I recently became infected with the Chinese coronavirus. Along with the vast number of Americans, I also recovered. I have never doubted the veracity of the virus’s existence, and my family’s conditions were genuinely real, but it is hard to reconcile my experience with the public panic wrought by corrupted media and political personalities. Was this why my friends refuse to get together or why my country is panicking worse than the lawyer in Jurassic Park when he scampers off to the Porta-Potty? We don’t have to ask if fleeing the Explorer worked out for him.
My first thought in all of this was to blame President Trump. After all, Joe Biden and the Democrats keep insisting he mismanaged the pandemic.
Just kidding.
Considering I contracted the virus in this hotly anticipated second wave, if there is any blame to go around, it ought torest squarely with my blue state governor for botched leadership. We knew the second wave was knocking on November’s door back in April. I have had friends and family that push back on this point and say this level of preparedness belongs at a federal level. Maybe it does; I don’t know how the conversations between Pence’s taskforce and elected state officials transpired. I only know that my governor kept delaying reopenings one week at a time, pivoted on public health measures to allow massive Black Lives Matter protests to go unchecked, and then incrementally eroded personal liberties once the novelty of anti-police protests subsided. Could he not have converted a conference center or sports arena into a COVID-19 hub without the federal government holding his hand? Why are hospitals suddenly overwhelmed now as if blindsided. Besides, wasn’t the first lockdown supposed to flatten the curve anyways?
There are more questions than answers. Not only did my family lose valuable income this year and basic constitutional rights, our community was still no better prepared to absorb the imminent resurgence of the virus. If the first lockdown was so crucial, why the need for a second one? Moreover, if masks are as effective as advertised (this is essentially Biden’s entire plan), why is the second wave occurring at all? But the real kicker is that we were already locked down AND wearing masks when I presented with symptoms.
In reality, outside of better readiness, the virus was in the country by the time we knew about it and no amount of quarantines, masks, or lockdowns was going to alter that reality. While Democrats and the media publicly panicked (and endlessly blamed President Trump), at the end of the day a virus is going to do what a virus is going to do. Privately, it should be noted, these same officials don't seem concerned at all. Table for twelve, Mr. Newsome; or, your flight is now boarding, Mr. Hancock.
It must be nice to be Napoleon and the other pigs.
Maybe I hold too high of expectations and presume too much competence from elected officials. I mean, even Mr. Unfit himself, President Trump, managed to pull off Operation Warpspeed, resulting in a Guinness-qualifying effort of vaccine production (along with capitalism and Big Pharma - which will be celebrated in the short-term but immediately vilified once we have our mandated pokes). If Trump, that clueless buffoon, could effect such progress, surely the sophisticated elites in Blue States could more adroitly protect their statewide electorate?
--Forgive me while I choke on this Regeneron pill. Did I just suggest Gavin Newsom, Tom Wolfe, Andrew Cuomo, or Tim Walz had the wherewithal to be competent? I needed a good laugh --
I do feel a small sense of relief having contracted the virus and recovered. Like I said, I was never worried for myself, but it did limit my exposure to vulnerable family members with potential comorbidities. I wasn’t going to be a monster and potentially infect them. I can’t help but think that my other friends and the nation would similarly benefit from having a COVID-19 soiree, getting sick, and in a week or two resume functioning as a rational human being again. The virus isn’t the worst part about all of this. It’s the unnecessary and illogical panic. Had we responded appropriately around April and May, when we realized that the IFR was insanely low, that no amount of restrictive measures was going to curb the spread, that there were cheap and readily available treatments in the form of hydroxychloroquine, and that the consequences of forced lockdowns and job loss would result in massive spikes in depression, suicide, substance abuse, financial hardship, and a wasted year of school. Of course, that's asking the media and Democrats, already infected with worse cases of TDS, to act responsibly.
The virus may be real, but the panic has been entirely man made and intentional. How could it not be? President Trump was destroying the left - he was winning - and every smear his opponents tried to stick to him simply slicked off his back. He was going to win in a landslide. The kicker is that COVID escaped the news around late May and early June...something about police brutality and white supremacy. Honestly, I told my friends and family that at least the riots changed the media narrative, and I was naive enough to think we’d move on. I was wrong.
The testing has been proven to be a complete scam. Not only are cases counted incorrectly (positive tests alone do not meet the traditional definition of “case”), the threshold for a positive test is astronomically high (using 40 cycles rather than the clinical maximum of 33 or so). Nothing short of a fraud is occurring to believe that this many people are walking around waiting to infect their loved ones.
On the issue of hydroxychloroquine, I believe anyone that advocated against it is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. That it was not touted as a treatment occurred for two reasons: 1) President Trump named it as an option, and 2) The mutual financial interest of government regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical companies outweighed the sense of prescribing life-saving medicines. Since government oversight is supposed to rein in capitalist tendencies, I blame the FDA and CDC more than I do Big Pharma.
Speaking of deaths, how are we not asking questions about the much lower rate of flu deaths, heart disease deaths, and all other deaths related to comorbidities in the battle against coronavirus? Isn’t that even a little suspect? In fact, people are now coming out saying that no excess deaths have occured in 2020. And not just any people; Johns Hopkins people.
I even asked my place of work if I could stop wearing my mask. Who was it helping at this point? No, they said. Even though they knew I had been sick, had stayed home for several weeks, and had now recovered, masks were mandatory in the office. Based on what science? Doesn't matter.
Ultimately, whatever political machinations took hold, I expected to get sick. I don’t believe any of the numbers coming out of anywhere, but the virus itself seems rather contagious, if for no other reason than it was a new strand humans are unaccustomed to. It is weaker now than when it first appeared, providing even more of an argument against continued insanity. Plus, faced with such arbitrary lockdowns, such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, Home Depot, every gas station, every grocery store, and commercial air traffic staying open but forced (upon penalty of state-brought lawsuits) closures for gyms, hair salons, and restaurants, it was hard to imagine a scenario where I didn’t get it. Because believe me, if something was open, I went there. Truth be told, I went to Home Depot for fifteen straight days at one point in May.
Still, like man-made climate change, leftists like to accuse conservatives of denying the existence of COVID-19. It helps with the anti-science claim they make of us. Other than fringe elements of our cause - which are still infinitely smaller than the mainstream disasters for leftism known as Antifa and Black Lives Matter - I have had a hard time tracking down evidence that anyone denied the existence of the virus. I know I didn’t, nor did any of the rational voices in talk radio, social media, and print that I follow. We all agree it’s real, and we all agree that common sense measures can easily be taken that protect both the economy and lives. Isn’t every job essential if it provides purpose and means for a person?
The left’s self-driving delusion that conservatives deny facts and evidence is laughable, but when you think about what leftism promotes, the entire ideology is absurd. This isn’t news to thinking people. Crime will slow down if we remove police? People will work harder for themselves if they are given more welfare? It’s fair for biological men to compete against women because they feel like they’re women, too? A fetus only has worth if a mother decides to bear the child? Climate change will stop if the United States cuts carbon emissions, even if every other nation on earth doesn’t comply? No one will notice if we change global warming to climate change? But this is all a digression.
To be sure, in the end my family endured a real sickness. My wife was laid out for several days, my infant was filling her diaper with a green discharge on the hour every hour for two days, and my self-trained scotch palate still only senses burning alcohol when sipping on a single malt.
I think I got it the worst.