It's like a horrifyingly bad joke:

[PCIntern]

You know one or two - you don’t tell it/them even to your friends because they are so utterly tasteless that you would forever be remembered as the person who told it. (I’ll send the punch lines of a couple if you PM me and you can search on the web for the rest of the joke).

This variant is troublesome in several regards: honest physicians and scientists are sounding the warning bells, except this time it seems that industry and politicians of certain stripes are ready with their denials and almost worse, minimizations of the new risks.

When I first heard about COVID-19 the thing which set off alarm bells was the ease of transmissibility coupled with the general genetics of this particular virus. I recall certain members here recalling my fear concerning Ebola and trivialized my response to the new entity. These viruses easily mutate and with a transmissibility much greater than average, it develops in many more Petri dishes, a.k.a. Humans, than it might otherwise and thus have more opportunity to mutate into a form resistant to treatment. It’s Evolution 101. What’s more, the simplest explanation usually suffices.

This new development is not OK or run of the mill, It’s a quantum leap. I hope and pray that we do this better this time but I’m not terribly optimistic but that’s my nature. The advantage of being that way in this society is that I’m often correct and unsurprised.

[secondwind]

1. The Spanish Flu killed over 32 million people in 283 days.

We NEED to wake up and take this virus seriously, damnit.

Just watched Bill Gates on a Ted Talks... he was warning us five years about to be READY for the next outbreak.
And we WERE, to a certain extent, until the asshat came into the WH and dismantled Obama's scientific team in China, and brought all the folks back home.

[shanti]

23. TFG ruined SO much

[ShazzieB]

26. Everything TFG touches dies.

Or is ruined, destroyed, laid waste, wrecked, despoiled ..... the list goes on and on.

[hedda_foil]

2. You and me both, PCI. I'm right there with you!

[LymphocyteLover]

3. How is this a joke? I don't get your title.

[PCIntern]

5. How it will be "managed" by the skeptics

and once again we will be placated by the naysayers. It’s a bad joke…it will cost lives.

[JanMichael]

4. When China locked down 30mil people is when I said oh shit

Now numbers dip for a month and there are so many people that say drop the masks and I'm free...

Then it goes back up and we start over. Wash rinse and repeat with masks.

[Larissa]

11. We've got to restart from square one

Last edited Sat Nov 27, 2021, 04:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Masks back on, whether vaccinated or not; continue hand washing; refresh social distancing -- which means no crowded venues. Folks groan because they are sick and tired of it. It is very hard to accept that this will be the new normal for the foreseeable future. Accept it. Our country and this world is nowhere near the vaccination rates needed to diminish this virus.

[COL Mustard]

16. As The Unvaccinated Die Off, The Rate Will Improve

Along with the gene pool, the body politic, etc. I just wish some of them would hurry up.

[question everything]

6. And, beware of so called experts, with all the letters behind their names, who claim that vaccines

cause the mutation.

https://www.deplatformdisease.com/blog/addressing-geert-vanden-bossches-claims

[madville]

33. Viruses can indeed mutate in vaccinated individuals that become infected

That is scientific fact. As variants emerge that cause more detectable infections in vaccinated individuals, the likelihood of mutations occurring from those replications increases as well.

The distinction can be made though that the vaccine itself does not cause a mutation, but the body’s vaccinated defense against the viral infection can cause a mutation as the virus replicates just like it does in unvaccinated people.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. "I recall certain members here... trivialized my response to the new entity."

I don't remember seeing a lot, or any, of that here, but OK.

So, we'll mark you down as, "I told you so".

[PCIntern]

12. I recall distinctly...

I remember most negative responses to my posts, as I have a terrific visual memory, and carry a grudge for like, 20 years…😄

[COL Mustard]

17. Irish Alzheimer's....

I only remember the grudges.

(Ducking in case I offended any actual Irish people......)

[PCIntern]

18. Jewish too...

I remember slights from second grade…

[COL Mustard]

19. Well, Then Let Me Be Among The First To Wish You A

Happy Hanukkah!

[PCIntern]

21. Thank you, Colonel!

[Trueblue Texan]

28. I have this in common with you...

... and also carry a grudge forever. It's the thing I dislike the most about myself. But I am afraid you are correct in your assessment of what's to come with this new variant. I may retire earlier than I planned. I can't take much more of this. I just want to become a hermit. Stupid, reckless, right wingers are all over my patient load. I just may walk away from it. Maybe I'll protect myself and my family that way.

[Scrivener7]

22. You must have been away or sleeping, because the place was lousy with that kind of thing.

[Silent3]

8. If you're talking about scientists, not political hacks, alarm over COVID went up about as fast...

...as the data could be gathered to document the scale of the threat. Some scientists in China might have been slow to sound the alarm, but there's not much we could have done about that.

Omicron could be bad, but we just don't have the data yet to be sure. That's not a matter of anyone minimizing anything.

[live love laugh]

35. +1

Too much alarmism for me. Everybody wants to speculate about something nobody really knows about yet.

[Traildogbob]

9. Just a thought

I am betting our worst, most capable enemies are drooling at the thought of biological warfare against America. 40 percent of us will believe it’s a hoax, supported by Fox News, and will refuse to do anything to protect against it. And all this could be their game plan. Propaganda to make us so vulnerable their attack would destroy us.

[OrangeJoe]

13. American reaction

While I somewhat agree with your scenario, a recent visit to Mexico City showed how much more serious our neighbors to the south were taking COVID and implementing public health measures, we Americans are not alone in our stupidness over COVID.

The internet is everywhere and disinformation combined with grifters hawking quack cures and just general stupidity means that there are misinformed idiots planet wide refusing to do what is necessary to control this virus. America is far from alone in having anti-vaxer citizens. The stupid is everywhere!

[Traildogbob]

14. It's more contagious

Than any virus. Starting to believe stupid is airborne and mouth breathers spew it out AND suck it in those gapping pie holes.

[alterfurz]

20. Against stupidity, even the gods themselves fight in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller

Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results. -- Margaret Atwood

[HUAJIAO]

25. Just as a matter of interest---

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Evil vs Stupidity in his Letters From Prison-

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force.”

“Against stupidity we are defenseless; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed, and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one.”



https://currentpub.com/2020/04/05/dietrich-bonhoeffer-on-stupidity/

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

34. The best term I've seen for that sort of stupidity

is "belligerent ignorance." Hallmark of the modern day Republican.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. I see it as every other crisis we've seen since maybe Polio. We are quite capable...

of jumping up and down with fear and the hope of a cure until that cure inconveniences us, or some puerile "humanist" or political point is brought to the fore.

At this point, however, the fearmongers have beat the experts to the punch.

It is as though the advances of science and knowledge never happened.

[live love laugh]

36. The real virus is ignorance. We're basically re-entering the Dark Ages

[Ms. Toad]

15. I'm right there with you -

And I see the posts here quoting experts who are saying, "Don't worry . . . be happy."

As we have throughout this pandemic, even the most well-informed experts are downplaying it/urging caution about jumping to conclusions.

Fauci said most of the right things yesterday - but he repeated the mistakes of the early pandemic yesterday when he said, in response to a question about whether it is already in the US, "Of course, anything is possible. . . there is no indication that it is right now. It seemed to have been restricted to . . . there were some cases that originated in South Africa and that went to Botswana and people who traveled and found out they were infected, and one had gone actually to Hong Kong. There's a lot of travel . . "

By this morning, after cases have been identified in Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, UK, Germany, Italy, countries, he has had to change his tune. He is now urging far more caution than he did yesterday.

We have to stop pretending COVID is harmless, and react strongly at the first indication of trouble - not wait and see what happens and then react.

[HUAJIAO]

31. While Dr Fauci may or may not have been aware of the spread when he made his first statement,

I feel he ... what ?... sometimes doesn't say things in the best way.... is politically somewhat naive and doesn't really understand the horror of the ugly, dangerous, ignorant side of tens of millions of Americans.

I go back, for one thing, to last spring when it was announced that the vaccinated COULD GO MASKLESS; that only the unvaccinated need to mask up.

Whomever made that decision, and I have no idea who it was, is truly naive about human nature and it cost us a lot. But I believe he is the one who announced it.

Perhaps I am wrong, and would certainly admit it.


Now. please, don't go report me as anti-Fauci, blah. blah.. I very much admire the fellow and feel we are fortunate to have him doing the work he is doing.

[Hekate]

24. Two years ago someone asked me what I planned to do & I said: "Live through it"...

It’s been depressing, as in, I am depressed. I am no longer confident that I or all those I love will manage to do that, and I have so very much unfinished business.

Some good news: I’m no longer isolating from family events like Thanksgiving and birthdays, since hubby and I are now triple-vaxxed with Moderna. I have accepted that gatherings are “mixed company,” so to speak, but it in the back if my mind like a black cloud.

Holiday decorations are absolutely minimal again in my house. Last year I managed to hang Christmas stockings, period. The Hannukiyah was brought out, and I think we remembered to light the candles. There are people who I wonder if I will see again in this lifetime, given how far away they are.

We have our routine, and we are fortunate to live in a mask-mandated state, so there’s that.

But I think you are right, PCI. In my opinion, our species is getting its comeuppance. With 8 billion people on this planet, humanity won’t be wiped out, but an awful lot of individuals are likely to be — in a feast day for autocrats.

And on that cheery note, I bid you adieu. Hug your dear ones.

[PCIntern]

29. Adieu?

Is one of us leaving? 😄👍

[PCIntern]

30. Adieu?

Is one of us leaving? 😄👍

[Hekate]

32. Never leaving here, just my depressing post!

[Historic NY]

27. We had this discussion on Thursday.

went to a relatives first in a long time, she had some of her close friends at government or other professionals. The topic was how people rejected science, seems no one could wrap themselves around it. They traveled a lot before the lockdown and like me bemoan the fact people just don't get it. So there was planning to be made for next year and beyond to be made 2025 Italy. They were hoping to get to Switzerland next spring and a cruise. Like me 22 seems like a wash, because of covidiots, everyone seems hopeful. I'm getting my booster Tuesday.