Sorry, But COVID-19 Is Not Going Away Any Time Soon
I cannot believe the absolute insanity that has orbited the coronavirus outbreak, and if I sound angry it’s because I am fucking angry. Angry at being kept inside for more than a year. Angry at my income evaporating. Angry at the countless preventable deaths and economic losses this crisis has caused. Angry at the absolute ineptitude, malfeasance, and indifference of lay persons and officials and experts alike. There was a ridiculous map at the start of the outbreak which showed the United States as the most prepared nation for such a disaster, even though President Trump had only a year earlier destroyed the government’s official pandemic response team, showed no competence nor willingness to be the leader required to prevent such a disaster, and promoted ideological rather than rational and scientific priorities (but I mean, why the fuck could anyone be surprised when he used a fucking black sharpie marker to alter an official hurricane prediction map?), and now we are instead the world leader in infections and death.
But the opposition leadership had hardly been any better. Democrats tried all of two months to follow logical mitigation measures before giving ground to an insane minority of vocal virus deniers and eugenicists, people citing Sweden and herd immunity as if they fucking know what that term means or what they are talking about, which they absolutely do not, and not only failed to stop the virus but heaped on a huge dose of low morale and economic stress on top of it.
This entire crisis could have been over and done with an entire year ago. One well orchestrated lockdown for two weeks followed by standard contact tracing and limited international travel and none of us would even be thinking about COVID-19 right now. A lockdown may not even have been necessary if the proper precautions had been taken to contain the virus immediately when its presence was first known, nevermind the fact that the previous administration PURPOSEFULLY let the virus rage because they thought it would only be contained to people with Democratic political affiliation? Joke’s on them, it seems, since the only reason Biden actually won was because of the pandemic. The only upside of all this is that the virus is not quite as deadly as it first appeared, though that is little comfort. Initially it looked like coronavirus took about 10% of people it infected, but now appears to be at 2.5%. If you think that is a small number, you are just as fucking obtuse as everyone else I’m hating on in this article. We only have that rate because of the pretty incredible job our exhausted medical community is doing to treat and save people considering their limited knowledge and experience with it as well as systemic weaknesses in the medical system and traditional medical practice and ignorance to how the body fights viruses. Without a robust medical response the death rate would easily be closer to 5% or higher. 2.5% of the population of the United States is still 8,300,000 people which is far greater than the populations of every big city in the country save New York.
While everyone is fighting about whether or not masks actually work the virus is actually infecting people, driving down economic productivity, overwhelming hospitals and crowding out other medical services and needs, and the social distancing required to keep the infection and death rate low which, regardless of governmental guidelines, most of the population has been and will continue to do since it’s the most effective way to protect our own health, ruining many businesses and putting lots of people out of work. The only reason we have not already plunged into a total economic apocalypse is because of the paltry rescue policies the government has enacted as well as technological advancements and an economy which facilitates people working remotely but will also burden us economically for decades to come.
A lot of people are relaxing and breathing a sigh of relief as if the pandemic is about to end. This has a lot to do with vaccines finally being distributed and election to the office of President someone who is actually somewhat intelligent trying to actually do something about it. But there still exists an incredible amount of wishful thinking and willful ignorance about the nature of viruses, and especially this virus, for which we will not yet succeed in ending the pandemic.
The first and biggest problem we face is that people getting the vaccine believe it is like other vaccines we get as children which protect us in perpetuity against those diseases. Nope. Sorry. Vaccines only impart immunity the same way they do against the active disease. For instance, when we get the chicken pox (which is a herpes virus for which there has been a vaccine now since the 90’s) or measles or mumps those inoculations last seemingly forever because our immune system does that anyway when we would get the disease naturally. Chicken pox only occurs once when you are a kid, and parents often let children play together when an outbreak occurred so they would get it over and done with and because getting chicken pox as an adult can be life threatening. COVID-19 can be caught multiple times, because our immunity to it only lasts for several months. I got it twice, once in March of 2020 and then again in July. This is one of the reasons why all the fucking idiots talking about herd immunity were absolutely out of their minds was because we didn’t know if having the disease even conferred persistent immunity, and considering the nature of other coronaviruses and related influenza viruses seemed unlikely. The only way to achieve herd immunity naturally with COVID-19 would be if every single person susceptible to the disease actually died, which looking at infection rates is something like 50% or more of all populations. Otherwise, the disease would just continue, as it has, to percolate amongst us. The vaccines are thus likely only to last for several months, and considering the much too common occurrence of people testing positive for the virus even after being vaccinated (meaning their body can fight symptoms but they still carry it), this does appear to be the case.
Worse, nearly every state is still acting like we can dictate the course of a pandemic simply by willing it to go away, and many are reopening already inadequate mitigation efforts as if it doesn’t take only one case to spread wildly again. Seriously, it’s like a fever dream where everyone is like “oh, there are only a few hundred cases, we can open again!” What school did you fucking go to as a kid? Did you even go to school or were you in an underground bunker inhaling diesel fumes from a generator? Viruses, especially this one, are highly contagious, and because the death rate is not higher it thus persists in the population longer, and every time we try to reopen while still having circulating cases, the pandemic will never end. Worse, millions of people will be vaccinated, those vaccinations will wear off, and the virus will still be circulating and we will be unable to vaccinate everyone again and probably still have these fucking problems which prevent vaccination from working. Biden will also probably get the virus and, being as old as he is because let’s be honest he isn’t looking so great, probably succumb to it which will also cause its own chaos.
Now is where I come to the hopeful part, and yes there is one, and this shouldn’t be this fucking hard. Viruses are not omnipotent, and if we had even a little bit of intelligence and capability in our leadership we never even needed to go through this experience. But such is the course of fate and the natural world, and this has occurred to teach people of their mortality, to rend institutions and structures which oppress us, to force change upon the world and those who are unwilling to admit to their powerlessness over life. Those who invoke religion as a defense against death and disease are in reality abjectly fearful of it, and wish to recruit the divine to their assistance to assuage this fear. But God does not operate that way. We do not get to tell him what to do. We must submit to the bounds of mortality and humble ourselves to our station, and only then can we find peace and success in the midst of such calamity.
There are several rational steps which can be taken to rapidly resolve this crisis. Some require institutional support and since I haven’t much of a platform to make changes on that scale, are unlikely. But even without that there are still things which can be easily done for ourselves to cope until such time as this does end (and end it will, just not any time soon). So adopt these measures as you are able, and share this article and my other on improving your own resistance to COVID-19 and everything will, in the end, be just fine. The only reason this virus has even been a problem is because of the lack of understanding of how viruses work, and this one especially, even amongst institutions which should know these things. In reality it is only moderately concerning.
PERSONAL PRECAUTIONS AND STEPS TO RIDE OUT THE PANDEMIC
Keep both aspirin and riboflavin on hand. Aspirin restrains the virus while riboflavin restores and sustains the ability of blood cells to transport oxygen, which is depleted by our immune reaction to the virus and thus riboflavin depletion is otherwise the cause of mortality from this disease as discussed in my article Improving Resistance to COVID-19. Vitamin C also helps but can come from food sources.
Take riboflavin preventatively. Not much is needed at all, even just 10 mg a day (you can open up capsules of larger doses and take a smaller portion).
Do not take aspirin preventatively. Use when infected, about 2 aspirin (325 mg each or 650mg total) twice a day, but more than that can and should be taken if the infection is very severe and does not respond right away. In combination with riboflavin this should reduce infection time from a few weeks to just two or three days. Do not give high doses to children nor any at all to very young children.
Wear a mask at all times in public to prevent spreading the virus (masks are less effective in preventing you from getting it, which is why keeping your distance and avoiding gatherings is important).
Find new activities to keep up your morale until this is over. Go outside a lot. Sun exposure activates riboflavin as well, making it even more effective in resisting the disease. Take up gardening. Go for walks, hikes, or just sit in the sun. Allow people to congregate in open areas so long as they maintain at least 10 feet apart (the six-foot rule only works if you are in passing. Staying near people for longer amounts of time reduces the effectiveness of this rule, so keep your distance from others). Start playing video games, watch streamers online, movies. Get new books to read. There are in reality many things we can still enjoy during this time, but you only don’t know that because you are such a drone without many personal interests or hobbies. Expand your horizons and be creative.
Help others. When neighbors or families are ill cook them meals, drop off food. Vote for politicians who will tax the wealthy in order to fund the government and stabilize employment and our economic system otherwise more extreme poverty and economic calamity will follow.
Financially things may be difficult. You can read my article Money and Success in This Economy for advice on how to navigate such hardships.
Share this fucking article!
POLICY AND SOCIAL STRATEGIES TO END THE PANDEMIC AND ECONOMIC FALLOUT
Treat all infected as described above. This will reduce infection time to just a few days rather than several weeks, which will greatly diminish the rate of transmission, and greatly reduce mortality rates. Aspirin is the most effective antivirus tool for treating this virus (it has been getting a lot of use now actually but not much promotion or awareness overall, which has instead been given to useless and expensive, exotic treatments mistaken for the benefit of aspirin). Use aspirin and riboflavin supplementation and light exposure immediately in all hospitalized patients. This should eliminate the need to administer oxygen.
When transmission rates drop sufficiently again, enact a one-week total lockdown (allowing of course grocery shopping and essential workers). This will stop nearly all remaining transmissions.
After this brief final lockdown, all international travel must stop until there is no risk of importing it again. There’s no fucking need to travel right now. Read a fucking book you angsty Tasmanian devil. Put down your social media and talk to your family. Play a fucking video game.
Put contact tracing into overdrive to stop the few infectious cases which will remain.
Keep social distancing for two weeks following lockdown.
Localized lockdowns must occur if and when other outbreaks resume, by county, but lockdowns do not need to last more than several days. Long lockdowns are demoralizing, dangerous, and unnecessary. Three days is enough to stop transmission and complete contact tracing.
News Outlets must fucking STOP with headlines mischaracterizing the outbreak. “Cases plummet” or “no deaths” when there were deaths only yesterday and likely more in the days to come make people think it’s safe to resume normal activities do you even know how to do your fucking job? Use accurate verbiage which does not promote apathy and complacency and spread misinformation for clicks. Use numbers instead of qualifiers, i.e. “204 cases and 5 deaths” instead of “cases plummet,” you absolute morons.
Quarantine all international shipping and travel personnel in perpetuity from the general population until the outbreak is eliminated worldwide. Absolutely NO personal contact with locals between crews, staff, employees, drivers, and others who travel for work without a quarantine period. This MUST be enforced with physical and logistical barriers and not a fucking voluntary quarantine you insane, stupid, government bureaucrats who apparently have no idea how disease is spread.
Fuck minimum wage laws and temporary relief bills which pile on debt. Enact real legislation which helps stabilize the economy such as a Weighted Wage Disparity Tax Break and Universal Guaranteed Income and wealth taxes. Give generous tax breaks to essential workers, especially those in food, shipping, and travel businesses which are impacted and the companies which employ them.