Wokeism is running rampant throughout the world -- both public and private sectors -- with no sign of burning itself out. The problem with the woke disease is that it suffers no penalty for being pathogenic because its effects are delayed. Each strain can become more transmissible and deadly because it does not kill its hosts immediately. In fact, contra Nietzsche, what it does not kill it makes weaker. What occurs to me is that we are facing a mass cultural extinction event whereby the obvious counter-reality tenets of wokeism destroy what would normally be the evolutionary works of society to rid itself of dead end ideas.
Sorry, but I can't agree with the premise. They are selling a very inferior grade of koolaid. Most aren't buying. After the winter of our discontent when everything falls apart I presume all but the wokest will have had it with our government AND the woke corporations. As for comparisons with Nazi Germany, Hitler was immensely popular, did initially ameliorate things for Germans and I can testify based on conversations overheard in trains when I was stationed in Germany was talked about with nostalgia ten years after the war.
It's all running together in my mind now, but a few weeks ago I read something that explained why so many of the side effects are neurological, although the cardio-vascular effects get more attention.
The federal government and the media are not crazy but are trying to promote and leverage fear. Only a relatively small minority of the people are going "crazy" - the COVID cultists - who are identified by their masks and paranoia and are taking the opportunity to signal their cultic religious convictions.
"...So is it "the" variant to catch, if you want to get some natural immunity going?"
It seems to be a lower-risk way to gain natural immunity. However, that immunity will likely only last ~6(?) months due to the high rate of mutation in the virus structure.
Like the common cold (rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, coronaviruses), we will likely never reach herd immunity because of the mutation frequency. That's why there is no vaccine for the common cold.
IMO, the better approach to combat coronavirus is broad-spectrum therapeutics to prevent infection by inhibiting the mechanism of action, regardless of the specific structure of the virus. Pfizer is developing such a drug ("pfizermectin" LOL!) that seems to be very effective. Of course, many believe that cheap, readily available therapeutics are already on the market and safe to use, such as Ivermectin.
"...that immunity will likely only last ~6(?) months due to the high rate of mutation in the virus structure."
The spike protein mutates a lot. The rest, or at least most of the rest, is quite stable. It's still an open question how long NI will provide protection and what level of protection that will be (and it definitely will vary from one person to the next - a whole other story, btw), but so far so good. The way it *should* work is that even if the spike protein mutates enough to be able to get past our NI and into our cells to try and replicate, our defenses against the multiple other epitopes of the virus should normally keep the replication below any serious danger level. Then, not only will we have been protected against serious illness from whatever that variant was that broke through our spike protein line of defense, but we'll also have updated and naturally boosted our immunity to the whole virus so as to be better protected against the next few variants that may follow. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
If one adds to all that a) keeping all our key nutrient levels up where they need to be, and b) the early application of known, proven, effective early treatments, it's pretty hard to see how NI shouldn't be seen as a rock-solid defense until clearly demonstrated to be otherwise.
PS: None of the above means the virus won't eventually become so harmless, as you suggest it may, that the body simply stops trying to respond with a robust memory B-cell / memory T-cell response, a thing it reserves only for microbes it judges to be potentially serious. In that case, but only in that case, would we not be able to reach herd immunity. In other words, we absolutely can reach *naturally-derived* herd immunity against any of the past and current high-potential strains, but, as you say, maybe not against some future harmless ones.
Thanks for the good analysis, and I mostly agree. The key is development of natural immunity (NOT "immunity" developed by response to the so-called "vaccines"). I would venture a guess that those who have been inoculated will have a non-natural response to any new variant exposure. Thus, a large portion of the population will not develop true NI. In fact, they may not develop immunity of any signigicant value. So, herd immunity (dependent upon a large portion of the population responding appropriately) may not be achieved until the "vaccines" are no longer in use. Just my uneducated guess.
Yes, remember Monty Python, “ she’s a witch, she’s a witch!” Also, it’s remarkable that we no longer hear anything about “ herd immunity” or “ natural immunity” conferred by catching the virus! No, instead, the EU (soon to be presided over by Micron - oops! - Macron!), is threatening to impose further “barriers” to normal life on the “unvaxxed.” Here in France, it’s the vaxxed (the “free” according to Macron) who are panicked and afraid, much like the Manhattan McDonald describes in her column. I am very, very disappointed in France, which finally could have taken a stand against the German-EU power coalition…(Ursula Von Leyen et al); fortunately, we have, as in the US, brilliant and valiant members of the résistance ( history again!): Fabrice Di Visio and Sydney Touati (both lawyers) along with Dr Christian Perronne. Also, Mark, for your reading list, Touati has written a book called “From Voltaire to Badinter” Joyeux Noël to all!
Ethical Skeptic did a very persuasive piece (excerpted here) arguing that Omicron is a throwback to an Ur-Covid that dates to early 2018. I suggested that it might actually be a vaccine project, so it's nice to see Jessica Rose and Eugyppius sharing that view. Lots of others have also pointed out how unusual it is.
I made a Twitter thread of that abusive relationship graphic with examples of each one:
https://mobile.twitter.com/ILOVETINY/status/1356746094437429248
Wokeism is running rampant throughout the world -- both public and private sectors -- with no sign of burning itself out. The problem with the woke disease is that it suffers no penalty for being pathogenic because its effects are delayed. Each strain can become more transmissible and deadly because it does not kill its hosts immediately. In fact, contra Nietzsche, what it does not kill it makes weaker. What occurs to me is that we are facing a mass cultural extinction event whereby the obvious counter-reality tenets of wokeism destroy what would normally be the evolutionary works of society to rid itself of dead end ideas.
Hopefully we are approaching the activation energy hump when the reaction to all this insanity is catalyzed.
Slowly but surely, we're having the conversation. Roger Kimball's (partial) take:
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/the-right-targets
But who's having THIS conversation?
Demographics Is Destiny
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=244591
I agree with this guy, so my view is eventually it will be the patriarch-ists among us.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/20/the-return-of-patriarchy/
Sorry, but I can't agree with the premise. They are selling a very inferior grade of koolaid. Most aren't buying. After the winter of our discontent when everything falls apart I presume all but the wokest will have had it with our government AND the woke corporations. As for comparisons with Nazi Germany, Hitler was immensely popular, did initially ameliorate things for Germans and I can testify based on conversations overheard in trains when I was stationed in Germany was talked about with nostalgia ten years after the war.
The #1 enforcer of Nazi ideology in Germany was Big Business.
Good point.
It's all running together in my mind now, but a few weeks ago I read something that explained why so many of the side effects are neurological, although the cardio-vascular effects get more attention.
The federal government and the media are not crazy but are trying to promote and leverage fear. Only a relatively small minority of the people are going "crazy" - the COVID cultists - who are identified by their masks and paranoia and are taking the opportunity to signal their cultic religious convictions.
"...So is it "the" variant to catch, if you want to get some natural immunity going?"
It seems to be a lower-risk way to gain natural immunity. However, that immunity will likely only last ~6(?) months due to the high rate of mutation in the virus structure.
Like the common cold (rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, coronaviruses), we will likely never reach herd immunity because of the mutation frequency. That's why there is no vaccine for the common cold.
IMO, the better approach to combat coronavirus is broad-spectrum therapeutics to prevent infection by inhibiting the mechanism of action, regardless of the specific structure of the virus. Pfizer is developing such a drug ("pfizermectin" LOL!) that seems to be very effective. Of course, many believe that cheap, readily available therapeutics are already on the market and safe to use, such as Ivermectin.
"...that immunity will likely only last ~6(?) months due to the high rate of mutation in the virus structure."
The spike protein mutates a lot. The rest, or at least most of the rest, is quite stable. It's still an open question how long NI will provide protection and what level of protection that will be (and it definitely will vary from one person to the next - a whole other story, btw), but so far so good. The way it *should* work is that even if the spike protein mutates enough to be able to get past our NI and into our cells to try and replicate, our defenses against the multiple other epitopes of the virus should normally keep the replication below any serious danger level. Then, not only will we have been protected against serious illness from whatever that variant was that broke through our spike protein line of defense, but we'll also have updated and naturally boosted our immunity to the whole virus so as to be better protected against the next few variants that may follow. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
If one adds to all that a) keeping all our key nutrient levels up where they need to be, and b) the early application of known, proven, effective early treatments, it's pretty hard to see how NI shouldn't be seen as a rock-solid defense until clearly demonstrated to be otherwise.
PS: None of the above means the virus won't eventually become so harmless, as you suggest it may, that the body simply stops trying to respond with a robust memory B-cell / memory T-cell response, a thing it reserves only for microbes it judges to be potentially serious. In that case, but only in that case, would we not be able to reach herd immunity. In other words, we absolutely can reach *naturally-derived* herd immunity against any of the past and current high-potential strains, but, as you say, maybe not against some future harmless ones.
Thanks for the good analysis, and I mostly agree. The key is development of natural immunity (NOT "immunity" developed by response to the so-called "vaccines"). I would venture a guess that those who have been inoculated will have a non-natural response to any new variant exposure. Thus, a large portion of the population will not develop true NI. In fact, they may not develop immunity of any signigicant value. So, herd immunity (dependent upon a large portion of the population responding appropriately) may not be achieved until the "vaccines" are no longer in use. Just my uneducated guess.
Yes, remember Monty Python, “ she’s a witch, she’s a witch!” Also, it’s remarkable that we no longer hear anything about “ herd immunity” or “ natural immunity” conferred by catching the virus! No, instead, the EU (soon to be presided over by Micron - oops! - Macron!), is threatening to impose further “barriers” to normal life on the “unvaxxed.” Here in France, it’s the vaxxed (the “free” according to Macron) who are panicked and afraid, much like the Manhattan McDonald describes in her column. I am very, very disappointed in France, which finally could have taken a stand against the German-EU power coalition…(Ursula Von Leyen et al); fortunately, we have, as in the US, brilliant and valiant members of the résistance ( history again!): Fabrice Di Visio and Sydney Touati (both lawyers) along with Dr Christian Perronne. Also, Mark, for your reading list, Touati has written a book called “From Voltaire to Badinter” Joyeux Noël to all!
Ethical Skeptic did a very persuasive piece (excerpted here) arguing that Omicron is a throwback to an Ur-Covid that dates to early 2018. I suggested that it might actually be a vaccine project, so it's nice to see Jessica Rose and Eugyppius sharing that view. Lots of others have also pointed out how unusual it is.
Re el gato malo's idea that it circulates *preferentially* among the vaxxed, Denmark reports that 90% of Omicron cases are vaxxed.