“Not This Stuff Again” (SARS-CoV-2 Update)
science.org
science.org
To be brutally honest, if a rogue CIA wanted to slow down CO2 emissions, that sort of virus was a good fit.
I really wish humans would organize and agree to reduce emissions, but since it's geopolitically just not really happening, that virus is a good coincidence.
If it was engineered: good. If it wasn't, that's also nature reacting the appropriate way. If it was negligence, it was a happy one.
Disclaimer: I have chronic depression, and a therapist told me that I felt happy during lockdown because average people were finally sharing and experiencing my distress. It really stuck with me.
During the height of the lockdowns when traffic nearly vanished as nobody went into the office, the air quality was freakishly good.
The skyscrapers across the harbour from us looked like they were right next to us. There wasn’t that usual haze and it made them look incredibly sharp and detailed, giving an illusion of proximity.
It’s crazy to me that I’ve become so accustomed to constant pollution that it has become an essential part of my depth perception! No pollution looks like an optical illusion and confuses my brain.
What I hope doesn't occur is a return to scare tactics and presenting the worst-case-scenario as the likely scenario. The amount of trust that the public health discipline burned through during the pandemic is massive. I am not arguing whether it is _right_ that this trust has vanished, just pointing out that it has.
But it's hindsight, and the governments don't have the luxury of having foresight. Sure some countries might have been lucky with less restrictions and "not so bad" results, but would you want to live in a country governed by luck? I guess that's also a matter of life philosophy (being safe vs living a life with its dangers and risks).
[1] Well, I guess that's where views differs, if we reduce it to just 2 sides, the one side would rather have less government involvement, and the other side would prefer more government involvement (in the form of rules and restrictions).
You reduce anything to just two sides and you are needlessly polarizing and handicapping your own analytical abilities. If the subject matter is actually serious and not a passing fancy, this is useless.
/s
Maybe if we had done more to get it truly under control instead of just pretending and looking the other way while sickness continues to spread and deaths continue, we wouldn't still be in a never-ending March 2020 talking about something that never left "coming back".