I was involved in NHRA drag racing most of my life as a sportsman, working in the industry, on a professional team, and today a spectator. Even when we won a round or an event we always reviewed the data of the last race to determine what when right and what went wrong to better the next run.
We can either celebrate the anniversary of the Pandemic on this past March 11, 2022 because we feel we are victorious today as things are moving closer and closer to pre-pandemic and in some cases better. Or, we can grieve the millions of deaths here in the U.S. and worldwide. Yet, as with drag racing we may have just won one round.
The article linked below is a good review of what happen over those two years. I am sure our Hubbers in the world can relate to what is shared. Take a peek and walk a very close path of nostalgia while remembering how it affected you, family, friends, and community.
What do you think?
Should we give a sigh of relief?
Should we celebrate with gusto?
Should we with caution hope for the best and prepare for the worst?
What are you thoughts of the impact of the pandemic?
How Covid shook the US: eight charts that capture the last two years by the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 … GTUS_email
An interesting article:
The UK Government ended all covid restrictions in England on the 24th February; so life in the UK has already returned to normal.
As regards what I think? Good Question.
1: from your choices of should we ‘give a sigh of relief’; ‘celebrate with gusto’ and ‘Should we with caution hope for the best and prepare for the worst?’
My feeling is ‘All of the Above’; certainly a sigh of relief, and certainly we have been able to celebrate e.g. my wife and I celebrated her birthday in February by going out for a meal in a restaurant; and we’ve been out socially several times, since the restrictions were lifted.
And of course, it would be prudent not to get complacent about the virus.
My thoughts on the impact of the pandemic are many, as many will know from my duelling with one ‘anti-vaxxer’ in particular in these forums. It certainly had a major worldwide impact, which I wouldn’t want to see again; but on the positive side, in Britain, it did bring out the ‘war time spirit’ that’s deeply engrained into the British psyche since the 2nd world war.
An example of the typical British War time Spirit that manifests itself during times of adversity ‘The Clevedon Cobra’ that we saw when we visited Clevedon, Bristol on a day trip late last year; below the plaque that stands next to ‘The Clevedon Cobra’ (a decorated snake made from stones).
To begin with:
Imho the pandemic was a litmus test for governments of how much freedom and self determination they could take away from the people. I am afraid the test showed that a lot could be done to the people.
Secondly the pandemic showed how much people trust their administrations. Those with little trust: Low vaccination rate (Russia, some states in the USA and in eastern Germany). On the other hand countries, states with high trust in their government had high vaccination rates. Interestingly those people in Eastern Europe who never experienced a circle of imposing and then taking back restrictions are the most cautious and trust government the least.
Before the pandemic world economy, global thinking was on the fast track. This has changed. Productions are brought back to the "motherlands". No more unquestioned relocation of manufacturing. Logistic supply chains will not be the same again.
Some myths were busted about deficit spending, about debt being something evel. Actually the world has lived an average of 25% of the 2 years from doing nothing, sitting at home, and still receiving enough to live. And today: Every economy is still going. Nobody really went bankrupt, neither people, nor corporations or countries.
I am writing this while being quarantined. All of my close family got the virus. Our son and his fiancee got the delta variant, all of the family of our daughter got Omicron and that applies to my household as well. Nobody got really sick. This personal statistics of 10 people and 4 generations with half of them vaccinated and half not shows: At least in 2022 there is nothing to be afraid of (any more).
Weapons of Mass distraction from
Phase 1. Covid world order to
Phase 2 Threat of world war 3 nuclear war.
Wail many runs on banks or currency's collapse on the centre banks around the world. Replacement by Mass investment in free trade, Hardware, crypto currency and metals. My personal favorite Food, freedom and housing.
United Nations fat Cat Federations, decided; Russian cats are no longer welcome to compete in shows. The dogs, plants, affordable living and other healthier alternative are not welcome into competitions. And hit Putin where it hurts, just boycott them and isolate them like Siberian. Make them wear a blue & red or yellow crocheted face mask – that’ll really teach Putin for saying masks and vaccines put all against all.
Who supports it,? Most who comply everything they are told. No Men Welcome Here. WEF Klaus the most dangerous man in the world is welcome. His once harvest Putin service. Today it's looking grimmer than ever by another zombie-brains war on the people . Another is chemically-induced estrogen in his camp. We once fear radiation and muster gas in War. Then they turned them into gold standard for curing cancer.
That is not all folks!!!
Uncle slow Joe is authority on nuclear. Same guy with an attack on a virus. Lead us also into our basement where you can socially distance at least six feet. And wear your mask! (The crocheted one will do) another kind of war.
Meanwhile, in the real world The Pfizer “vaccine’s” 1,291 side effects come to light without a squeak Mainstream Media and Alien Invasion programming. And, inflation rockets, as does gas prices, but that’s okay because we’re helping Ukraine, like it was planned.
There are many peaceful ways to get rid of a fascist government and economic. I choose my way listed above from planning it 15 years ago. Stop feeding fascist government . Take your out your own individual brick from the wall or be a sheep in a mall.
I enjoyed your comment, and agree with all you said.
Ever since speaking to Kathryn hill about a repeated nightmares that happened about 7 or 8 years ago. These nightmares were about war, deaths, poverty, separation and conflicts. That we have not seen, within our lifetimes, coming in a few years.
Following the writing on the wall , it feels like it will be another one or 2 more years yet. Maybe still around Ukraine or some other distraction like green passport or another virus , or their replacement of nature evolution with their synthetic intelligence design. Wail we are within an already intelligent universe.
Yet also dreamt of a happier changes for many people, wail others remain as safety slaves. I'm a strong natural environmentalist yet Trudeau and Biden are totally nuts.
I actually dream for a living, now things are already changing rapidly for my Holistic business.
I think now is the time to investigate all of the false information provided by the government.
1. Covid numbers in the US were WAY off. People were being listed as having Covid if they had "Covid-like" symptoms. Tests weren't necessary. There was an article about a nurse who treated a man who had been in a motorcycle accident. That is why he was in the hospital. He was listed as a Covid patient because the treating physician determined he had "Covid-like" symptoms.
2. All the information concerning the vaccine needs to be released. There were FAR more adverse effects than reported. A spokesman from a group of funeral directors said people in his industry were stunned by the number of people who had the vaccine and had blood clots throughout their bodies. This should be investigated. There are many, many physicians who have come forward and stated they were discouraged from making a connection between illness and the vaccine.
3. Why were the studies showing that masks and being quarantined were ineffective ignored? There were plenty of them.
4. The fact that it had a 99 % survivability rate was also ignored.
5. The fact that you could still catch Covid, pass it on and die from it when vaccinated didn't seem to resonate with many people. The only thing it could do is possibly increase your chance of surviving a hospital stay. That was also not certain.
6. Why did so many people believe is you had the vaccine you couldn't get Covid? It was a shame people believed such a thing.
I think this experience showed how gullible people are in the United States and around the world. They accepted the fear provided by their government and then let their government control them. Too many people were willing to sacrifice their freedoms because of government propaganda.
I would rate the performance of the US and other nations such as Canada and Australia as sad, sorry and pathetic.
Mike, with 2 years of pandemic, all countries more less aligned in their statistics. So while there are differences in health care from country to country, the infection numbers, even fatality per infected rates are fairly similar.
This is why i don´t understand the constant complaint about Covid numbers being wrong. They are not. They are similar in the USA (with the CDC), the UK (NHS), Germany (RKI). Different countries, different approaches to health care, but fairly similar outcomes.
Even my personal experience in my family is aligned with the large statistics. We all got Covid, we all got over it. However our daugther is still suffering from long Covid, she was the only adult in our extended family who was not vaccinated. For those vaccinated, apparently it did not matter if you had Biontec/Phizer or Sputnik V, or.. with 2 shots, 1-2 days of fever and that was it. Personally i didn´t even have symptoms at all, but i was the only one with 3 shots from different makes (Astrazeneca, Biontech, Moderna). And you bet, we all had fully sequenced PCR tests (results: 2 with Delta, 8 with Omicron).
It is another story of how much fear was spread among the population. And how much freedom could be taken away in the name of protecting the people. This is a political story - and has been debated thoroughly on hubpages. But the statistics, the numbers are not flawed.
On this subject we have radically different opinions, and I don’t think any amount of discussion is going to change that.
Taking your 6+ points in turn:-
1. Yeah, numbers were only estimates, and not absolutes; but in the UK, and other countries, there were established methodology to give reliable statistics, something which I am familiar with in that I did ‘Statistics’ as one of the subjects in my two year exam based Business Administration qualification at college, and understanding and using statistics was critical in my civil service job.
In an ideal world it would have been nice to be able to identify every covid infection, hospitalisation and death and record that information accurately; but we don’t live in an ideal world.
Therefore, in the UK, and other countries around the world, a triple count process was used as a cross reference for gathering data:-
In the UK method 1 was “those who died within 28 days of testing positive of covid”, and that included people for example who had covid but died from injuries from a motorcycle accident; but it excluded people who died of covid more than 29 days of testing positive.
In the UK method 2 was “where covid was mentioned on the death certificate” this would exclude the person with covid who died of a motorcycle accident, but would include someone who died of covid more than 28 days of testing positive.
In the UK method 3 was “deaths in current month in excess of the 5 year average death toll for any given month in the previous 5 years prior to the pandemic”.
Although the three figures would always be different, if all three were showing similar results then it’s a fair assumption that the statistics are reliable enough.
I can’t comment about practices in American hospitals, but in British hospitals everyone were tested for covid every few days; something I know from personal expectance because I happened to spend three weeks in hospital with kidney problems during the height of the pandemic. And likewise, in the UK, if you went to your doctor with covid like symptoms, there would be no assumptions made, you would be tested.
2: I can’t speak for the USA, but in the UK all the information concerning the vaccines were released. In the UK all adverse effects were reported, and investigated, and results of the findings published e.g. the MHRA (Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) in the UK has a Coronavirus Yellow Card reporting site.
As regards comments to “group of funeral directors”, one such person is a known anti-vaxxer and has been posting misinformation on the web; as there are a number of physicians who are also anti-vaxxers and known to spread misinformation; they are only a minority group and are not representative of the vast majority in those professions.
3: It depends on what type of mask, how and where it’s used, and on how the tests were carried out. I’ve seen a number of studies purporting to show either the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of masks; and many of those studies (for and against) were flawed e.g. using smoke or particles to represent a virus which is carried by water vapour which reacts differently to smoke and dust particles etc.
The best tests are those done under laboratory conditions by specialists such as that which was done by the UK Top Secret Lab at Porton Down for masks used by the NHS: https://youtu.be/aXMNs9_9nzA
Understanding masks and their effectiveness or otherwise isn’t brain surgery, it quite simple: A proper surgical mask or similar is more effective than just a simple cloth mask. A simple cloth mask isn’t that great in stopping moisture from leaving your breath of from moisture (carrying the virus) getting through the cloth to your mouth; but it is a barrier and does reduce how far the moisture carries from your breath, and stops some of the moisture from others, so it’s better than nothing. While a surgical mask is designed to be very effective in stopping moisture, so it’s far more effective.
4: Yeah, the survival rate was about 99% averaged out across all age groups; but that wasn’t the issue, the issues were that the older you are, and for those with certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, obesity or asthmas, or kidney problems for example, then the survival rate dropped significantly.
But of more concern to governments was the fact that hospitals were being overwhelmed with people suffering from covid that it put them under a lot of strain so they had more difficulty in treating people for other illnesses such as cancer etc.
And what always gets ignored by the anti-vaxxers is that a high percentage of people who become ill with covid end up suffering an serious illness called “long Covid”, over 1 million suffers in the UK, and I suspect over 5 million Long Covid sufferers in the UK.
5: Yeah, the vaccines did not give 100% but they did give a high percentage of protection against serious illness and death; so (in spite of all the lies by the anti-vaxxer conspiracy websites) the vast majority (around 60%) in hospitals suffering from covid were people not vaccinated, in spite of the fact that in the UK only about 10% of the adult population were not vaccinated e.g. 60% of those in hospital with covid coming from just the 10% of the adult population who were unvaccinated is a high percentage compared to 40% in hospital with covid coming from of the other 90% of the population who were vaccinated.
If the vaccines were ineffective then only 1 in 10 people in hospital because of covid would be unvaccinated, but the fact that it was 6 in 10 speaks for itself.
And FYI, unlike the USA the NHS do NOT get paid extra for treating covid patients.
6: I don’t know about the USA, but in the UK people who were vaccinated knew that they were not immune from covid, but were reassured that the vaccine would help to reduce the risk of serious illness and death. Therefore, even in the UK vaccinated people still wore their masks and social distanced as required; and continued to take the FREE lateral flow tests that were freely available to every adult in the UK from March 2021.
I agree with you penultimate paragraph to a point e.g. too many people, especially in the USA, and some other countries around the world were gullible in believing all the misinformation, lies and fake news spread by the anti-vaxxers conspiracy websites.
However I dispute that people….
“accepted the fear provided by their government and then let their government control them. Too many people were willing to sacrifice their freedoms because of government propaganda.”….
….that is typical anti-vaxxers conspiracy websites terminology. People knew the risks, and were prudent enough to follow the advice and regulations laid out by their government to protect themselves, others and the NHS e.g. the UK government had the overwhelming support of its people, regardless to politics; and the government has the full support of all the political opposition parties. We were all in it fighting a common enemy (just like wartime); and in fact, in the UK it bought many communities and individuals together, as does happen during wartime.
by Castlepaloma 3 years ago
https://youtu.be/e6AusTDCLBUSweden has been a good example of this practice and went down to zero covid deaths. Don't know how I know how these world events unfold and snowball the other way. It could be intituvive (extreme logic) or a historic and gsypie buff plus knowing billionaire are the...
by Castlepaloma 3 years ago
A 5 year Challenge. Since all my prediction on hubpage have all come true the last 10 years. Why not? Give your reasons and why you will win? If I loose I will build you a rocket stove or a tiny house or anything in aircrete you want. Ask nothing in return, unless you want to, because you know you...
by Mike Russo 3 years ago
This is from Vanity Fair July 16, 2021In a push designed to treat unvaccinated Americans like an oppressed group, Republicans are reportedly pursuing a series of bills that would make it illegal to “discriminate” against those who choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. At least one...
by Kathryn L Hill 3 years ago
We need to reveal the scientific facts of Covid 19 vaccines / "vaccines" safety. We also need to reveal the negative effects of any of the various types of Covid 19 vaccines.
by Readmikenow 3 years ago
This lawmaker from Germany is spot on about the vaccine! I especially like the video in the middle of the article of her giving her speech. "A German member of the European Parliament declared to colleagues she would rather be jailed than receive a COVID-19 vaccine, arguing she is...
by Faye V 3 years ago
Yep, well put.
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