When Do We Start Coming out of the Covid-19 Mass Hysteria?

“At some point hopefully we will feel the shame of the Salem witch hunters and all those who aided and abetted them, those in the courts who squirmed and screamed every time a suspect witch was questioned. Maybe weโ€™ll shun the current panic-mongers, as those people were later shunned. But for now itโ€™s full-bore hysteria.…

โ€œMen . . . go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.โ€ So wrote Scottish journalist Charles Mackay in his 1841 book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, which for good reason to this day remains in print.

The Covid-19 hysteria, scientifically called mass psychogenic illness, that began in March has yet to peak. And if some have it their way it will continue indefinitely, merely going, in medical terminology, from epidemic to endemic. That is, it will never fully go away no matter what. We apparently finally have some medicines that work with countless more being tested, doctors have gotten better at applying treatments, vaccines are being administered in what is by far record time, and yet the media and public health community onslaught shows absolutely no sign of abating.

We have heard White House Covid-19 task force member Dr. Deborah Birx claim โ€œThis is not just the worst public health event. This is the worst event that this country will face, not just from a public health side.โ€ Oy! This even as weโ€™re now hearing the mainstream media, led by cult figure Dr. Anthony Fauci, say that the vaccinations now being rolled out donโ€™t mean the masks can come off. Start with the second first.

There are any number of cute memes asking in some manner, โ€œIf masks work, why do we need social distancing? If social distancing works, why do we need masks?โ€ Well, itโ€™s called a layered defense (with no pun intended regarding the use of masks or those people you see wearing two at once.) Cars are filled with a vast number of safety devices and roads have also been made safer in myriad ways, but it doesnโ€™t mean they all donโ€™t work in their own manner. So whatever arguments there are against masks (such as that they donโ€™t stop aerosolized virus) arenโ€™t necessarily negated because social distancing is still encouraged or mandated.

But we are left wondering, โ€œThen when do masks come off? When do the other measures end if itโ€™s independent of vaccinations?โ€

Remember that originally lockdowns and masking were supposed to be extremely temporary, as little as 15 days, to โ€œflatten the curve.โ€ And it was supposed to be a one-time flattening. But it didnโ€™t work out that way. Once the original goal was achieved, the posts were moved. And nobody told us to where. Itโ€™s like literal goalposts; if not the zero-yard line then any other goal is arbitrary.

Except. For. One. Thatโ€™s total elimination of the disease. That may be close to impossible and incredibly expensive to even try, but like eliminating all carbon emissions in a decade it is a goal. 

The problem, of course, is that weโ€™ve never eliminated an airborne virus by quarantining healthy people and thereโ€™s no scientific breakthrough that has made that any more possible now than itโ€™s ever been. For example, the masks virtually everyone is using, even first-liners, are no better than what some people used during the Spanish flu a century ago. Social distancing dividers at various businesses and schools are just like the sneeze guards at the local buffet. Contact tracing with use of mobile devices has been hailed as a savior of sorts, and perhaps can be of help, albeit at the expense of invading privacy. At least itโ€™s targeted, right? Well, no. It seems to be of limited efficacy without distancing.

So again, when do masks get to come off? Can we ever return to pre-Covid life? Or is the answer contained in the term โ€œNew Normal?โ€ That is at least until Covid-19 is eliminated, which took 25 years with a smallpox vaccine. (By the way, the polio eradication program has a target date of 2005.) Thatโ€™s not a typo. And now itโ€™s being threatened by a shift of resources to, you guessed it, Covid-19.

When is it okay to sit next to another human being or be touched again without being guilt-tripped โ€“ or fined and jailed? It doesnโ€™t seem an unreasonable query, but nobody at the press conferences dazzled by the glow of Fauciโ€™s halo ever thinks to ask. 

As for Birxโ€™s claim, repeated by CDC director Robert Redfield, sheโ€™s either off her rocker or simply lying. Thereโ€™s no third option. In 1918-19, the so-called Spanish Flu swept through the world killing, adjusted to todayโ€™s population, 325 to 430 million. These people died of the flu, not with. And, notes the CDC, in direct contrast with coronavirus, โ€œThe high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic.โ€ 

At the same time the world was suffering the torment of WWI (perhaps 20 million deaths), not to mention the horrific smallpox, and vastly higher rates than today of malaria, yellow fever, Dengue, measles, mumps, rubella and a host of other lethal diseases against which there werenโ€™t even treatments. Remember that President Calvin Coolidgeโ€™s son died of infection from a blister in 1924. No antibiotics.

As for Timeโ€™s โ€œWorst Year Everโ€ cover, perhaps itโ€™s a matter of perspective, as exemplified in the satirical term โ€œFirst World Problem.โ€ Which to a great extent is what Covid-19 is. Consider that all those comorbidities tied to higher mortality are related to the cultures of advanced societies โ€“ essentially bad diet, sedentary lifestyles, and simply living longer. Covid-19 this year could represent โ€œa loss of less than 1/1,000th of the populationโ€™s remaining years to live,โ€ according to one published analysis. Imagine throwing a brick into an Olympic-sized pool and trying to measure a rise in the waterline.

Meanwhile about 2.2 million children alone die each and every year in poorer countries from diarrhea, according to the CDC. Thatโ€™s last year, this year, and next year as well. (Assuming coronavirus doesnโ€™t drain anti-diarrheal efforts โ€“ which apparently it is. No Covid-19 shibboleth is more disingenuous than โ€œAll lives matter.โ€ Perhaps, but obviously some lives matter more than most.

What we clearly have is a pandemic of self-absorption, part and parcel to mass psychogenic illness. At some point hopefully we will feel the shame of the Salem witch hunters and all those who aided and abetted them, those in the courts who squirmed and screamed every time a suspect witch was questioned. Maybe weโ€™ll shun the current panic-mongers, as those people were later shunned. But for now itโ€™s full-bore hysteria. And thereโ€™s no end in sight. Itโ€™s more for that reason that, indeed, 2020 has been a very bad year.



Post on Facebook


Post on X


Print Article