Now that more than 2 years have passed since we first started being bombarded by messages about COVID, we have a lot more knowledge than we did at first. The fog of war has faded, and we can see with fidelity the faulty fears we faced. We can now see with some clarity what was truth and what was fiction. In this blog we will discuss what the truth has been, and what lessons we need to learn before the next crisis.
First, let me state that COVID is a real disease, with real and very serious complications for some of those infected. Some people died from COVID, and many more died with COVID. However, COVID largely followed the concept of survival of the strongest. It was the weaker members of society that were succumbing to the virus, and the stronger members survived. The largest differentiator between populations for rates of hospitalizations and deaths was the overall wellness of the society. In addition, the overall death rate for those who were exposed to COVID was low relative to past pandemics. After 2 years, I think we can now state that the fear mongering about COVID was overblown.
As I stated above, the largest differentiator between population’s serious illness rates was the overall health of the population. Lockdowns, masks, testing, closing schools and other attempts to control the virus resulted in no statistically significant improvement in reduction of serious illness. However, every one of these attempts had negative effects on the overall population. Hopefully, we can learn from these mistakes and not repeat them in the next crisis.
A new type of vaccine, mRNA vaccines, was hyped as the one true hope to save us from this pandemic. If everyone would line up to get these new vaccines under emergency approval with very limited testing, then the virus would become a non-issue. We were assured that the vaccine was absolutely safe and that it would stop the spread of the virus, allowing us to go back to living the life we should have lived all along. We supported mandates to force the vaccine on those who were hesitant. We ridiculed, bullied and outcast anyone who didn’t jump onto the groupthink about the vaccine.
Looking back now, we know that the vaccine was not as safe as we were told. Maybe the fact that the same people who were telling us it was absolutely safe were also making sure that the manufacturers had zero liability for any problems encountered should have been a clue that the safety was not quite so proven. We have also found that the vaccine does not prevent the spread of the virus, nor does it protect the vaccinated against illness. The only claim that has not already been proven wrong is that the vaccine results in less serious illness. In short, the vaccine was an undertested, rushed failure whose main benefit was to the bottom line of some pharmaceutical companies and their stockholders.
We need to realize that we were absolutely wrong in taking away our autonomy over our own bodies to push an undertested and unproven theory. Our government must never again use such coercive and manipulative tactics to fight any new crisis. We must limit ourselves to using logical and empirical evidence to convince others to follow guidance, rather than force and emotional attacks. While force and emotional attacks may be the quickest way, it is almost certain that these methods will result in push-back, and will never get near 100% acceptance.
What kept many people from accepting the vaccine was simply the very forceful campaigns for it. Lets face it. If I were to tell everyone that they must do anything, no matter how valid the case is for doing it, or how much they may want to do it, I am guaranteed to have a decent percentage of people who will push away from that idea, simply because I am trying to take away their choice. If I emotionally attack those who don’t accept my word, that percentage will end up higher. That is at least one reason not to use force and coercion to get the population to act.
There was a group of people who looked at the actions being recommended, and knew that the actions were speculative at best. They wanted to see proof that actions being pushed were working before adopting them. They understood that there is always a risk/benefit calculation for any such decision, and knew that the data was not there yet to support such a risk/benefit calculation. We watched many people jump on board, and waited for the data that would prove that society and our health leaders were pushing the right strategy. We really were hoping that data would support those actions, and that we had found a way out of this pandemic. That evidence never came. I was among this group. We were sounding the alarm early that the guidance was not working. The gaslighting, name-calling, and ostracization that we went through was a horrible experience. There were times when we doubted our own sanity.
The biggest fear I have now, is that I still see many people who fully believe that these methods of attacking the virus are valid, when many have been absolutely proven false. The fact that even now, after so much of the indoctrination has been completely disproved, we have a vocal, large minority who still back this, scares me. It is easy to want to repay the coercion and emotional attacks that were leveled against us. But we must not do that. We must also not be silent, we should keep pointing out the flaws with the logic, or lack thereof, that people are using to hold onto their current beliefs. And always remember, our goal is to get people aware of the problems that our COVID response created, so we do not repeat those mistakes. We really do not care if anyone personally wants to wear masks or isolate. We only want to make sure we are never forced to do so.