The problem with any new disease is you don't know how bad it's going to be. Is it going to be annoying or deadly? How contagious will it be? How will it be transmitted? By intimate contact? By droplets floating in the air? They might only be dangerous until they dry up. Or maybe even dry particles could transmit the disease. Nobody knows until somebody does some research, or until people a bunch of people start showing up dead, and then it's pretty much too late. Better to clamp down early and clamp down hard. Better be safe than sorry.
Turns out that COVID-19 is not all that deadly, maybe 50% more deadly than the regular flu, so in hindsight, the draconian lockdowns and mask requirements were overkill, and there seems to be some doubt that they had any beneficial effect at all. And what about the regular flu? Haven't heard a word about it. That strikes me as kind of weird. Might just be an effect of our distorted news reporting system. Nobody cares about old stuff that might kill you, we want to hear about the new stuff that might kill you.
Back before COVID-19, there was a new variety of flu every year and every year you had to get a new vaccine. You were supposed to anyway. I never got one. I thought it was stupid. Maybe because we didn't have flu vaccines when I was growing up, of maybe I had the flu once when I was a kid and I was sick for a couple of days but it was so long ago I forgot how bad it was. Whatever. But now it's 2021 and I just got vaccinated for COVID-19, a bug that is two years old. Of course we've got new varieties of COVID popping up here and there and I expect we're going to start seeing new vaccines showing up here along with noisy obnoxious campaigns to get everyone vaccinated with the latest and greatest goop. No thanks. It's been five days since I got my second Pfizer jab and while I am walking and talking, I am still not right. I have a low grade headache all over the outside of my head, what feels like a sinus infection behind my left eye, my left eye is prone to watering and I have a red spot on my cheek. I only mention the last because my family noticed and pointed it out to me.
I had no intention of getting the vaccine, but I had a conversation with my wife about it. She is a bit anxiety prone, so I agreed to do it to alleviate her concerns. So all this trivial suffering is my own fault for being agreeable.
P.S. I remember hearing about gain-of-function when I was reading The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston, which was about the campaign to eliminate smallpox. It's kind of fucked up.
2 comments:
I agree that in the beginning they didn’t know anything except Chinese were dying, so maximum effort with every defense that’s worked before. But immediately the internet is abuzz with naysayers so as the CDC discovered more about the virus’s strengths and weaknesses, they couldn’t ease off on anything or the naysayers would say see, they admit they were wrong about that so they’re wrong about everything.
Yes a new flu comes through, mostly from Africa and some Asia, every year. It happens in cold weather when people are bunch up indoors. But last year people weren’t bunching up, in fact most were doing to opposite.
There is no question that surface contamination is real low risk. Airborne is the danger and masks help a lot. The super duper OR masks are best but any mask will help keep you from spreading it.
I hope those symptoms clear up soon. The CDC website itself has many things that aren't mentioned in the mainstream media. Trust actual science, not what the boob tube trots out as (simplified synopses of) "the science," seemingly directed at 5-year olds or otherwise impressionable people who are void of critical thinking. Noisy and obnoxious, what you said sums it up! Trending now!
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