My joke about a low-priced, low-paying hair-care chain brought out a particular kind of comment, linking a possible return of the coronavirus to pandemic status to the re-election of Donald Trump.
Right. First off, that would be the Donald Trump whose Administration fostered "Project Warp Speed," that resulted in the availability of effective vaccines in record time and fast-tracked the development of genuine antivirals. While fringe elements of his party went haring off after all manner of quack medicine, the Federal government buckled down and did good work. Since then, the fringes have taken over the GOP and there's been a lot of selective forgetting.
Second, a quick check finds 7.7 million deaths worldwide from the pandemic, 1.1 million of them in the United States.
Somebody'd better explain to me how either Presidential negligence -- which didn't create the virus and, unusually, didn't dominate the response -- or a vast, shadowy conspiracy of "them" managed to kill off over seven million people in order to prevent the reelection of a deeply divisive U. S. President who had about 50/50 odds of winning reelection before the coronavirus pandemic struck. And if the latter, how come it is the governments of, say, Europe and UK, with over two million dead and a long history of successful espionage operations, didn't hunt down the perps with extreme prejudice?
Nope, look, I'm sorry; no matter how happy you are in Wackyland, it won't wash. It doesn't add up. The coronravirus pandemic was just as real as the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic, and barring a nasty mutation that spikes the rate up to pandemic levels again, it's going to be just as endemic and dangerous as the flu has been ever since, mitigated by the vaccines and antivirals we've developed. It was not created to "get" Mr. Trump, and while he and his party talked all manner of BS while the pandemic raged, when it came to action, the Feds did pretty well under his watch in terms of actual efforts and results. Could they have done more, faster? Probably. And they could have talked way less smack. But they muddled through, just like 1918-20. Stop pretending it was anything more (or less) than another bad pandemic. Humanity gets hit with 'em every so often; them's the odds.
Viruses don't vote. People with brainworms do, and I guess we'll see how that works out in 2024.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
2 comments:
There's an odd comfort in the idea of a Vast Conspiracy of Them. They would rather believe that events are under the control of somebody, even for malignant purposes, because the alternative is really frightening.
"Bad shit happens from time to time" has never been a good selling point. Somebody is always responsible.
Usually, the blame ends up falling on the Jews.
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