The moderate position on COVID was always as follows:
- COVID is a real virus
- COVID is a moderately lethal, highly infectious virus that mainly kills fat people and sick and very old people. Those are the major risk factors
- COVID is a serious problem and is one of the worst pandemics in American history. We had no natural immunity to the virus.
- COVID isn’t a serious problem for children or young people or even most middle aged people
- In the early stages of the pandemic, it was reasonable to impose travel restrictions on hot zones
- Pandemics are a natural phenomena that tend to recur every 50 years or so. The last two influenza pandemics were in 1957 and 1968. We were due to be hit by another pandemic
- There would eventually be a vaccine and the timing of the end of the pandemic would depend on the rollout of the vaccine
- It is not a big deal to wear a mask in public places as a courtesy to others and to help stop the spread of the virus
- It makes no sense to wear a mask outdoors in hot and humid weather or in your car or when you are around people you live with 24/7 in your own household
- COVID is not the end of the world. It was just another historic event like the Spanish Flu
- This would all be over one day
As for the lockdowns, it worked in countries like China, but our culture and system of government is so different that the policy proved to be a disaster here. We ended up with the worst of both worlds. In some states (this varied widely), there were draconian lockdowns that devastated the economy which proved to be pointless because of the resignation that followed the chaotic reopenings. If there hadn’t been any lockdowns, the same number of people would probably have ultimately died anyway.
There were always some neurotic people, however, who were not following the science (i.e., there was never any real threat to children) so much as virtue signaling and acting out. They loved the disruption that was caused by COVID. They loved wearing a mask because it was a way to express their own progressive identity and political leanings. More than anything else, they loved the power trip and the opportunity to control other people. They want to go living like this even after they have been vaccinated and it is becoming a source of embarrassment and aggravation for their fellow progressives.
“Lurking among the jubilant americans venturing back out to bars and planning their summer-wedding travel is a different group: liberals who aren’t quite ready to let go of pandemic restrictions. For this subset, diligence against COVID-19 remains an expression of political identity—even when that means overestimating the disease’s risks or setting limits far more strict than what public-health guidelines permit. In surveys, Democrats express more worry about the pandemic than Republicans do. People who describe themselves as “very liberal” are distinctly anxious. This spring, after the vaccine rollout had started, a third of very liberal people were “very concerned” about becoming seriously ill from COVID-19, compared with a quarter of both liberals and moderates, according to a study conducted by the University of North Carolina political scientist Marc Hetherington. And 43 percent of very liberal respondents believed that getting the coronavirus would have a “very bad” effect on their life, compared with a third of liberals and moderates. …
The spring of 2021 is different from the spring of 2020, though. Scientists know a lot more about how COVID-19 spreads—and how it doesn’t. Public-health advice is shifting. But some progressives have not updated their behavior based on the new information. …
Months slipped by, and evidence mounted that schools could reopen safely. In Somerville, a local leader appeared to describe parents who wanted a faster return to in-person instruction as “fucking white parents” in a virtual public meeting; a community member accused the group of mothers advocating for schools to reopen of being motivated by white supremacy. …
And so as the rest of vaccinated America begins its summer of bacchanalia, rescheduling long-awaited dinner parties and medium-size weddings, the most hard-core pandemic progressives are left, Cassandra-like, to preach their peers’ folly. Every weekday, Zachary Loeb publishes four “plague poems” on Twitter—little missives about the headlines and how it feels to live through a pandemic. He is personally progressive: He blogs about topics like Trump’s calamitous presidency and the future of climate change. He also studies disaster history. (“I jokingly tell my students that my reputation in the department is as Mr. Doom, but once I have earned my Ph.D., I will officially be Dr. Doom,” he told me.) His Twitter avatar is the plague doctor: a beaked, top-hat-wearing figure who traveled across European towns treating victims of the bubonic plague. …”
Some people are pivoting back to their normal obsessions like racism or climate change.
Republicans and Independents were done caring about COVID by the middle of March. It is highly educated Democrats who are still obsessed with it. It is their top issue.
THE REAL PANDEMICK…
IS the spoiled brattiness that has reacht such epic proportions that is the soil from which all intentionally designed rot in this country grows.
If folks could just spend a few months in the fields, spreading the pine straw composed pulled from the winter’s forest, or weeding the crookneck squash on their hands and knees, all the while sweating profusely for hours at a time, they might know what reality is that is beyond the fragment they have known.
Yes, and if they could replace rotten clapboards, put in their own oaken floors, or rive the shingles from the cedar logs to fix their rooves, or take those apples pickt and make a delicious cider, they might stop being so absurd.
Yep, we are so disconnected what is basic good human life that it is no wonder that folks spend their days creating paper bogey men to launch their Walter Mitty-esque crusades…
I wish you would stop calling them “highly educated.” Yes, they have degrees, but the great run of them are totally ignorant of the subject they are degreed in and are no more cultured than high school dropouts. Many non-college-educated boomer women affect the very same tone and voice modulation in order to sound sophisticated and educated. Their vocabularies are less extensive than shit house poets. Stop ceding this status to them.
Some of the most myopic, inane, and ‘fingers-in-ears-lest-you-challenge-my-enlightened-bigotry’ individuals I have ever known, are my fellow Piled High and Deep {Ph.D) .colleagues on the LEFT fringe- which is about 99.5% of all academics, sorry to say.
China is a long way from America. There are barriers, information barriers, language barriers. But the truth about what happened in China is despite the barriers, well established.
Only three provinces had any lockdown at all. Those lockdowns were short lived. After a couple of months, China went back to normal. Everything opened back up and went back to normal.
I am talking about the three provinces. The rest of the country never shut down. They were like South Dakota, wide open.
The CCP stage managed a huge and successful propaganda campaign in 2020, aimed completely at the west. They presented to us the image of a China completely shut down, and masked up, and thus they “defeated” the virus.
Only, it never happened. It was propaganda aimed at encouraging the West to shut down and thereby destroy their economies. And that is what happened, thanks to Trump.
Oceania did the same as China. Better just admit that western Govs are fake,worthless and evil.
The govt staged a physiological war against its citizens and won. I can’t believe how many people feel for this BS.
@John…
That, Sir – what you wrote here – is, sad to say, 100% the truth.
I reluctantly comply with store policies if they require a mask, but I always put the thing on in a careless, indifferent manner so that my pointy red nose is sticking out. That’s about the only concession I have thus far made to this scamdemic. I certainly have no intention of getting any of their so-called vaccines. If I have to live the life of an eccentric recluse until the public gets tired of being afraid then so be it.
I do the same thing,I wear the mask around my chin. I see idiots at the gym running on the treadmill, jogging and riding the stationary bikes with a mask over their nose and mouth. I just shake my head in disbelief. I also will live as a hermit before I take the govt poison. I will not be one of the herd they are trying to cull.
Stop wearing masks, period; haphazardly or otherwise. When others see you, it will inspire them to do the same. I went mask-less 5 months ago and have had only one establishment(restaurant) insist I wear one. I left.
You guys acknowledge this is a scam yet you keep complying. That makes no sense to me. Stop giving these stores your money. At least force them to confront you.
I wear the mask when I am inside businesses/establishments that post the requirement plain to see.
I will not get the vaccine until I see absolutely no other choice, i.e. work requirement. In the meantime, I am doing the ONE thing that FEDGOV “public service” announcements are NOT pushing: a healthy weight loss, exercise, and breathing exercises.
I’ve lost weight by increasingly cycling to cooking from scratch and getting better ingredients. I have even been experimenting with gluten-free alternatives like rice pasta (mixed with zucchini and squash spirals), cauliflower pizza crusts, and gluten-free “flour.” I have found that, even though, the stuff I make from scratch tastes a helluva lot better than the stuff I used to eat, I don’t find myself going back for more until I feel over-stuffed. My freezer has got tons of tasty leftovers, too.
I recently made some pineapple upside down cake for family with gluten free flour, fresh flour and rather than use those canned marachino cherries, I used some unsweetened frozen dark bing cherries and the compliments still continue.
I also take extra vitamins, get as much fresh air and sunshine (even if I only sit out in my back yard for thirty minutes or so). And I take every herbal supplement I can find to boost my immunity.
So the way I see it, if the vaccine is good for me NOW, it will be good for me TEN YEARS FROM NOW (the average time to see the effects of human trials for new vaccines). And if they are THAT good, I don’t know why FEDGOV would want to keep a right-leaning White Woman in her sixties living long enough to further tax the Medicaid/Medicare and Social Security systems.
FEDGOV’s precious rainbow coalition of so-called “people of color” SHOULD take precedence to make up for Systemic Racism because “White Supremacy.” And. I’m. FINE. With. That.
@Clytemnestra…
Thank you for your interesting comment.
You can boost immune system greatly by removing gluten from your diet, the reason being that glutinous foods create an inner glue wall in your colon that greatly inhibits nutrient absorption.
As to the China Pox, Oregon Grape Berries completely stifle the excess cellular production of Prostaglandin-2, which is how the bio-weapon kills you.
If you feel you are coming down with it, take 2 Oregon Grape capsules, three times a day – empty stomach or not, it does not matter.
Take them for a fortnight and you will be fine.
Elderberry capsules, and or tea, is also very helpful as it prohibits all viruses from replicatiing within you,
Miss C – http://mileswmathis.com/covid8.pdf
Of course, SNOPES says this is all false. But then, who in their right mind believes Snopes is even VALID anymore? LOLOL