Short version:
Distant Early Warnings from a man I respect (also love the band Rush and the man Rush, miss you bud, but this is about Mr. Whittle) seemed to me spot on. When the argument about how to deal with Covid kept changing, I believe he said (better than I, though I was also arguing this point with my circles) this is not (was not) containable. Better than lockdowns would have been isolations.
I don’t know how practical our idea was, I’m not sure civilization has provided humane, helpful isolations before? I’m just a code monkey (more on that shortly) but at least it applies now. We may not have had systems in place to help isolate the at-risk or hypochondriac when we first set out about a year ago into uncharted freedom restrictions (justified or not) but we have them now.
Everywhere I look the necessities are available through curbside or contactless options, up to and including at-home, faceless delivery.
Seems to me it’s time to turn the current paradigm around and reach Bill’s prophetic plan a full-circle year later. I hear PSAs at some of my (used to be) favorite stores telling me if I don’t like wearing a mask to consider using their contactless pick-up options. So now we should open up the stores and let people know who are afraid to enter mask-less or requiring social distancing that there are options available to keep them isolated from the rest of us, safely distant, masked or otherwise. WE should be the ones allowed into the store, those of us who are willing to walk down the aisles with our neighbors, smile at each other help get things down from high shelves (I do get asked that a lot, and am ALWAYS happy to help) hold doors for each other, speak with each other, and otherwise rock out in confined, crowded spaces if we so choose. For those who just had a minor (or major) freak-out, use the darned options available to you! You’re going to freak out even if people ARE distancing and wearing masks.
Just about the only thing I hope stays are the sanitation stations and the increased washing of hands.
I went through Covid. Took the test, got the official call, self-isolated, and re-emerged into the world after depressing confinement. I did not so much as sneeze, feel dizzy, have a headache, or have to blow my nose. I did the self isolation for OTHERS. Nameless, clueless, angry, belligerent, RUDE people I don’t know and don’t like (also for the countless awesome neighbors I don’t know and do like, as I realize not everyone would be as completely and utterly asymptomatic as me). I’m 52. Overweight. Probably insulin resistant (yeah, plenty of extra pounds). Hell, I’m probably allergic to stuff I have no clue about and could doubtless be diagnosed with “comorbidities” I can’t comprehend and prescribed all sorts of expensive treatment by specialists I’ve never heard of.
Why do I say that? Because my code-monkey stomping grounds happen to be writing software for the medical industry. I spend most of my working hours around ICD-10s, CPTs, modifiers, and PHI. Worse than that, I’m asked at least twice a week to do data analytics, interacting with CMOs of insurance companies you’ve heard of. I’m in the business of remote patient monitoring (still can’t call it RPM with a straight face).
Fear is a very, very easy lever to pull, and our doubts the lip of the tent under which the elephant’s trunk easily probes. “Abundance of Caution” oh man that’s a wiggly line drawn on a slippery slope.
Anyway, while I am NOT someone who buys the “Covid-only” numbers, I also believe it’s misleading to include cases where multiple, serious co-morbidities (and I’m getting as tired of that term as anyone can whose income stream has stabilized because of it) are the much more likely cause.
It’s time to look at Covid numbers the same way we look at other, similar diseases. Kind of like comparing different unemployment numbers under different administrations is misleading.
And get me out of this DAMNED mask.
7 replies on “Curbside it – full circle”
The Great One oft stated AIDS was the first disease with its own set of rights.
Rona has turned AIDS on its head. Anything Rona says thru its dictatorial servants becomes instant law, enforced by the very people who’s job it is to determine legal and illegal dictates. Go talk to your Sheriff and ask him(her) under what authority he(she) enforces executive orders over established law.
“Super Spreaders” are listed where in the federal or states Constitution? Emergency powers to over-rule same, are listed where? What we wear or where we may go or who we may associate with are allowed to be mandated according to what legal provisions?
Luckily I live in a state represented (notice, I did not say ruled or led) by the best governor on the planet. He is also a product of the Tea Party.
I like your thinking. The price of liberty is assuming the consequences of personal risk, not demanding others limit their liberty to maximize our convenience. Governments are trying to force us into a collectivist mindset. You want collectivism? Okay then. To those who expect me to self-smother – to deny myself the free flow of air – then please explain just exactly what stops me from rummaging through your shopping cart to remove all the junk food and sugar-laden soft drinks?
Agreed. Let us go maskless, and the ones who want to wear the mask can, or they can use all the delivery or curbside services to get what they want.
I keep telling people we ALL need to stand up or else they’ll have their “minions” and “jack boots” pick us off one by one.
There are many of us who will ensure that “their ‘minions’ and ‘jack boots'” will either be picked off one by one or in mass quantities. I am one who will not go down without fighting either figuratively or actually.
I completely agree with you. If the draconian measures to curtail spread were initially warranted they ceased to be within at least 30 days. Then, the virus gave rise to a poisonous combination of hubris and self-protection, pride and ignorance by which local, state, and federal “rulers” realized they could issue their dictates without penalty and could ignore protestation and resistance from behind the curtain of saving lives. And following that is the very real possibility that the powers behind the government saw the ease by which they could control 330M people, and recognized what a windfall the virus is for their ultimate goal of world wide control.
I believe the virus morphed into a mechanism used by the few to dominate the many. It has been used to vanquish political adversaries, throttle the voices of common sense, rob Americans of their constitutional rights and give petty tyrants the means by which to bring their wildest dreams to fruition.
What disappoints me is that 330M people have let them get by with it. Or, more nefariously, have been groomed for it.
You’ve stated exactly what I’ve been thinking for the past year, only more articulately than I could have. Like many, I went along with the idea of wearing the mask to flatten the curve — for a month or two. But when more and more excuses kept popping up to keep us masked, I got over that idea. The speed with which the great Dr. Fauci made a 180-degree turn on the matter should have made anyone suspicious.
I can’t think of who said it, but there is some quote about “Fear is the instrument of oppression”.
Very well put!
I think they’ve been planning this for a while. All we need to is look at the “conferences” and “simulation” meetings they’ve had about how to combat a pandemic. (One a few months before the rona broke out.)
The one before the lockdown was sponsored (in part) by Johns Hopkins School for Medical Sciences, which had a part in keeping/putting out info. on stats, etc. during the “pandemic”. How convenient.
Fauci, Birx, the Gates, and others are connected by a number of “non-profits” and BigPharm. They profit with the more expensive treatments vs ones that have been around and proven to be effective. They profit by the vax too.
The MSM and Social Media ran a fear campaign 24/7, the hospitals exaggerated their capacities (time for tik-tok dancing?), cause of death was attributed to rona even if ppl died of automobile accidents,etc.
All those governors, mayors, city councils in select states kept their citizens under Napoleonic rules to willfully break their economies, small businesses, etc.
“Never let a crisis go to waste.” “Any means necessary.” “If you don’t have a crisis, make one.”
Our government, at least down to the mayoral level are purposefully crashing the economy and putting small businesses out of business, and people out of work.
They want everyone on the government teat!
Can’t do that if people have jobs, businesses, side gigs, etc. Can’t do that if food is plentiful and can be distributed.
Why is Bill Gates supposedly one of the holders of the most farmland in America? His family is for eugenics (code name “family planning” or “planned parenthood”). Mr. Gates is an avid vaxer and even did a TedTalk where he stated to reduce the worlds population.
Our own higher education institutions have been given “grants” & federal funds to poison the population. (See Harvard University GeoEngineering Program).
I wonder if we’ll ever see how deep the rabbit hole goes?
It’s their plan. They are way ahead of us because we slept.
We are in more grave danger than most can fathom.
The election steal was but a drop in their bucket.