Covid-19 in 2022 (In Omicron We Trust)

The first news report I heard about the Omicron variant (the evening of Thanksgiving, if I'm not mistaken), hit like Lawrence Taylor in his prime: this new South African variant has a massive increase in the number of spikes and was as ever present as a Freddie Mercury meme. The end seemed to be neigh: the virus would affect more and more people worldwide as it increased in complexity. It felt like Covid-19 had finally taken the dreaded next step and was now on its way to being the mass extinction event that we'd be so paranoid about for the last year and a half. 

Soon enough, though, the news turned out to be pretty good: Omicron is more transmissible than previous variants of Covid but quite a bit less deadly. A month later and the real good news is that no one even remembers the initial bad news. The South African data, still the fullest and richest available, suggest that not only is this version far less dangerous but even the majority of the hospitalized patients didn't discover their Covid until after they'd been hospitalized, meaning the Covid was not their primary problem. Finally, Omicron is the embodiment of what we should have realized ages ago: Covid is a secondary concern to your general health. 

But in USA, the media is still trying to shill for the death cult, portraying the spread of Omicron as more ominous than ever before--when, in fact, the spread of Omicron is good news! It means that the pandemic is just about done! Covid-19 has (theoretically) finally found its optimal form: an extremely transmissible but vastly less deadly version that is here to stay but really no worse than the common cold or flu (*). But Americans are weird people: as much as we rely on "news", we just as easily shrug it off (cognitive dissonance is a pretty standard feature of American life), so while the Media is still trying to make us believe the spread of Omicron is bad, we are living the hopeful side even while still trying to hold on to the paranoia. 

Does this mean that the Biden administration will change its course? I don't see how it can. The best bet to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 was to remind everyone that Covid was dangerous and Trump fiddled while hundreds of thousands of Americans died. The rhetoric of paranoia is a good one for ambitious politicians and Biden kept it going once he got into office, promising mandates that would socially remove those that felt like the vaccine was unnecessary for them. Moving on from the threat of Covid sounds like a good idea for a POTUS, but then the population will have even more time to see that the rest of his presidency is kinda awful. And as Covid recedes as a clear and obvious danger, then we'll have more time to investigate what the actual danger was (hint: more than the virus, it was the overreaching idiot gov't, awful Trump at first, then even more awful Biden). 

2020 was about the virus but 2021 was about the vaccine and though vastly more Americans have died since then, we're still expected to believe that the vaccine is our only savior and spending massive amounts of public capital is necessary--indeed, patriotic! But really even that was about firmly manipulating the cleavage in public opinion so as to create an us-vs-them mentality to keep the Democrat faithful plugged in to the notion that they were the superior moral creatures for taking the vaccine and for condemning those who did not. In the end, the real lesson to be learned is that social media remembers all and the things people said/wrote that seemed pretty mainstream at the time will be recalled as utterly disgusting and mean-spirited bile in the near future. Liberals think they are immune from this, but that is because they have hitherto had short memories, whereas digital memories just go on and on. 

If Omicron is what we think it is--and it looks more and more every day that it is--than the bullshit has finally been exposed: the virus doesn't kill you, your horrible habits kill you. And for the vast majority of Americans, the vaccine didn't save them, it merely gave them an excuse to be arrogant assholes in the face of potential tragedy. If the powers-that-be were really concerned with "public health" they would be telling you to quit smoking and cut needless carbs out of your diet, they'd be imploring you to get more exercise and sunshine, they'd be pointing out that vitamin D deficiency is a cause--not an effect--of serious Covid reaction (**). I don't recall President Biden giving any speeches on our patriotic duty to take our vitamin D supplements...did I miss that? And all that talk of diet and exercise in the State of the Union address....hmmmm....don't remember any.

We have known for well over a year--well before the 2020 election--that this virus was extremely dangerous to the elderly, the obese, and those with hypertension and other pre-existing respiratory conditions...and not to anyone else. (***) It has been clear for well over a year that the best way to avoid the virus is social distancing (not the vaccine) and the best way to survive the virus was to live a life of good diet and exercise and hygiene (not the vaccine). The emphasis on the vaccine was never about public health and always about political rhetoric. If you believe the reason Lebron James is not on a ventilator right now is because he took a vaccine jab six months ago, then you have simply lost all sense of what health is. Science will study how Lebron James has preserved his body long after the world has forgotten what basketball is. If you think the only thing keeping him alive is gov't mandated medicine...then I don't what to tell you, man, you have given up your brain.

In USA we have turned medical procedure on its head, forcing everyone to get medicine that only a few people need. And not only without a second opinion but without a first one! We have expended massive amounts of public capital to enrich a handful of pharmaceutical companies, stuffing vaccines into the arms of children that are at virtually zero risk of having an adverse reaction to the virus (indeed, much more likely to have an adverse reaction to the vaccine than the virus!), while actual needy people around the world still wait for the vaccine that may be the difference between life and death. We have purged the nurses and cops and school teachers that didn't vote for Joe Biden and if you were trying to convince to me that would make a better world, I'm eager to hear that argument; instead, we've been told this was necessary for public health, which was a bad faith argument at best and now proven to be a downright vicious dirty lie at worst. (How many times do you have to hear the phrase 'breakthrough case' before you realize that they're actually pretty ordinary?)

For what it's worth, I was never against the vaccine. I think vaccines are wonderful and that this vaccine in particular is a really good thing for millions of people around the globe. But instead of giving it to the millions of people around the globe who need it, Americans kept over-stuffing into themselves and their children and pro athletes and all sorts of other people that don't need it--and called those that wouldn't waste medicine alongside them as "selfish". Only Americans can conceive of not wasting life-saving vaccines as "selfish"! Fucking unbelievable--and they're still out there pumping their smarmy superior nonsense even though we've known conclusively at least since last summer that the vaccine doesn't stop the spread of the virus. *smh*

Even to this day, there are still those out there trying to convince others that getting the vaccine means they can't get the virus. Are you nuts? Google the phrase "NBA health and safety protocols" and just know that all of those dudes that tested positive and had to miss games are vaccinated. Kyrie Irving never tested positive until he started out hanging out with vaccinated NBA players! (****) If the vaccine doesn't keep you from getting and spreading the virus, then where is the public health argument for mandates? The unpleasant next step is to go back and compensate all the people unfairly thrown out of their jobs for "public health" reasons when those rationales have been thoroughly shown to be fraudulent. 

And what does "misinformation" mean, again? There was something about public health in there initially but "misinformation" seems to mean anything other than Democratic Party talking points (so the vaccine and student loans). The power of social media platforms to dictate how the citizenry speak to each other is the real revelation of this pandemic period. Adults are too stupid to figure it out, but the kids now know that they cannot trust the phones in their hands--and that may well be the best realization for Humanity. 

As of January 1, 2022, the best way to avoid the virus is to socially distance (just like March 2020). If you are going to be around others, then you should wear a mask. And if you want to survive the effects of the virus, the best course of action is to take care of your health, make the virus overcome your strong body. If these options are unavailable to you or still not good enough, then you would be a candidate for the vaccine. The vaccine is at best the 4th best way to protect yourself from the effects of the virus. Blaming the unvaccinated is rude, mean-spirited and absolutely not based in any fact. And, worst of all, it gives the vaccinated a false sense of security, as if they are bullet proof because of the jab. (*****) The vaccine was never the best way to avoid the virus or to avoid getting sick from the virus. It was merely a symbolic totem of "not my fault" and now that the vaccine is clearly incapable of keeping people from getting the virus or passing it on, then the emperor suddenly looks pretty pasty. How on earth can you mandate the 4th best option, while pretending it was the only way, and then act like you've saved anyone's life?

But how could we have known all this? Dude, they already knew before any of this happened! Check out this clip of Mark Cuban from February 2020.

"Just like there's a flu season and we know to get the vaccine for the flu season, there will be a corona season." This was entirely predictable: this virus wants to be a regular seasonal affliction and eventually we will develop a vaccine for the Omicron that will be modulated on a seasonal basis. The idea that the initial vaccine was 'the one' was always overly optimistic. Obviously Omicron can mutate again (oh, it certainly will), but the danger with Covid was always that it has a second act. Seems like the second act is perpetual but mild cold symptoms. Well....okay....could be worse. The real hysteria was the one we inflicted on each other through Media. 

The Media encourages us to be at each other's throats. And in times of crisis, the Media will just get louder, not more helpful. And the idea that anyone in the Media (or Gov't) has all the answers or science on their side is preposterous. Ideally, we have all learned that now....right?

For now, we will move on to testing. The Biden White House is eager to make tests available (after several months of not making tests available), but what's the point of that now? Way back in the Spring of 2020, I thought testing was the most important thing and I couldn't understand why we weren't doing more of it. Well, it would've led to a lot of false positives (and negatives) and early on may well have been more trouble than it was worth. The real reason we didn't get them was Trump didn't want to know what was actually going on--nor did Biden after him (or Xi Jinping before him). Politicians craft narratives and when the facts are invisible, it leaves more room for the craftsmen. 

But at this point the tests serve no purpose but to keep riling everyone up. Omicron looks to keep all Humans testing positive forever....and what good will that knowledge do? The spread of Omicron looks to touch literally every Human on earth by the end of 2022. And if it remains mild, then this should be a better outcome than continually deadly variants or endless vaccinations--indeed, a pervasive mild version of Covid is the only conclusion to the pandemic and we should all be hoping that Omicron is it. But what are we testing for? 

The Media has shown itself to be antagonistic to human health. The Gov't has shown that money is all it has and when given the chance, it will spend more than it has (******). Science has shown that it is willing but that it takes time--an it needs unfettered access to data and capital. Democrats have shown they're worse than Republicans; Republicans have shown that they're way out of touch and useless in a crisis.

The grim prediction: after the Republicans take back the House and Senate in November, you can bet that January 2023 will see a lot of Congressional committees lining up to treat the Biden White House like war criminals. And they'll be going after social media companies for deciding who gets to speak "Truth" and who doesn't (*******). And we'll get a deep dark dive into the stories of vaccine reactions that the mainstream media has hitherto ignored (though they'll happily dole it out when the time is right). And the CEO's of pharmaceutical companies that are riding high at the moment will get hung out to dry Mussolini-style. (And, frankly, it might not even require a Republican takeover to get Congress back into the lab leak hypothesis, China may look like big ol' tasty scapegoat once we no longer have the unvaccinated to kick around)

Oh, and all those out there who suggested unvaccinated people shouldn't be allowed to go to hospitals...your day is coming. You thought it was safe to openly ridicule the un-cool kids in the lunch room, but your words are spray painted in 1's and 0's for all time. So how are you going to explain yourself when "science" finally gets a grip? And are you going to shift to pointing out that obese people are the real menace? Or smokers? Or sedentary people? Are you ready to suggest none of them deserve emergency room care? (********) You've shown the world you're built to throw needy people under the bus for no good reason, you played yourselves. 

I've never been a big fan of Democracy, truth be told. I find it just leads to elections. And as for the two party system, it has its merits (I am convinced that in the long run it minimizes social strife even if it looks like it does the exact opposite), but both of these parties can go fuck themselves. The Democrats used to respect free speech and due process but they've shown that in a crisis, those are expendable. And the Republicans used to have a sense of fiscal discipline but there's no reason to think that's ever coming back in the post-Covid phase of American history.

I'm pleased that the pandemic is almost gone. There's so much I wish it would take with it when it goes. 

(*) People die of the common cold and the flu, they always have and they still will. But we don't much care about that, do we, because we've lived for so long with those maladies that they seem like old friends. Indeed, the common cold is pretty firmly in Humanity's DNA at this point. Omicron Covid-19 seems destined to be just another layer of winter illness to kvetch about at Xmas dinner. 

(**) "It is our opinion that (vitamin D) supplements would offer a relatively easy option to decrease the pandemic." Check the date: July 2020...a year and a half ago. A year and a half of languishing in the "misinformation" bin. 

(***) January 1, 2022 South China Morning Post: 288,195,686 confirmed Covid-19 cases worldwide; 5,436,581 confirmed deaths worldwide. Roughly 1.8% of those that get Covid-19 die of Covid-19. I must concede that the vaccine has lowered that rate a little bit, but not much. From the very beginning the death rate was never more than about 2%, now it is firmly under 2%. If we'd given the vaccine to the people that needed it instead of just giving it to everybody, we may have been able to bring that number even lower. But we'll never know because we're too busy congratulating ourselves for saving people that were never at risk (like Andrew Wiggins).

(****) Brandon Knight, Isaiah Thomas, Alfonzo McKennie are three players off the top of my head that were brought in as replacement players that only tested positive for Covid after being around vaccinated teammates. And why does the NBA punish unvaccinated players for the same crime vaccinated players are committing all the time? Because American society has settled on the unvaccinated as the available scapegoat. 

(*****) To be fair to the vaccine itself, there was never any reason to believe that the vaccine would literally keep you from getting the virus. Indeed, the vaccine doesn't do its job until you get the virus! The whole point of the vaccine is to keep the virus from doing horrible things to your lungs, not to keep the virus completely out, that's just not a function of this vaccine. It never was, it was never meant to be, regardless of how much "information" you were given. Repeat: the vaccine only works when you encounter the virus. If you never encounter the virus then the vaccine hasn't done anything. So to think that getting vaccinated is how to avoid the virus is just illogical to the extreme--especially if getting the vaccine means you stopped social distancing or wearing the mask. 

(******) You know as long as we're still obsessed with Democracy, there is a problem unique to that particular form of gov't that we should go ahead and address: Democracy has a propensity toward deficit spending, which is not typically found in other forms of gov't. The democratic system pretty well flushes out politicians pretty quick, so spending as much as fast as they can is all they can do to look like they've achieved something. The money goes out and by the time anyone misses it, that politician's career is over. I'm not advocating that we let politicians stick around longer, merely that we should rein in their ability to waste public moneys. 

(*******) Ever heard of Mission to Moscow? During WWII, the FDR White House (supposedly) asked Warner Brothers to make a film that valorizes our erstwhile ally, the USSR. After the war, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this as a way of suggesting Hollywood's sinister commie underbelly. Do you see how this works? The gov't giveth and the gov't taketh away. (Going further back, have you ever wondered how USA got Florida?)

(********) Seriously, you assholes are the fucking worst. You should be ashamed of yourselves for spouting such hateful bullshit just because you thought it was popular.