FEAR IS THE REAL VIRUS

It is time to be blunt. COVID-19 is a nasty piece of work, but it is not the worst plague in the history of mankind. The real plague is mind numbing irrational fear of COVID 19. We now know that for most people, the recovery is rather quick and complete. The mortality rate is less than 1%. Elderly people with underlying conditions are definitely at much higher risk. What should have been done is a plan of action to protect those most vulnerable and let the disease run its course. It did make sense to develop surge capacity for hospitals and speed up testing. But it never made sense to shut down the entire economy and it certainly does not justify letting the government micromanage every aspect of your life.

Be warned that the liberals are thrilled with the ability to use COVID-19 to impose their will on the American people. That is why we are inundated everyday with reports clearly designed to increase fear and to discourage resistance to abusive government intervention in our lives. Do not think it will stop here. If the government can convince the NFL and MLB to cower in fear, they can dominate EVERYTHING. If COVID-19 ever does go away, the liberal left will just find something else to achieve the same goal. They have already seen how easy it is to manipulate people into doing things that make no sense and that give government complete control over our lives. One would have to be hopelessly naïve to think it will end with COVID-19. The people who are pushing the panic want to control your life. They want to tell you when, where and how you can work. When, where and how your children can be taught. When, where and how you can do simple thinks like dine out, visit a bar or even go to church.

It has already worked brilliantly. We just got back from a trip all over the Western U.S. We visited Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona before returning to California. Everywhere we went we saw terrified people. People wearing masks while hiking miles from the nearest road in 80 degree weather in the Grand Tetons. Restaurants just outside the Grand Canyon, with three tables of diners in a room that could probably hold 100. We saw numerous signs demanding people stay 6 feet apart. There were security guards at the entrances to stores controlling how many people could even be in the store. If you weren’t wearing a mask, you were sternly told to leave.

Why? Is COVID 19 really that bad? The obvious answer is no. Even if you look at the results everywhere in the world, including countries that bungled this big time, it didn’t come close to justifying this. This is all based on a relentless drumbeat of fear. People are genuinely terrified. Terrified into doing things that are just plain stupid. For example: No competent professional believes that a cloth mask does much to prevent the spread of disease. It is quite simple. If you can breathe through the mask, it isn’t doing much. In addition, in order for this to work at all, everyone would have to put on a new clean unused cloth mask prior to entering any location. If you touch the mask with your hands, it must be discarded. If you put in down anywhere it must be discarded. If you cough or sneeze it must be discarded. It must be properly fitted to your face. It must cover your mouth and your nose. You must never touch it. My favorite are these fancy looking medical grade masks with built in vent holes that make the mask worthless. Then there are those fancy masks with pictures or logos. You know people have been wearing the same mask for weeks. There are even people with bandannas tied around their head. Those are effective only if one is planning on conducting an armed robbery.

Yet not only are people playing the game, they are waxing eloquence and self-righteously about anyone who dares challenge the conventional wisdom. I firmly predict that five or ten years from now, people will look at pictures of everyone wearing masks that accomplish nothing and wonder where we found all the stupid people. There is zero science supporting this. Look at the pictures of the long cone shaped masks people wore in a failed effort to stop the black plague. They didn’t work. I know of no situation where this has ever worked other than in a controlled environment like a hospital or a dental clinic. Trying to get an entire population to wear masks is ridiculous and doomed to failure. There are some silly “tests” where someone sneezes and it is estimated to travel up to six feet. This is offered as proof positive that masks save lives. It is nonsense.

It is like Yellowstone National Park. The National Park Service (NPS) killed all the predators like wolves and grizzly bears. The result was a very unhealthy herd of deer, elk and bison. In a failed attempt to recognize the need for balance, the ecology of the park was at risk of being permanently destroyed. They learned this lesson the hard way at Yellowstone. Wolves have been brought back. So have other predators like Grizzly bears. The government has learned to back off and let the magic of nature work. As a result, Yellowstone is healthy again. The animals are thriving.

We need to understand that we are not God. We suck at micromanaging things like climate and certain diseases. Yes, we do need to work on cures for cancer and vaccinations for diseases like polio and tuberculosis. We did need to kill the mosquitoes to stop yellow fever and malaria. But we can’t focus our entire lives on avoiding one disease that isn’t all that deadly and which would have gone away on its own without our help. Yes, we should have protected the most vulnerable. Yes we should have worked on testing and developing treatment. No, we should not have tried to let the government micromanage our entire existence because of the irrational fear of COVID 19. We should be terrified, not by COVID 19, but rather by how it is being used to take away our freedom. We should be terrified by the thousands if not millions of people who will die, unnecessarily, from other diseases because everyone and everything is distracted by COVID 19.

Far too many people have already let the government take unprecedented control of their lives. It won’t end here. It won’t end with COVID 19. If we do not fight back, now, while we can, the opportunity to regain anything close to the freedom that made this the best nation on earth will be gone forever. We either learn from this now, or we will pay a terrible price in the not too distant future.

TDM

One thought on “FEAR IS THE REAL VIRUS

  1. Welcome back and sounds like a great trip. And the blog is totally common sense. Which is very rare today.

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