Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Super Virus
We didn’t deserve this.
This pandemic has played out exactly like a horror movie.
That doesn’t sound dramatic to anyone who’s been paying attention for the last two years, those of us who’ve actually had to deal with it on a personal level. And yet, we still can’t get more than half the world to take it seriously. Our leaders have botched the response from every angle, leaving the world vulnerable yet again, probably more than ever.
The facts are trickling in about Omicron, the virus our media dismissed as “mild,” just like they dismissed the virus two winters ago, telling us we should be more worried about the flu.
The facts are disturbing.
To make things worse, parents like me just recently found out that vaccine trials have failed for children under five. Now we get to choose between sending our children out into a chaotic and dangerous world without a shred of protection, or keeping them in isolation for an indefinite future. The very last hope we have is that somehow, miraculously, Omicron does turn out to be mild. If that weren’t enough, the ones accusing us of fear mongering, telling us to suck it up and move on their our lives, are the exact same who keep screwing it up for everyone. They never learn.
This isn’t how we planned to spend our holidays.
We’re pissed.
Everyone keeps underestimating the virus.
It looks like Omicron isn’t mild after all.
It’s anywhere from 3–5 times more contagious than Delta. It infects 70 times faster. It evades vaccines and treatments. Scientists and doctors say they’ve never seen anything spread like this. When you control for variables, it’s just as deadly as ever. It’s sending people to the hospital at record pace. The British seem to get it. Americans aren’t hearing the message yet. They think the pandemic is over.
They don’t get it.
The sequel just started.
This virus has done everything the experts predicted, sooner than we thought. We’ve reached a point where you can’t even accurately describe what’s happening without sounding like a conspiracy theorist. Maybe that’s why so many people choose denial. It’s hard to believe we’re living through something on par with a plague.
And yet, history doesn’t lie.
It’s happening now.
We need to call Omicron what it is.
Since the beginning, we’ve lived under the general assumption that if you catch Covid, you’ll probably be fine. We’re starting to see just how big a lie that was, and how much destruction it’s causing.
Our leaders really screwed this up.
So did reporters.
This one lie continues to justify all kinds of stupid decisions, like recent policies at some companies that employees have to remove their masks once they get to their office. It’s the reason why so many people dragged their feet getting vaccinated, even if they weren’t “against vaccines.” It explains why, even now, people are out partying as if the pandemic is over, despite virtually every expert now telling us we’re in danger.
If only they knew:
Severe illness with Covid doesn’t mean the sniffles and a few days in bed. The media screwed up early on by comparing this thing to the flu. They never apologized or corrected themselves.
So here we are.
Researchers have shown us the facts, but they have to sound calm and reassuring. That’s their job. Imagine if they told everyone what they really think about a virus that can do all this:
- Mutate to evade our best protections
- Leap between species on a whim
- Cause permanent organ/brain damage
- Keep infecting you, for years
- Double every other day
I’m no expert. I just listen to the experts. What they’re describing doesn’t sound like a regular virus at all.
It sounds like a super virus.
The developed world has never felt this.
Americans wouldn’t know a plague if it spit on them. That’s how privileged and entitled some of us are. In fact, a plague is spitting on them right now, and they refuse to call it what it is.
Even now, our leaders keep throwing around statistics without painting the bigger picture. I guess they’re tired of being called doomsayers, and ignored by the general public.
It looks like they’ve given up.
Look at Britain now.
Their Omicron surge has barely started, and essential services are already collapsing. In London alone, they’re down hundreds of doctors, nurses, firefighters, and ambulance drivers. People are going to die, even if they could’ve survived with medical care. They’re going to die from other treatable illnesses because they couldn’t get to an ICU.
A lot of us already know what’s going to happen here, because hardly anyone is getting boosters. I suspect it’s because they don’t want to deal with the side effects this close to the holidays.
It’s unreal to see so many people blow off what’s probably the most serious threat they’ll ever face.
It’s like a movie.
We’re making things up as we go.
Our leaders have failed us in a way that’s hard to describe. For the last two years, they’ve told us the opposite of what we needed to hear. The misinformation sinks in. People latch onto it and refuse to change their minds later on. This is exactly what’s happening with booster shots. The FDA and CDC told everyone they didn’t need them.
Now they’re saying we do.
Our health officials do eventually get it right, the second or third time. Unfortunately, they’ve lost so much trust and respect that nobody listens to them anymore. Everyone’s doing their own research now. They’re making up their own minds, at our expense.
They’re making it up as they go.
As stupid as that sounds, you can almost understand why. Our politicians have done a brilliant job undermining public confidence in simple measures like masks and distancing. Podcasters and radio hosts have steered their listeners away from vaccines and celebrated their “personal freedoms,” only to wind up on the obituary page themselves. People can find a loud voice to say anything they want about the coronavirus these days. Every wave produces the next generation of miracle cures.
Everyone’s an expert.
History won’t be kind to us.
Societies before us had an excuse for their plagues. They didn’t own the science or technology to see what was happening.
We do.
Our experts understand how viruses spread and mutate. They’ve given us tools nobody has ever had before.
Our leaders squandered them.
Half the people on this planet either didn’t take warnings seriously in time, or simply denied the virus even existed. They called it a hoax. Instead of coming together to beat this invisible killer, half of us spent two years wallowing in selfishness and ignorance.
People tried to get rich off the pandemic. I’m not just talking about big pharma. I’m talking about podcasters and evangelical radio hosts, and politicians who lied to their own constituents while using their privileged information to sell stocks.
It’s all disgraceful.
You could say we’re always living through history. Everything that happens always winds up in a book, even if it’s just a footnote. The historians are going to devote a few extra pages to these years.
There’s a small number of us who did everything right. We took everything seriously, and did our best to protect each other. Now we’re paying for other people’s screw ups. We have a right to be angry, even if it’s just for a few minutes, before we get back to leading the best lives we can, in a world that’s now dominated by a super virus.
We didn’t deserve this.