"Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID"

 

That's the title of an article in - of all outlets! - the progressive-left-wing, over-the-top-about-the-pandemic Atlantic.  Writing from Michigan, the author notes:

I don’t mean to deny COVID’s continuing presence ... What I wish to convey is that the virus simply does not factor into my calculations or those of my neighbors, who have been forgoing masks, tests (unless work imposes them, in which case they are shrugged off as the usual BS from human resources), and other tangible markers of COVID-19’s existence for months—perhaps even longer.

Indeed, in my case, when I say for a long while, I mean for nearly two years, from almost the very beginning. In 2020, I took part in two weddings, traveled extensively, took family vacations with my children, spent hundreds of hours in bars and restaurants, all without wearing a mask. This year my wife and I welcomed our fourth child. Over the course of her pregnancy ... the subject of the virus was never raised by any health-care professional, including her doula, a dear friend from New York.

Meanwhile, our children, who have continued to attend their weekly homeschooling co-op since April 2020, have never donned masks, and they are distinctly uncomfortable on the rare occasions when they see them ... They have continued seeing friends and family, including their great-grandparents, on a weekly basis.

. . .

The CDC recommends that all adults get a booster shot; I do not know a single person who has received one.

. . .

I wager that I am now closer to most of my fellow Americans than the people, almost absurdly overrepresented in media and elite institutions, who are still genuinely concerned about this virus. And in some senses my situation has always been more in line with the typical American’s pandemic experience than that of someone in New York or Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles.

There's more at the link.

I entirely agree with the author.  Here in north Texas, COVID-19 simply isn't a factor of day-to-day concern for anyone I know.  It's a fact of life like the common cold or the seasonal flu.  We take it in our stride.  (I've had two confirmed cases of COVID-19 myself.  Despite being in several high-risk groups for the disease, I recovered each time with no long-term nastiness.  My wife caught it at the same times I did, and she's fully recovered, too.  We haven't been vaccinated, but have all the vitamins and mineral supplements and medications we need - including Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, thank you very much:  despite the negative hype about them from "official sources", they've proved effective against COVID-19 around the world.  I'm familiar with both medications thanks to my many years in Africa, where they're life-savers, so much so that in many countries on that continent, they're freely available without prescription.)

The only - I say again, the only - reason why COVID-19 is such an overhyped, breathless-with-horror reality in so much of America is because politicians and bureaucrats and the medical oligarchy want it to be.  They've made a mountain out of a molehill since the pandemic started.  Remember all those frantic calls for "more ventilators!"?  Well, many of those put on them died . . . but they didn't die of COVID-19 so much as they did of the side effects of ventilators (a well-known medical danger).  Remember how the CDC had to revise its estimated death toll from COVID-19?  They admitted that no less than 94% of those fatalities had more or less extensive comorbidities - conditions that exacerbated their infection and were contributing factors to their deaths.  In other words, they didn't so much die of COVID-19 as with COVID-19 in addition to other factors.  Why would the CDC try to mislead us like that at first?  I'll tell you why - because it was following orders to overhype the dangers of COVID-19.  It's not as guilty as its political and oligarchical masters, who played the tune to which it danced.

The worldwide death rate from COVID-19 remains minuscule - a small fraction of one per cent on average (the USA is currently 0.24333%, or approximately one-quarter of one per cent).  It appears that the US death rate, adjusted for population size, is less than a quarter of that inflicted by the 1918-19 influenza pandemic.

To ward off that tiny risk to our mortality, the vaccines developed in such feverish haste have so far, according to World Health Organization statistics at the time of writing, potentially inflicted worldwide 2,737,374 adverse reactions - many times more than any vaccine previously approved in the history of human medicine.  (It's estimated that the total is vastly underestimated, due to issues with reporting.)  Of that total, at least 2% are estimated to be fatalities.  That proportion may rise to as many as 4% to 5% over time - it's too early to say.

Nevertheless, the reaction from some Atlantic readers and from "blue state" journalists and their ilk has been vociferous.

Since being published, the article has garnered negative attention from readers of The Altantic with some calling Walther's article "enraging" and "dangerous."

Frequent MSNBC guest Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding tweeted "This Atlantic piece ranks up their [sic] with that dangerous ‘kids are practically immune’ oped by Oster. I don’t know what is happening at the Atlantic anymore when it comes to dismissive COVID opeds."

"Problem with that Atlantic piece many are mad about is not that the author represents views of Americans who oppose public health measures or are ignoring COVID—it's that it *does not*. It's a typical finely-tuned *professional* performance of ‘I'm real America’. Uninformative," New York Times columnist Zeynick Tufecki wrote.

WIRED editor-at-large Steven Levy tweeted, "It's important to know that people think that way, and to hear them out---maybe in a reported piece or skeptical Q and A. But should you give a byline to someone ignoring facts and legitimizing a POV that promotes dangerous behavior?"

Others upset by the article, claimed they will unsubscribe from the Atlantic as a form of protest.

Again, more at the link.

Oh, well, the talking heads have to have something to talk about, don't they?

Despite their pontifications, I'm afraid I agree with the author of the original article.  Around these parts, COVID-19 is merely a side issue to the business of living.  We've dealt with it for two years, and we'll continue to deal with it.  It's just another day-to-day fact of life, not something dominating our every waking moment and causing constant, non-stop FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt).

Peter