Would you take this road?
A typical snow covered mountain pass with curves and steep drop offs can either be an adventure or a stressful necessity — but not suicide. We are certain that the road surface will hold, and know by the lack of road signs that there are no washouts or avalanches ahead. There is no real need to turn around and find another way.
But what if the road looked like this?
“OMG NO WAY!” we react.
It was this image an artist friend shared on social media which stirred up instant judgement based on fear, which was fueled by his friends’ fear reactions into a colossal fear loop.
The road looked insane because it was. It was in reality a normal mountainous landscape digitally distorted into a twice-as-high fantasy cliffs of doom. Observe: the spruces and telephone poles are a dead give-away.
I saw this instantly, but refrained from posting the normal version I created by reducing the horizontal in half because I didn’t want to insult his friends with my intrusive common sense. It was a game, after all. Let them enjoy their moment of fright while scrolling for entertainment and thrills. Don’t be a kill-joy.
But it bothered me no end. Why didn’t everyone see the distortion as plainly as I? All the fear-reactions were plainly genuine …
This week I am reading another reality check: for the past two years, reported COVID deaths were not actually all deaths FROM COVID-19. What we've imagined: folks who caught the virus, got pneumonia and were admitted via overcrowded emergency rooms, simply to die in ICU, on ventilators, stroking out and experiencing renal failure while exhausted doctors nurses and therapists watch their efforts fail time and again — what had horrified us — was not reality.
The image was distorted by a false death number. Of the Covid deaths we have imagined in this way, a portion died not FROM COVID-19 but WITH a recent positive COVID test. These others, “the WITH COVIDs”, may have come to the hospitals with a heart problem or a kidney stone or broken hip and at some point tested positive for the virus, then died from complications from the presenting cause. Covid may have exacerbated their health but COVID did not the scale into fatality.
Actually it’s hard to know exactly how much the Covid fatality picture has been stretched because the news outlets still prefer to keep the percentages of distortion a mystery. It is enough to simply confess, like the BBC, with a disclaimer that the number of deaths also represent the fact that ”some died WITH Covid” …
In the U.S. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky admitted the FROM and WITH distinction on Fox News on January 9 and promised “Those data will be forthcoming.” I’m not holding my breath.
This week the CDC did the exact opposite, obscuring COVID death data under the more lenient heading “Deaths INVOLVING COVID-19” adding pneumonia and influenza deaths to the mix.
This is an excellent strategy to replace outright fear with anxiety over the unknown: maintain the inflated number but with a caveat that those dying WITH a recent positive COVID test are included, but there's no need to do the math so anyone can assess the real danger. Why not also fold flu and pneumonia deaths into the batter to keep the panic going?
How many died FROM COVID? We don't know.
How many died WITH a recent COVID test? We don't know.
And between the time I wrote this and published, COVID deaths are now almost all listed under the heading “with covid.” My internet search on January 16 revealed a total “WITH” list that inferred COVID was the cause … rendering no distinction at all between these generic “WITH” deaths and deaths FROM true COVID causality.
So we now have an inflated number veiled in mystery, like the still insane looking mountain pass now veiled in a blizzard of questions. We are caught still saying “OMG NO WAY!” not because we don’t trust the road but because we cannot see rightly to make a judgement that everything will be fine.
Remain on this side of the COVID mountain for fear of plummeting, just like the monkey that denies himself bananas fearing the tiger outside the door ...
That seems to be just fine with the powers that be.
Alas— yesterday, I just said "Screw it!" and stepped on the gas: I entered two very large, well ventilated stores without my flimsy virus-porous cloth mask, without my suffocating N-95 (like I wore last week) and only kept my distance, which was way easier than I ever imagined.
No coughing and derping occurred anywhere in either store. But I'll keep you updated if yesterday's foolhardiness sends me over a COVID cliff in three or four days. (Update: As of Wednesday, I’m fine.)
Have you enjoyed this two-year fear-fest?
Do you still desire to be fueled by anxiety producing loops of disinformation, but now with “behind-saving” disclaimers?
Are we having fun yet?
Why not?
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Post Script:
Before commenting, check out my guidelines at README.TXT
Many thanks, —LR as Alabaster Jar
And because I always include my art:
This article has been updated since it was emailed. Please check out the new statistics that now include influenza deaths ... my head is exploding.