Rant: Moving the Goalposts

 

Back in March of 2020, we were told to stay home for 2-4 weeks to flatten the curve.  We were initially told that face masks were ineffective but that was changed.  Talk of the virus escaping from a lab was dismissed as conspiracy theory but now, it is generally accepted to be true.  A 4-week lockdown to prevent the hospitals from being overrun was a price that I was willing to pay.  Though some of the restrictions were eased, it would be 14 months before I was back to working in the office full time.  When the “flatten the curve” and “stay home and save lives” did not allow for a return to normalcy, we were told to simply wait for the vackseen. 

I predicted vackseen mandates early in the pandemic, but it was also dismissed as conspiracy theories that could not possibly happen.  If merely 50% of the population gained immunity either through infection or vacksination, herd immunity would kick in and the virus would be eradicated within a few months in 2021.  Pretty safe to say that didn’t happen.  Nations such as Singapore, Israel and Gibraltar achieved near universal vacksination yet are still seeing spikes in cases.  We were initially told that while breakthrough infections can happen, they are extremely rare.  Nope.  Vackseens actually do little to stop the spread and we’ve had more deaths in 2021 than in 2020.  They only provide temporary protection against severe infection, and you may be left more vulnerable to both COVID and other diseases when it wears off.

Fauci has only recently admitted that we may have to live with boosters indefinitely and that it is only a matter of time before the definition of fully vacksinated will be changed to include a booster.  When that happens, individuals who were once deemed fully vacksinated will lose their privileges unless they get a booster!  Don’t want a booster because of a bad reaction to a previous dose?  Too bad!  Patients who develop new or worsening illness shortly after the shot are often told that it must be unrelated unless it is so obvious that it cannot be denied.  Man, I never thought it would get that bad!   I have a sneaking suspicion that I was harmed by childhood vackseens and had many characteristics of mild autism as a child though I was never diagnosed.  A childhood acquaintance became disabled because of the COVID vackseen and I’ve read tons of horror stories on Facebook groups.  Though I did predict the mandates, I did NOT predict that the vackseen would be this unsafe and ineffective nor did I expect that governments would double down on boosters when that became clear.     

Australia has been known to put people in internment camps just for close contact with a COVID-positive individual.  Canada has required the vackseen for air travel and many others, including the US require it for entry into the country (illegal immigrants exempt).  If Biden had his way, unvacksinated people would be unemployable and barred from virtually every public venue.  How far will the mandates have to go before I cave?  I will still try to hold out even if it is required for air travel.  An employer mandate?  I really have no choice in that case.  Fortunately, I am in deep red Alabama so that probably won’t happen for a while.  A mandate to stay in hotels?  I am not willing to limit my travel to day trips so that’s a cave.   

I wish I had the balls to walk off my job in the event of a mandate.  If my career was such that I could get a similar job with similar pay, I would do it.  I have enough in my bank account to handle a few months of unemployment and I figure that if enough people do walk out, the mandates will eventually be lifted.  Mass non-compliance! I work in State government and finding a job with similar pay that also has a pension plan would be next to impossible.  I cannot take early retirement for at least 10 years, so I am stuck. 

For the record, I want COVID under control just as much as anyone else.   There will be new variants every year, which will render the original vackseen less and less effective over time.  Hopefully, the new variants will be less deadly than the original strain but possibly more contagious.   We need to pivot the focus from vackseens to therapeutics, which is what should have been done from Day 1.