woman will be sitting in her living room, just as I am, thinking about the days we are currently living in, and wondering to herself, "What was going on with those people?? How did they not see all the evidence right in front of them??"

Girl, same. I'm living it and I genuinely can't believe it either. I wish I could go back in time to tell Dr. Semmelweis that he was right and now everyone, including the descendants of folks who hated him, washes their hands. Well, mostly. For some reason a lot of men will still touch their genitalia and not wash after. Some of them don't even wash the fecal matter off their rectums because they think that makes them a homosexual.

Bizarre, I know.

But, at least in medical environments handwashing is law. In food preparation as well. Honestly, handwashing is widely considered good practice regardless of what you're doing or who you are. Two hundred years ago it was seen as infringing on the rights of male doctors. Now even the most anti-science, evidence-denying physicians wash their hands and agree that it is necessary. Progress is possible. It just takes time.

I hope one day some internet archivist finds these words and is comforted to know that, yes, many of us understood what was happening and we tried to stop it. Yes, many of us are aware of what's a stake and we are doing all we can to fix it. And yes, it is tiresome and scary and isolating feeling like you're the lone voice of reason trying to convince a hospital full of stupid male doctors that handwashing saves lives. Yes. All of that.

I take comfort in knowing that eventually stupid people die and their children learn from their mistakes and things get better. They can, obviously, get worse as well. After all, Europe went from having incredible aqueduct systems in Rome to dumping their shit in the streets during the Dark Ages. (Which lasted 900 years, by the way. That's a fun fact.) So, of course we can always go backwards. It happens.

But, I try not to think about that too often. For now, I am vaccinated, I take the medicine prescribed to me by my doctor, I rarely consume processed sugars, I exercise, I don't drink, I don't smoke, and yes, I wash my hands. Often.

Change happens. Even if it takes longer than it should because people would rather be "right" than be correct. They'd rather win an argument based on lies than accept losing to the truth. Thank goodness we all die one day and our progeny will get the chance to do better than we did. Thank goodness for that.

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