MACHIAVELLIAN COVID-19 CONSPIRACY STORY -- 3. USE THE PANDEMIC, NOT TANKS!
In my blogs so far, I have presented statistical evidence of the catastrophic harm being rained upon the world by harsh Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns by a callous medical establishment and morally bankrupt government leaders.
HOWEVER, STATISTICS AND THE TRUTH ARE DRY AND UNINTERESTING FOR MOST PEOPLE. THUS, I HAVE DECIDED TO WRITE ABOUT THE INTRIGUING CONSPIRACY THEORIES SURROUNDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. HERE IS THE THIRD STORY.
3. USE THE PANDEMIC, NOT TANKS!
GROWING UNREST, THE USE OF FORCE
The last 20 years or more has seen an exponential growth of political unrest. Groups within varied populations are using demonstrations, graffiti, vandalism, and even violence to bring attention to the issues they are trying to address -- endemic discrimination, separatism, growing government control, reduction in rights and freedoms, inequality in the justice system, religious conservatism, poverty, homelessness, inequality in health care, and many more issues.
Governments in their desire to maintain a high degree of "order" have felt it necessary to use police and in some cases the military and tanks to quell what they consider to be unacceptable behaviour in these groups. The government reaction can range from enacting legislation, laying fines, arresting citizens, using force resulting in injuries and/or death of demonstrators, and seizing property.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND BAD PUBLIC RELATIONS
In this day of the ever present smartphone and digital cameras, photos and videos of police and military violence quickly flood social media.
THE SERENDIPITOUS ARRIVAL OF COVID -19
Conspiracy story tellers contend that when Covid-19 arrived, the medical world made the ill-thought out decision to follow the projections of Ferguson, projections much criticized by many pandemic and infectious disease experts; the medical establishment in charge of public health called for major lockdowns and restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19. It was a strange recommendation considering that the SARS pandemic of the early 2000s had a mortality rate 3 to 5 times that of Covid-19; yet, in general, no full lockdowns were called for; nonetheless, for Covid-19, public health called for a halt to life as we know it.
Theorist further feel that most, but not all governments, rather quickly and cheerfully followed the advice of the public health establishment and began enacting and enforcing legislation to control their citizens. The laws forbade assembly except with members of your household. All aspects of behaviour was controlled. Democratic and human rights and freedoms were trampled upon. Many governments were thrilled.
Now, they could control any unrest and do so in the name of protecting their citizens from Covid-19. Arrests, fines, property seizures, injuries at demonstrations all were now not only perfectly acceptable, but such actions were praised by the medical establishment.
ALL MEDIA SUPPORT GOVERNMENTS AUTOCRATIC BEHAVIOUR.
The Conspiracy guys point out that dissenting voices were quickly shouting that the lockdowns were killing neglected non-Covid-19 patients, most published were the unnecessary deaths of cancer patients; increasing by 100 million deaths by starvation; leading to increased suicides and death by domestic violence; creating a mental health pandemic; developing a worldwide economic depression; and spreading joblessness, homelessness, and poverty.
However, media stepped in and overwhelmed and continue to overwhelm the internet and airwaves with news of widespread infection numbers (not statistically relevant rates and other important comparative data), warnings of additional waves of infections, an increase in variants, and the inability of vaccines to deal with all the Covid 19 variants. Labelled as right wing conspiracy theorist were any pandemic expert, psychologist, sociologist, economist, medical doctor and other experts who tried to point out that the catastrohic results from lockdowns and harsh restrictions.
Much media and social media would ban any dissent as not meeting their community standards -- WITHOUT EXPLAINING WHAT THEIR COMMUNITY STANDARDS WERE.
Not all media presented half-truths and pro lockdown fear-generating rhetoric, but the overwhelming majority did. Thus, the public fell into a state of brainwashing and fear.
Anytime, it appeared that opinion was turning against strict government lockdowns and restrictions, the medical world and media flooded the internet and air waves with more fearmongering reports of total numbers, variant information, fatal vaccine side effects -- anything to keep the population brainwashed and afraid, and to hold on to large audiences which the Covid-19 pandemic had given them.
GUESS WHO WAS HAPPY.
Theorist firmly believe that government, the media, the medical world were all happy. Only citizens were suffering.
The medical world was happy because they could put off and maybe eliminate the law suits coming their way for criminal negligence in the death of cancer, heart and stroke, lung, liver, kidney, HIV/AIDS and many other non-Covid-19.
The media is thrilled because Covid-19 is a cash cow that has increased their audiences and has helped re-attract advertising revenue.
The government is especially pleased. They can fundamentally use force wherever and whenever they wish, AS LONG AS THEY PROFESS THAT GOVERNMENT ACTIONS ARE TO PROTECT US ALL FROM COVID-19.
In addition, governments can arbitrarily fine, imprison, seize properties from groups that disagree with government positions, and they can let other group which support government initiatives continue to act in any way the group pleases. ALL OF THIS ARBITRARY ACTION IS PROMOTED AS BEING IN AN ATTEMPT TO CONTROL COVID-19.
THE PROOF
Well, in fact, much Conspiracy theory is based on supposition, deduction, inference, suspicions, and intuition. However, there is much evidence that experts in many areas are calling for an end to lockdowns. Also, the vast majority of citizens can see for themselves that their human and democratic rights and freedoms have been taken away through harsh legislation. Those who dissent are in fact, fined or arrested and property has been seized for "public health reasons." Like any Great Conspiracy theory about the world, it is very difficult to prove.
If you change the names to protect yourself from lawsuits, there is definitely a bestseller in this conspiracy story. People want to blame someone for the Covid-19 catastrophe. No doubt an academy award-winning movie would follow.ALSO, NO ONE CAN DENY THE MOUNTING EVIDENCE THAT LOCKDOWNS AND HARSH RESTRICTIONS ARE INEFFECTIVE AND DOING MORE HARM THAN ANY GOOD.
"The harmful consequences of public health choices should be explicitly considered and transparently reported to limit their damage, say Itai Bavli and colleagues ...
"Lockdowns can also cause long term health harms, such as from delayed treatment and investigations. Delays in the diagnosis and treatment of various types of cancer, for example, can allow progression of cancer and affect patients’ survival. A three month delay to surgery is estimated to cause more than 4700 deaths a year in the UK.13 In the US, delays in screening and treatment are estimated to cause 250 000 additional preventable deaths of cancer patients each year.14 Furthermore, a sharp decrease in the number of admissions for acute coronary syndromes and emergency coronary procedures has been observed since the start of the pandemic in the US15 and Europe.16 In England, the weekly number of hospital admissions for coronary syndromes fell by 40% between mid-February and the end of March 2020. Fear of exposure to the virus stopped many patients from attending hospital, putting them at increased risk of long term complications of myocardial infarction...
"The coronavirus pandemic is far from over. Many countries are already reeling from the effects of the pandemic response as well as trying to cope with additional waves of dangerous infection rates. Governments will have to make difficult decisions that rely on uncertain and changing data regarding the most effective approaches to contain the pandemic. Although the evidence on the adverse consequences of measures to control covid-19 continues to grow,1325262728 there remains a paucity of any such voices in the public and decision making conversation, which seems to convey a dominant narrative of pandemic mitigation at all costs. This is perhaps a reflection of the challenge of the moment, but we must adopt a more nuanced approach to understanding the pros and cons of different approaches.
A “zero covid” goal is neither realistic nor sustainable for most countries. Instead, public health needs to increase its investment into assessing the harms of policy options from different perspectives and to explicitly consider and transparently report the harmful consequences of public choices when deciding on and evaluating public health strategies to combat SARS-CoV-2. Epidemiologists, health economists, social scientists, psychologists, historians, ethicists, among others, must all contribute to these efforts and assist governments in making informed decisions—improving and protecting the health of all communities."
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4074
"As the crisis around Covid-19 evolves, it becomes clear that there are numerous negative side-effects of the lockdown strategies implemented by many countries. Currently, more evidence becomes available that the lockdowns may have more negative effects than positive effects. For instance, many measures taken in a lockdown aimed at protecting human life may compromise the immune system, and purpose in life, especially of vulnerable groups. This leads to the paradoxical situation of compromising the immune system and physical and mental health of many people, including the ones we aim to protect.
"Also, it is expected that hundreds of millions of people will die from hunger and postponed medical treatments. Other side effects include financial insecurity of billions of people, physical and mental health problems, and increased inequalities. The economic and health repercussions of the crisis will be falling disproportionately on young workers, low-income families and women, and thus exacerbate existing inequalities. As the virus outbreak and media coverage spread fear and anxiety, superstition, cognitive dissonance reduction and conspiracy theories are ways to find meaning and reduce anxiety. These behavioral aspects may play a role in the continuance of lockdown decisions. Based on theories regarding agnotology (i.e., the ways ignorance or doubt about certain topics is created by means of withholding or presenting information in a certain way), social influence, superstition and stress and coping, I seek to explain the social and behavioral aspects of human behavior in times of crises. Both the Covid-19 crisis itself as well as the resulting economic and (mental) health crisis are global problems that may require global solutions. I present a model of drivers and outcomes of lockdown behaviors and offer suggestions and a tool to counteract the negative psychological effects by means of online life crafting therapeutic writing interventions."
WHEN ARE GOVERNMENT, THE MEDICAL WORLD, AND THE MEDIA GOING TO STOP KILLING THE WORLD?
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