Donald Trump openly and notoriously refused to accept the election results of November 3. He even incited the infamous insurrection of January 6 in a vain attempt to hold onto power. More to the point, though, his unprecedented machinations so captivated worldwide attention that this is my first commentary of 2021 on Covid-19.
As such, I feel obliged to begin with the toll. As of this writing, Covid-19 has killed 2,417,768 worldwide, and 486,111 in the United States. Ominously, scientists are discovering new, even deadlier variants almost every day. Which means that using vaccines to stop the spread of this pandemic might become tantamount to using garden hoses to stop the spread of a wildfire.
Meanwhile, The Economist readily admits that the economic toll is incalculable. Still it estimates the loss to date at $10 trillion worldwide.
The human costs in terms of lives lost will permanently affect global economic growth in addition to the cost of rising levels of poverty, lives upended, careers derailed, and increased social unrest. Some estimates indicate that 100 million to 110 million people globally could enter extreme poverty as a result of the contraction in the global economy.
(The Congressional Research Service, February 10, 2021)
Concomitant with all that, of course, is the pandemic of lockdown side effects ranging from obesity and domestic violence to stress/depression and even suicide. And there’s no end in sight:
When the pandemic started, the public initially hoped a vaccine could eradicate the virus by assisting the world in achieving herd immunity. But officials have warned the virus could return each year like the flu.
‘This coronavirus is going to be here to stay,’ said Dr John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, when speaking to ABC News. ‘Eradication of this new coronavirus is basically impossible.’
(The Independent, February 12, 2021)
I am no scientist. But I did not have to be to make a connection between Covid-19 and the flu. I need only refer you to my commentary titled “Covid-20 Is Coming. What Happens Then…? April 23, 2020.
But it was the lockdown pandemonium that really troubled me. And so, attempting to inject proportionality and perspective into the hysteria that prevailed back then, I presaged the seasonal nature of this coronavirus in “Coronavirus: The Worldwide Lockdown,” March 14, 2020:
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[S]tress and anxiety over our radically changed circumstances (especially re jobs and social contacts) will probably end up killing more people than this virus. Indeed, once the novelty of social distancing and self-isolation wears off, mental depression might be competing with economic depression to become the leading cause of death among Westerners. …
In a similar vein, what are we to make of the market analysts who are fearmongering all over TV about a global recession. Again, with apologies to FDR, what we have to fear is fear itself triggering a global depression. … When juxtaposed to the seasonal flu, no closure, quarantine, or state of emergency seems warranted. …
Just imagine the panic if we reacted to every case of the flu with as much alarm as we’re reacting to every case of this virus—complete with the media fetishistically tolling bells for every death.
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Which clearly raises the question I posed back then – as I admonished against the worldwide rush to impose lockdown measures:
- If Covid-19 becomes seasonal, just like the flu, are we going to react every time the way we are this season, namely with lockdown restrictions that reduce even bustling cities to ghost towns…?
I refer you to the four-point plan I laid out in “Medics Complain about Lack of Supplies. Trump Passes the Buck…Again,” March 20, 2020. Because experts are now prescribing those very points as the best way to live with Covid-19. But, apropos of the new normal, prepare to get an annual Covid shot along with your flu shot.
In other words, we’d be well-advised to go back to living like it’s 2019; well, except for a pandemic fetish for wearing masks and a pandemic OCD for washing hands.
Related commentaries:
insurrection… lockdown… covid-19… covid-20… four point plan…