A Thoughtful Response To An Anonymous COVID-19 Post

A friend seeking my opinion had sent to me an anonymous post which I rather suspect is “making the rounds” on social media, which most likely is FaceBook. The following is my reply.

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NOTE TO THE READER: For ease of reading, and for convenience sake, the anonymous author’s remarks are found in red, and my response is found [emboldened in black within brackets].

 

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I did not write this but it’s exactly what i’ve been questioning.  This is what i want answers too.  We need to push “leaders” to give answers and make decisions that make sense long  term.    When does quality of life out weights the risk of a disease you have a 99.97% of getting?

Thank you to whoever wrote this.

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What is the end game with the ‘rona? Anyone? 🦠

[NOTE: The basis for the practical entirely of the argument made in the author’s “rant” is hopelessness, helplessness, quitting in exasperation, and not even trying.] 

 

What is the magic formula that is going to allow us to sound the “all clear?” [There is NO “magic formula.”] Is it zero cases? For a while, the goal was to simply “flatten the curve,” but now that we are disconnecting utilities for gatherings in California, setting up check points in New York, and recommending goggles (what’s next?), it seems as if there is, in fact, no end game. And, truthfully, the only way that we will see numbers drop is if we cease testing and stop reporting. [That is a blatantly asinine, and ignorant remark. It’s like telling people if we stop testing for pregnancies, and counting births, the population will decline.] Keep in mind that hundreds of thousands have shown up to be tested, registered, left due to long waits, and still come up positive when they received their results.🤷🏼‍♀️[That remark suggests that tests are fabricated then falsified – that the results are fraudulent – and that a wholesale deceptive criminal enterprise exists throughout the entire testing chain, everywhere in all locations nationwide.]

 

This young girl in Bangladesh was infected with smallpox in 1973. Freedom from smallpox was declared in Bangladesh in December, 1977 when a WHO International Commission officially certified that smallpox had been eradicated from that country.

Is it a vaccine💉? It took 25 years for a chicken pox vaccine to be developed. [It seems as if the writer is beginning to understand the complexity and magnitude of the problem of vaccine development. The first varicella zoster vaccine was tested in Japan in 1974, and approved by the Japanese government in 1986 – a span of 12 years. The FDA approved a varicella vaccine in 1995, and in 1996 the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to formally approve the vaccine for widespread use.] The smallpox inoculation was discovered in 1776 [Dr. Edward Jenner, MD, developed the first smallpox vaccine (using cowpox) in 1796.] and the last known natural case was in 1977. [SEE EXTENDED COMMENTS FOLLOWING THIS PARAGRAPH] We have a flu vaccine that is only 40 to 60% effective (that’s generous- the last two years it was more like 20-25%) [Influenza vaccines are developed in advance of the annual “flu season” using statistical inferences (prediction), and from 2004/2005 to 2018/2019 vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates have ranged on average from 10% to 60%. For the 2018/2019 season, the overall VE rate was 29%.], less than half of the US population chooses to get one [The remark presumes that all people would get an influenza vaccine if they could – however, many cannot, typically either for reasons of lack of access, availability, or cost. In the Armed Services, vaccines are mandatory. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to estimate flu vaccination coverage for the U.S. population of adults aged ≥18 years during the 2017–18 flu season. Flu vaccination coverage among adults was 37.1%, a decrease of 6.2 percentage points from the previous flu season.], and roughly 20,000 Americans still die annually due to flu or flu complications. [From 2010/2011 through 2018/2019 influenza-related deaths have ranged from 12,000 to 61,000. The 2017/2018 year saw 61,000 influenza-related deaths, while the 2018/2019 year saw 34,157.] [EXTENDED COMMENTS: In late 1975, Rahima Banu, a three-year-old girl from Bangladesh, was the last person in the world to have naturally acquired variola major and the last person in Asia to have active smallpox. She was isolated at home with house guards posted 24 hours a day until she was no longer infectious. A house-to-house vaccination campaign within a 1.5 mile radius of her home began immediately, and every house, public meeting area, school, and healer within 5 miles was visited by a member of the Smallpox Eradication Program team to ensure the illness did not spread. A reward was also offered to anyone for reporting a smallpox case. ––– Ali Maow Maalin was the last person to have naturally acquired smallpox caused by variola minor. Maalin was a hospital cook in Merca, Somalia. On October 12, 1977, he accompanied two smallpox patients in a vehicle from the hospital to the local smallpox office. On October 22, he developed a fever. At first he was diagnosed with malaria, and then chickenpox. He was correctly diagnosed with smallpox by the smallpox eradication staff on October 30. Maalin was isolated and made a full recovery. Maalin died of malaria on July 22, 2013 while working in the polio eradication campaign. ––– Janet Parker was the last person to die of smallpox. It was 1978, and Parker was a medical photographer at the Birmingham University Medical School in England and worked one floor above the Medical Microbiology Department where smallpox research was being conducted. She became ill on August 11 and developed a rash on August 15 but was not diagnosed with smallpox until 9 days later. She died on September 11, 1978. Her mother, who was providing care for her, developed smallpox on September 7, despite having been vaccinated on August 24. An investigation performed afterward suggested that Janet Parker had been infected either via an airborne route through the medical school building’s duct system or by direct contact while visiting the microbiology corridor one floor above.]

Oh, you’ll mandate it in order to attend school, travel to some foreign countries, etc.? We already have a growing number of vaccine researchers refusing proven, tested, well-known vaccines that have been administered for decades! [There is no independently verifiable evidence to support the author’s claim, further, the author cites no validating sources.] Do you really believe the majority of people will flock to get a fast-tracked vaccine, whose long-term side effects and overall efficacy rates are anyone’s best guess? [The author attempts to instill fear through ignorance by using “anti-vaxxers’” arguments.] How long are we going to cancel? Postpone? Reconsider?

 

Now we are advised against in-person school until second quarter? What if October’s numbers are the same as August’s? Then what? [Dead children can’t learn. Dead teachers can’t teach. However, the Latin phrase often found inscribed upon the walls of autopsy suites and morgues states “Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet vitae succurrere,” meaning “This is the place where death rejoices in teaching the living.”]

 

Move football to spring? What if next March is worse than this March? 

 

When do we decide quality of life outweighs risk? [Hospitalizations, intubations, and the as-yet-unknown enduring damage done to organs and body systems by COVID-19 infection – whether one is hospitalized, or not – is in no way “quality of life.”]

 

We understand this virus can be deadly for SOME, but so are shellfish, peanut butter, and bee stings. We take risks every day without a second thought. [The author is suggesting that exposure to, and infection with the novel coronavirus cannot be prevented, nor contained, and therefore, efforts at prevention should be ignored. Those allergic to “shellfish, peanut butter, and bee stings” take precautions to avoid exposure, accidental, or otherwise, to those things. Furthermore, many carry life-saving medications with them in the case of exposure.] 

We know driving a car can be dangerous, but we don’t leave it parked in the garage for months on end. We know the dangers of smoking, drinking, and eating fried foods, but we do it, none-the-less. We speed on highways, some idiots still don’t buckle their seatbelts, we take medications more than “as directed,” and a good number of individuals don’t think twice about unprotected sex. [There is no known case of deliberate exposure to the novel coronavirus. Exposures most often occur as a result of individual recklessness, carelessness, and disregard of known measures to prevent its spread and infection. Complicating matters is a lack of broad scale, universal testing, and is particularly problematic because of asymptomatic carriers who are unknowingly “super-spreaders” of the disease.] 

 

Is hugging Grandma really more dangerous than rush hour on the freeway? Is going to a bar with friends more risky than four day old gas station sushi? Or operating a chainsaw? [Respect of, and care for, the elderly has long been a cross-cultural, trans-national experience, which in this matter means protecting Grandma from possible infection by her relatives – who may be asymptomatic “super-spreaders” – rather than them risking infection from her. At this point, determining one’s risk of infection is somewhat like walking in a cave without light, because there are no reliably accurate testing mechanisms widely available – which significantly complicates matters – and because universal testing is frequently unavailable, as well as variances in the 50 states’ official Public Health responses to the same.]

 

When and how did we so quickly lose our free will? [Free will has NOT been lost, nor destroyed. The self-willled exercise of “free will” is precisely the thing which is causing all the problems and infections of COVID-19 in this nation. There is very little sense of individual and shared sacrifice for the greater common good, for the protection of one’s family, loved ones, friends, and neighbors. The well-known unholy trinity of “I, me, my” and the uncaring attitudes exemplified by demands to get haircuts, or have nails done – even to the extent of assaulting state legislature with armed assault rifles and other weaponry such as was done in Wisconsin – is a cheapening of the value of human life, and demonstration of a blatantly wholesale selfish disregard for others.]

 

I want a waiver that says, “I understand the risks, but I choose a life with hugs, smiles, college athletics, the state fair, concerts, and school dances.” [Hypothetically, one could obtain a waiver of risk, and deliberately stand in front of a loaded firearm which would then be discharged, and hope for a misfire. But to do so would be most foolhardy.] 

 

I understand that there is a minuscule possibility I could die but, more probable, I will end up feeling like junk for a few days. [The author makes a claim for which there is no evidence. Anecdotally, there are publicly reported instances of individuals who pooh-poohed the warnings, and disregarded the advice, and then contracted the COVID-19, suffered, and died. Following those individuals’ deaths, their relatives and others expressed sorrow, and wished that their dead loved one had retroactively heeded sound advice, and lived.]

 

I understand I could possibly pass this virus onto someone else, but I can pass ANY virus onto someone else at any time until the end of time. [TRANSLATION: I really don’t care about anyone but myself.]

 

Are we busy living or busy dying? [Death is a part of life. It is the final part.]

 

 

It’s hard to tell these days.

 

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