Every new scare tactic that’s been levied upon us is less original and more outlandish than before, yet the newest alarm bells sounding off, at least beyond the familiar and often empty rhetoric, are remnants of the boy who cried wolf except now the solution calls for a new boy and a new wolf, or in this case, wolves. According to a recent CNN article, society at large now faces the threat of not one, but ????, new COVID-19 “variations” or “mutations,” yet the author wastes no time by insulting the reader’s intelligence. Look no further than the title: “Can the arrival of new coronavirus variants scare Americans into better pandemic behavior?”[1] Unsurprisingly, the entire article is despicable, but before dissecting it there’s something more fundamental that needs to be addressed which strikes at the heart of the issue.
When is enough, enough? Take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror. You have lost absolutely everything that gave your life meaning and a sense of purpose whether it be your business, your job, your savings, your family and friends, your significant other, your peace of mind, your hopes and dreams, and not to mention your identity which you eagerly forfeited when you became faceless. And for what? To appease the psychopaths that take pride in knowing that you smile behind a mask as you lie about having done what was necessary to protect others? And though highly improbable at this point, if little to none of this bothers you nor does it resonate with your experiences, then consider that psychologists have been warning about the danger of infants growing up with little ability to understand the world around them, especially absent of their parent’s facial expressions which serve as vital social referencing cues.[2] In other words, despite whether or not you ever had a chance to make it out of this intact, there remains the fact that we have all failed thus far to uphold the one unspoken rule which was to fight for the helpless, namely the children. The fact that they must now carry the weight of our burdens because we refuse to fight is damn near unforgivable, regardless of whether you can or can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel or whether you fear that the light may be from an oncoming train—this fact, however, still remains.
So forgive me if this makes you feel uncomfortable as it should, but something has got to give.
Returning now to the article in question, the author openly admits what the intended goal is—obedience that will manifest itself through “better behavior.” Far from being an exaggeration, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, according to the article, opined that “the arrival of the new variants means Americans must double down on all the things they are already being told to do — but that millions of Americans are still not doing.” Did you catch that? All they had to do was comply, and even though most have given up nearly everything already as noted above, this has apparently been nothing more than a mirage! Still, the government’s laundry list of compliance measures grows faster than anyone could keep up with, which flies in the face of the admission that “The Americans who are going to wear masks already are doing so. Those who can or are willing to stay home are already doing it. Lockdowns have been unpopular and local officials are not willing to enforce them, anyway.” Dr. Christopher Murray from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation concurs:
We have not been seeing governments taking action to apply cautionary measures as quickly as expected, and have incorporated that information into the modeling. . . Without measures to control the spread of the disease, mobility remains higher and transmission is more likely.
Michael Osterholm, who is the director of CDC Policy in Minnesota, openly stated that “We have got a Category 10 hurricane staring at us. People don’t understand that.” What and who is he referring to? Like the others, he just comes right out and says it:
There is a group of 25 or 30% or more who see wearing a mask as shameful and they won’t. These are the same people who, if you mailed two N95s to their homes, they are not going to use them.
And since we’re to be spared nothing, Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, appeared to allow a moment of reason to elapse by noting that the lockdowns are unpopular and hence are ineffective. Why though? Because, as Adaljia noted, “you cannot go eat in a restaurant” because instead they’ll say “Let’s all go to Jimmy’s house and have pizza and sit around and watch the football game together.” How horrific! Could these so-called “experts” be any more clear about their intentions?
All of these points are coupled with the notion that the vaccine (at least for the strain of COVID-19 first identified that we’re familiar with), won’t be fully available for several months, which once again may ruin another summer if not at the most then (hopefully not) at the very least.
I’ll leave you with one last piece of evidence to ponder on which flies in the face of all this fear-mongering about “mutant variants” especially considering it’s an academic study titled “We shouldn’t worry when a virus mutates during disease outbreaks” by Nathan D. Grubaugh, Mary E Petrone, and Edward C. Holmes.[3] The abstract on its own speaks volumes:
Mutation. The word naturally conjures fears of unexpected and freakish changes. Ill-informed discussions of mutations thrive during virus outbreaks, including the ongoing spread of SARS-CoV-2. In reality, mutations are a natural part of the virus life cycle and rarely impact outbreaks dramatically.
How about that! So what of the claims that we should brace for a massive death toll even beyond what we’ve witnessed over the past year? The article concludes by putting us at ease:
Based on this observation, some hypothesized that virus genetic changes in part drove the SARS epidemic, but this claim is unsubstantiated14. So, could SARS-CoV-2 adapt in the same way? Yes. Will adaptation precipitate more deaths? Unlikely . . . It is time to reshape our conception of mutations. Mutations are not indicative of outlandish and devastating new viral characteristics. Instead, they can inform our understanding of emerging outbreaks. Any claims over the consequences of mutation demand careful experimental and epidemiological evidence. Mutation is an inevitable consequence of being a virus.
SOURCES:
[1] Maggie Fox, “Can the arrival of new coronavirus variants scare Americans into better pandemic behavior?,” CNN.com. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/health/variants-arrival-future-whats-next/index.html (accessed January 31, 2021).
[2] Rachael Katz and Helen Shwe Hadani, “Are you happy or sad? How wearing face masks can impact children’s ability to read emotions,” Brookings.edu. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2020/04/21/are-you-happy-or-sad-how-wearing-face-masks-can-impact-childrens-ability-to-read-emotions/ (accessed January 31, 2001).
[3] Nathan D. Grubaugh, Mary E Petrone, and Edward C. Holmes, “We shouldn’t worry when a virus mutates during disease outbreaks,” Nat Microbiol 5, no. 4 (2020): 529-530. Accessed January 31, 2021. doi: 10.1038/s41564-020-0690-4.