COVID 19 wouldn’t phase Howard Hughes. Who in blazes is Howard Hughes? You can see the under-55 crowd now, frowning. Some remember the name but don’t know why. Sure you do. In his early 20’s, silver spooner Howie inherited a bundle of millions and turned it into a bundle of billions. He struck the mother load in Hollywood at a time when Tinseltown deserved some measure of respect. Those days are belly-up. The billionaire tycoon was a record-setting pilot, movie producer, womanizer and owner of Hughes Aircraft Company. Howard was man about town until the day he occupied his penthouse hotel rooms where he remained in isolation until his death 20 years later. Yes, you read it right — 20 years of self-imposed solitary confinement. Hughes was OCD before the disorder was urban slang. He was a genuine germaphobe, ready and waiting for the likes of a COVID 19. He didn’t need the CDC or the Fed or the Governor to mandate his behavior during any kind of epidemic. As the years passed, his paranoia inflated. One account of his phobia has him, near the end of his days, “lying naked in bed in a darkened room in what he considered a germ-free zone. He wore tissue boxes on his feet to protect them. And . . . burned his clothing if someone near him became ill.” He issued strict protocols, ordering his employees to scrub their hands incessantly and layer their hands with paper towels while serving his meals. Compulsive to the core, he wrote a manual instructing his staff, among other things, how to open a can — how to remove the label, scrub the can down to bare metal and “pour the contents without touching the can to the bowl.” Hughes fear of germs began early in life and never left him until, finally, he descended into full bore OCD, convinced that if he stayed “outside,” he would be contaminated from the outside. He chose seclusion. Also chose an addiction to codeine until his death at age 72. Cause of death? Heart failure. Not a germ in sight. Well, Howie, the germs are still out there. You don’t obsess over them. You don’t obsess over smallpox, typhoid, HIV, diphtheria, syphilis, polio, yellow fever, influenza and over 100 other infectious diseases. You don’t sweat it because almost every disease is treatable. COVID 19 changes that attitude, doesn’t it, Matilda? Now you have just the barest inkling of the panic that Middle Ages Europe felt during the Black Death that eradicated one third of the population. But there’s absolutely no comparison. You have communication outlets, guidance, medical facilities, electricity, food on the table,  knowledge and unity of purpose. Yes, for an indefinite period of time, you must take a sabbatical from your life as usual. Maybe some people will learn that life doesn’t suck after all. Being quarantined is a good deal more desirable than  hospitalization or interment. In time, Americans will be in school, go to work, play games, travel, have the opportunity to recover financial losses and mourn those who perish. Still, for some time yet, you will be sociably suspicious. Handshakes almost certainly will disappear and give way to elbow bumps. Intimate embraces may morph to hip bumps. Morality may flourish as illicit sex diminishes. Quickly, COVID 19 will yield its own strange stories. So get ready for the deluge of books, movies, propaganda, lies and lessons. Especially conspiracies. Try this one. COVID 19 is the brainchild of a militant Chinese feminist scientist, since more than twice as many men are dying than women. If that assertion seems bizarre, you can expect Hollywood to expose Big Pharma as evil doers, accusing them of orchestrating a cataclysm for a financial bonanza. Then, again, the Dems will yell, “IT’S ALL TRUMP’S FAULT FOR TWEAKING CHINA’S NOSE.” Naturally, Pelosi will impeach. Meanwhile, somewhere, Howard Hughes must be shaking his head in dismay.  If he knew anything, he knew germs. He left life and humanity behind to exist in a “clean room” environment, worry free. Mental illness is its own germ.