We're not in the same place we were 3 years ago

Stop trying to make fear mongering and public health mandates a thing.

With kids going back to school and the last days of summer upon us, it seems like we’re back to that same old routine.

No, not worrying about school-related traffic or dealing with the approaching holidays and cold, but with the possible return of different mandates given the reported rise in two different COVID variants: BA.2.86 (nicknamed “Pirola”) and EG.5 (nicknamed “Eris”). There’s also apparently another variant called FL.1.5.1 nicknamed “Fornax” that is being tracked as well.

With reports of rising cases come mass hysteria. At least artificial hysteria if I were to be honest.

The media loves to drive fear into the hearts of the masses. Fear drives attention, and attention drives revenue.

Remember the saying:

“If it bleeds, it leads.”

Indeed, by virtue of the media constantly reporting on “increasing cases” there’s a false assumption that the fears are evidence-based or warranted. It at least makes for conversations around the water coolers at work, or while shooting the breeze with strangers.

That’s sort of the problem with how the media operates. It presents information, but no way to utilize it in a meaningful manner.

Consider the post I made yesterday on this outcry against Berberine, or nature’s so-called Ozempic.

In case there was any confusion over what my intent was with this article I wasn’t arguing whether Berberine was similar to Ozempic. Instead, if the media were to make such an argument against Berberine, and to supposedly “fact check” social media claims you would expect them to at least do necessary research and assess these claims.

Instead, a lot of information gets overlooked, lacks context, or doesn’t provide anything meaningful. A lot of these arguments against Berberine just end up being vacuous appeals to authority, as if propping up someone as an expert provides any substance to their remarks.

Again, this isn’t to say that Berberine should or should be taken, but if people are going to argue against its use then you’d better put up good arguments. Otherwise, the whole thing seems like a bunch of unnecessary concern trolling that people are too stupid to think for themselves and require the media to do their thinking for them lest we all die from uncontrollable diarrhea.

At the end of the day it’s always about the evidence.

Consider that many reports are talking about rising COVID cases, such as this recent article from Fortune as well as LA Times and NPR.

But how are these COVID cases being tracked? If I recall the CDC has stopped tracking COVID cases on a national level starting in Spring 2023, so how exactly are these increases in COVID cases being tracked aside from measuring hospitalization rates which doesn’t provide a viable comparison.

It seems that most of these accounts are based on social media reports of positive cases, but that again doesn’t tell much about illness severity.

And even when looking at hospitalization numbers the cases are nowhere near where they were last year.

Maybe this is a later spike than in 2022, maybe it isn’t. The point is that such fear porn with limited information does nothing but to induce irrational behaviors and a quick push to try things that seem to have no evidence in being effective for most people such as masking.

It’s almost like we attribute masking to some sort of safe space, where even if masks may not work it makes you feel like it is working, and thus provides a sense of irrational comfort- pathos over logos.

So now remarks on masking and vaccination are making a comeback.

I have even seen a recent article on MIS-C in a child brought on by COVID.

Of course, the framing of this report is to encourage vaccination:

Doctors are also unsure whether the recent uptick in pediatric COVID cases could lead to a rise in MIS-C cases in the months ahead, which would be concerning. That's why health experts are stressing the importance of vaccinating children — especially now that the FDA has approved the shot for kids ages 5 and up.

"If they're fully vaccinated, they won't get [severe] COVID. So therefore, by definition, they should not get MIS-C either," Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, told Today. "So if you're a parent and you're terrified about your child getting MIS-C, you can do something about it."

Interesting quote to grab here, as the very case in this article of Joey Pellegrini was one of a mild infection:

When 9-year-old Joey Pellegrini tested positive for COVID-19 back in October, his mom Jane was concerned, but not overly worried. The Fremont, New Hampshire, mom knew that kids often fare better from the virus than adults, and was thankful that Joey's symptoms were mild. In fact, he was well enough to return to school within just two weeks, after he once again tested negative.

This sort of seems like a contradiction you should watch out for in an article, as it ends up just going against the whole narrative build-up of pushing for more vaccinations to prevent MIS-C.

But again, who am I to question other people’s articles?

This is why many people have lost faith in mainstream outlets, although to be quite honest alternative outlets may suffer from this same lack of editorial rigor.

It’s one of the reasons why people should be more careful, discerning readers and viewers, being able to make informed judgements and opinions based on what they come across rather than relying on others to map out the information for them.

Everyone is in the business of selling fear

And this is sort of how this approach is occurring once again. Lay sprinklings of ambiguous fear and let the masses dictate and police one another through fear and divisiveness.

The only problem is that we’ve lived through this for several years by now. We’d hope that most people are willing to move on from all the stress and fear.

And to be quite honest, I find that this rule can almost apply to both sides of the COVID debate.

I’ve made a few comments that I have tried to slow down on posting to Substack during the weekends. It allows me time away from constantly reading studies and getting burned out. It also allows me time away from the echo chamber that seems to arise on Substack, where it can really feel like nothing but cynicism and doomer reports 24/7. For the most part, I find that I feel better mentally by spending time away and doing things in real-life, even as menial as they may be. It’s one of the growing problems of having a society that is perpetually online and never going out to experience what life has to offer.

Truth be told, the rule that fear sells applies to everyone, including those who we may agree with which may blind us to possible conflicts of interest or other goings on.

I could go into more detail, but my point is that we should all be mindful of whether we are being provided actual, usable information or instead if we are being led down a path of fear and hysteria to be sold something to help us in our time of need. To be honest, I feel like the latter is starting to occur more and more as COVID madness wanes (at least for the most part)…

I think a good read is an article Stephanie Brail made a few months back. I’m sure to have referenced it at some point, but again it’s an important thing to always remind ourselves if we are being told things for the sake of leading us into a certain mindset, and a mindset that may ask us to dip into our wallets for the answer.

The Dangers of Assuming Spike Protein "Contamination"

Go on with life

But even as we consider the possibility of masking or vaccinations returning, consider the fact that most people just want to move on from everything and go back to living their lives.

And so the problem probably doesn’t lie in telling people that masks don’t work, but to ask why we should even give a crap about wearing masks at this point?

This is why the media operates as it does. It tries to remind people that they need “this thing” in order to live their lives.

I came across an article from Salon which asked how different COVID variants are given names. There was one portion in particular that caught my eye, in which it was argued that more common names should be provided to variants so that people are reminded that COVID is still a thing:

"Since March 2023, WHO only gives names to new variants of concern," the WHO told Salon in an email. "This is true even if the new variant stems from Omicron."

Some scientists are calling for an updated naming system that lowers the bar for what the WHO considers a "variant of concern," so that we can move on from Omicron and get people, many of whom have checked out of the pandemic, to pay attention to it again, said Victoria Easton, Ph.D., a virologist at the University of Leeds.

"If you just label it as Omicron, it's like this is unchanging, and it's kind of to be forgotten," Easton told Salon in a phone interview. "But it really shouldn't be, because it's still current."

Many of the current variants fall under the Omicron umbrella and have not reached the necessary “threat level” to be designated with a separate Greek letter, which likely speaks of the nature of COVID as of now.

However, this sort of messaging boils down to the fact that certain scientists would rather common names be used if only to continuously remind people that COVID exists.

I don’t think you need different names to remind people, and all of this belies the fact that most people can be aware of COVID while also not letting it dictate their lives.

By now, most people have reached the point that they want to move on and live their lives the way they see fit, and that really is how it should go. We don’t need to see constant bombardments of fear to tell us that we should mask up and avoid each other. We also don’t need constant reminders that the vaccines carry severe adverse reactions and make this our entire livelihood.

People can be aware of taking whatever precautions they feel they need to when venturing into the world while also not succumbing to hysteria and irrationality.

It’s a mentality of, “do whatever the hell YOU want to do, but leave ME the hell alone!” Maybe someone else can put it more eloquently.

In a bit of an ironic twist, a USA Today article had the same sentiments:

It’s a bit interesting to see an outlet say what many people are likely thinking- that we all just want to move on!

“We’re at an inflection point,” said CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

More and more public-health officials are dusting off their old face masks and encouraging Americans to do the same for the new BA.2.86 variant of COVID-19, he explained.

Hearing that, Meghan McCain went to social media and spoke for an entire nation: “Uh no, we ain’t starting this s--- again.” 

McCain isn’t some right-wing reactionary. She’s not QAnon. She’s not a wrapped-in-the-flag freedom marcher. On this issue she is very much mainstream.

Her point is that the COVID-19 endemic will be much different than the pandemic. Americans are a lot wiser now about this pathogen and the people who tried to manage it the last time around. 

Remember that moving on doesn’t mean forgetting. It means that this doesn’t have to be your entire life (whatever you define “this” as).

So rather than look for reasons why masks don’t work, or why people shouldn’t the Xth booster, maybe we should just remind ourselves that all of this is really just unnecessary and that we should all just move on with our lives.

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