REJECTING THE “NEW NORMAL”
It’s Time to Move On
Anyone else sick of the term “the new normal?” Just like “social distancing” (which wasn’t needed as the term “physical distancing” was good enough), these terms have been shoved into common usage with a public image of kindness to each other. But the ulterior motive of our leaders was to force us to accept the changes they wanted to make as they acquired more power. What about you? Are you happy with the way things have been the past 1 ½ years?
“New Normal” Ideas to Shun
- Isolation as the best way for all of us to stay safe. For people with compromised immune systems or comorbidities of concern, isolation has always been a good approach, i.e., the “boy in the bubble” who had no real immune system. But this made no sense for most of us. I remember sharing suckers as a child as a way to ensure all of us got German measles. It’s a bad disease for older people, but a relatively minor annoyance for children. And look at the impact! My father, kept “safe’ in his assisted living home, had no contact with people for months. Unable to hear well enough to enjoy phone calls and long past a time when he had interest in the internet, the isolation killed him, not Covid. I’ve heard that even many introverts are sick of it.
- Masks. People are still clinging to masks of all types, even when it’s been shown that they are great vectors for holding all kinds of bacteria and viruses that are everywhere in the environment. And they don’t do much good, unless you have the really uncomfortable, serious kind. Surgeons mostly wear them to avoid sneezing or dripping on a patient and to provide a small barrier in case of spray. Having worked in labs, I probably should have worn a mask to avoid all the different “sprays” I encountered. But unless someone walks by and sneezes on your face, these masks do almost nothing.
- Social Distancing – Who actually believes there is a 6 ft. limit on viral spread? Who made up these rules? But fear has caused people to continue to insist on this distancing, even as the CDC has arbitrarily decided 3 ft is enough. This may have stopped confrontations by minimizing our conversations with each other, but otherwise, just made being out in public even more annoying.
- Shutdowns – I feel incredibly grateful not to have been personally impacted by the arbitrary closing of businesses everywhere, but felt so much anger at the many who lost their livelihoods to these decisions. Who’s helping them? Florida now has shown that it wasn’t necessary. The selective permitting of some businesses (like film sets and craft services for Hollywood) showed the insanity of the decision.
- Elevation of Public Figures into Godlike Authorities – We used to be a skeptical public, challenging the directives of elected and non-elected authorities. We’d do our own homework, made easier with access to reliable and varied sources on the internet. But fear turned us into beggars, hoping for words of wisdom from the people we ignored or doubted in the past. Neither Trump nor Biden has any credibility in scientific matters and sadly, those scientists who might have brought us all reassurance were mostly silenced. (See Sunetra Gupta of the University of Oxford, Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University, founders of the Great Barrington Declaration.)
- Political Power Grabs – in the spirit of never letting a crisis go to waste, many elected officials (and some who weren’t like Dr. Fauci), bypassed the Constitution and legislative process creating wholesale laws, picking winners and losers. Small businesses and landlords – losers. Illegals and renters – winners.
A Few Wins from This
- Rapid vaccine development. As one of the early recipients of polio vaccine in 1955, I am a big fan of the amazing work of our scientists. Within four days of getting the virus signature, both Pfizer and Moderna had workable vaccines, but the sludge of testing/approval by the FDA slowed this down. People talk about the next pandemic, but we know more now. It won’t be a repeat of this annus horribilus.
- Virus treatments – lots of great ideas have now been tested, so we don’t have to be so frightened in the future. Despite the bad info promulgated by so many, treatments like hydroxychloroquine, fluvoxamine, ivermectin and more have shown us that future death tolls will be more limited.
- China and WHO as Public Enemies – a good government would have quickly revealed a concern (whether a lab leak – the truth – or animal to human transmission) and voluntarily cut their country off from migration to keep the virus contained. We know now not to trust China or UN agencies, as they do not serve most of our interests.
I’m sure there is more, but let’s stop using these terms and recognize the dangers of what we have just been through.
