The Never Ending Virus

All my personal anxieties have been confirmed. And the anxieties of a lot of other people who predicted that this "Flattening the Curve" thing would be a permanent fixture in American life.  

Last night, I was reading about a "new strain" in New York that the vaccine may or may not address. I have heard similar things previously. Wasn't there a British mutation as well. 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/25/health/variants-coronavirus-new-york-city/index.html

And yet, numerically, we are told, though on or about January 8, the "cases" (defined as I understand it as positives, whether symptomatic or not) were at their high, dropped some 70 percent just a few weeks later. But the fear continues to be disseminated. We are being vaccinated, and we will no doubt HAVE to be vaccinated to do anything, including to go to eat, or a concert (when those things open up in places like New York and California, which right now seems not to be on the table), or fly or take a train, but we are told in the same breath that ALL the restrictions for purported safety must continue to be in place. When someone then asks, "Why be vaccinated?", it is as if someone said what everyone surely must notice, that the Emperor indeed is not wearing clothes. But one must not say it. 

The flu, we are told, has virtually disappeared. But don't mention that the symptoms of the flu, of which people have in the past died in great numbers, is pretty much the same as that of Covid. Following the science of all this is down right crazy making. It is not consistent science if science it is at all. 

I know. Lots and lots of you, many of you my friends, think that any questioning of the "science" is tantamount to mental illness. Or dismissal of the fact that indeed some people (and that include me given my age and any potential co-morbidities assigned to me) do get very sick and die. As far as I know we all will die of something, sooner or later. I hate that anyone will die, of anything. But there it is. And deconstructing a whole society to prevent that which cannot be prevented is plain madness, in my opinion, if I might be allowed to express an opinion that is not in accord with the narrative du jour.

But while people are worrying about someone dying of covid, others are dying of the isolation of nearly one year (as of about March 13). I can tell you what is happening to me. I actually don't want to go out much any more. I don't really want to see anyone. I was a loner to start with---one who is apparently very extroverted when I am with people, but in fact used to and inclined toward the solitary--but now, the restriction is reinforcing my natural tendency. I have had a few occasions to be with people in my "bubble" and I have done them, but frankly, I could easily have dispensed with them. If when venues open again here in California we now have mask wearing as a requirement to prevent any other viruses from infecting us or from the soon to be endless variations of Covid that always existed but now requires the reconstruction of the world, I will simply stop going out. You might say that is good. Is it good that an entire populace is prevented from living a normal life? The life we have been leading is not normal and certainly not so if perpetual, even if potentially acceptable for a short period of time. The euphemism, "The new normal" is another in the new Orwellian lexicon. 

The "New Normal" is a cultural and psychological imprisonment. It's only until. . . .when? When will it no longer be necessary? I asked that question, as did many other people, a year ago. And here we are. There is still no answer to that question.  Well, there is, it is our, well it is my, worst fear. 

Alas, we/I are living every science fiction show or movie there ever has been. Logan's Run. Soylent Green. Blade Runner. The Time Machine. Twilight Zone. Outer Limits. 

We are virtue signalling ourselves unto the death which we claim we have power to prevent. 

I don't ask you to agree with me. Just don't insist I agree with you. Oh, but some people are, and they are the ones in power. Woebetide the rest of us.