They Won’t Stop Until We tell Them To

In light of the CDC’s absolute face plant yesterday in announcing new guidelines for vaccinated folks to mask up and blue state governors threatening Coronavirus restrictions redux over the delta scariant, I thought I’d reblog this post from January. The Brostradamus in the video below was sadly spot on. Do you get it yet?

https://twitter.com/ilSharko/status/1420535548830261252

“The mask is about compliance, next they’re gonna tell you, you have to contact trace, then they’re gonna tell you, you have to take the vaccine and guess what kids, once you take your vaccine, they’re gonna tell you sorry the vaccine isn’t as effective as we thought it was gonna be so now you’re still gonna have to wear your mask, still gotta get contact traced, still have all the restrictions and social distancing and still take the vaccine.  And what did you get out of all of this

I don’t know who this guy is, but he completely nails it in this video clip from last spring on the charade of coronavirus restrictions, the destruction of small businesses and turning life as we know it upside down.

While he infers that the end game here is a master/slave society where us compliant little sheep are ruled by elite technocrats, I just can’t give our current crop of hapless pro lockdown politicians that much credit, at least here in the U.S.  They are just too dumb to be such masterminds of evil.

Don’t get me wrong, many are without a doubt exploiting the pandemic for their own benefit, but I think most of really have no clue what to do as far as combating it so they enact endless and senseless dictates that give the illusion of doing something and then run around with their hair on fire when this has 0 effect, blaming and shaming their citizens for behaving like human beings and doing bizarre things like spending time with other people.

Take pro lockdown Governor extraordinaire, Gavin Newsom, of California where I live.  We have been in some sort of hard shut down since last march, with even outdoor dining banned in most counties and schools, gyms, nail & hair salons still shut down.  Mask mandates too have been in place for several months and yet despite all this California has some of the worst Covid #’s in the country.

Here’s a little secret that’s not so secret really because deep down everyone knows this.

“They’re isn’t much that can be done to stop the spread of a highly communicable, airborne, respiratory virus.”

Oh you may slow things down a little, maybe, but in the end the virus is gonna do what viruses do, which is infect as many people as possible until herd immunity kicks in, either naturally or in combination with a vaccine. There is nothing a governor, mayor, city council person or even president can do to protect you other than provide truthful stats on transmission methods, death rates and demographics of who it affects most seriously so you can decide on the proper precautions best for yourself and family.

In fact, I would argue the more the government tries to help you, the worse things get and nowhere is this more apparent than with the never ending ill conceived lockdowns and forced distancing policies.

While it’s questionable whether lockdowns have done any sort of good at all towards squelching the virus, we do know the devastating consequences they have brought. Sky rocketing poverty, mental health woes in children, major suicide and addiction issues, and increased in non-Covid related mortality rates to list just a few.

The worst in my view is the societal effects from the constant fear mongering and shaming.  It’s a form of psychological abuse really and has  always been part of politics, but many politicians have taken it to an art form during the pandemic. Combine this with mandated work closures, forced isolation of others, restricted gatherings and the breakdown of interpersonal communications through anti-science mask mandates and this will break society.  In many cases it already has.

As I’ve said in previous posts,“I believe the extended coronavirus lockdowns to be the single biggest public policy mistake made in our lifetime, if not ever, whose negative effects will be with us for years to come and in many ways we haven’t yet realized.”

We have a severe crisis of courage within our political class in that instead of telling us the truth about this virus and leading the way in fearlessly facing it, they cower and hide behind nonsensical mandates and shutdowns, pretending that this will somehow eradicate it.

What will people do when they realize it’s all been for nothing? I was hoping by now that more would have caught on and be willing to just ignore the mandates and get on with life.  Many of us in California are doing just that to the extent we can, but so many others here are crippled by fear, clinging to the restrictions like a life preserver and angrily lashing out at anyone pointing out their gaping holes of logic.

Maybe folks will finally come around after the vaccines are administered and cases still rise and politicians double down on restrictions.  More likely that will usher a mass descent in to madness and chaos as the public realizes the shiny coin of vaccine that was supposed to open the door to normalcy is not the panacea it’s being made out to be.

Look, the virus is a nasty bug, no question but it affects mainly very old and/or very frail people most seriously. For most of us we are looking at mild to moderate symptoms (if any at all) with an overall estimated survival rate is 99.5 percent, according to the CDC,  Yes, there are always outlier cases which are tragic, but this is true of the flu too and the numbers just don’t justify a complete re-ordering of society

The fact of the matter is many of us will get the virus and most will end up just fine.  The best we can do is keep things as normal as possible while directing resources and brainpower towards protecting the vulnerable.   As Donald Henderson, the man credited with eradicating smallpox once said,

“Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of community is least disrupted.”

We must learn to do normal life along with the coronavirus, there is just no other way.  We will get there eventually either with or without a crushed economy and broken society.  I choose the latter.