Two Different Pandemics: EU vs US.

Time for a post. And warning: this is going to be BY FAR my most political one yet.

I know it has been a while since I posted about COVID. I have been traveling and interacting with many people on this trip who have taken care to be extremely safe and limit their interactions with others.

They trust me. I trust them. It is a beautiful thing.

But even though I have been traveling, I have continued following the further embarrassment our shit-show of a country has become in the eyes of the rest of the world VERY closely.

And at this point, where our new daily cases as a country has now exceeded 50k, with the South a particular disaster, I want to share some thoughts of mine as my brain has been oscillating between the nightmare of either exploding into a gelatinous mess, or the dream of transposing itself into a human body in New Zealand, where the government actually gives a fuck about their citizens, a citizenry who are not scared, ignorant, and incredibly selfish like our own.

I have been patient for months, but the fact the rest of the country did not learn from what happened to us here in New York, is the true definition of insanity.

Some thoughts:

1. COVID is real and people are dying from it. Just stop with the denial. Just because you believe COVID does not exist or is exaggerated DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT IT EXISTS.

If you are one of those people in denial, I am afraid you likely suffer from the inability to grasp the concept of object permanence. Definition:

"Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way."

Do you know at what age humans of normal intelligence begin to acquire this skill?

4 TO 7 MONTHS OLD.

Yet we have a significant percentage of the population who seem to have never grasped this concept because if they do not know anyone who currently has COVID, even if they knew someone who got sick or died of it, then hey, it never existed! They need to gather with their huge groups of friends and family because COVID does not exist in their reality and, therefore, cannot get their loved ones sick! 🙄🤦🏽‍♂️

All of these people should have brain MRIs done ASAP. We may see a large number of frontal lobes that are severely diseased or absent.

It could be a fascinating study.

2. It seems fairly obvious now that warm weather does NOT stop the virus. The decreased levels of transmission initially seen in warm weather areas seem to have been more a product of people being outdoors more and indoors less, which seemed to be a big reason for lower transmission rates during shutdown.

New Yorkers are outdoors more and indoors less since bars and restaurants are still not open for indoor service, and our case numbers, even with our token village idiots, have been amongst the lowest in the entire country.

But wow, when you start jam-packing beaches and bars and restaurants and homes with people not respecting masking or social distancing, holy fucking shock Batman, the disease spreads.

NO. SHIT.

Examples of New York's very own token village idiots:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/nyregion/rockland-coronavirus-party.html

The stupidity of these people, and so many others across the country, epitomize the purposeful and continued dismantling and degradation of the American education system by our elected "leaders".

The average American's education is already pathetic compared to the rest of the world. But our politicians' goal is to continue to make the average American EVEN STUPIDER.

Which is fucking terrifying to think this is even possible. But it is.

3. It seems our country will get a taste of what it is like traveling as a citizen from a country where your passport is pretty much worthless. No country is going to let us in, and honestly, they should not.

And also considering many airlines are filling their flights now - hi American, hi United - it may be in your best interest not to fly now anyway.

This virus, mask wearing, and as a result, peoples health, have become politicized. You are a fool if you think otherwise, sorry, not sorry.

The federal government is only now feigning interest in your health because apparently adding more deaths to the already abominable death count of 125k+ - with some estimates saying 200+ by the end of the year - is starting to irk some voters and may make people less enthusiastic to vote for the party in control. Shocking.

But if it did not irk people, I think these politicians would still be shouting and supporting peoples individual "freedom" to choose stupidity over intelligent, rational thought.

Which, uh, if you are dead, your freedom does not do a whole lot for you in that case.

Blue State governors were called total idiots when COVID spiked in their states. And honestly, I agree most of them were pretty pathetic at the start. But they seemed to learn.

So now I guess the Red State governors must have contracted the same disease of stupidity.

But unfortunately, it seems the disease is at a more advanced stage at the moment. And they have little time left to treat it.

But I will send thoughts and prayers. They heal all ails, after all.

4. I thought I should mention science somewhere since, you know, it is what is actually going to get us out of this mess.

There is more and more evidence that many more people than initially thought may actually have significant cross-immunity as a result of exposure to common cold coronaviruses, as well as robust T-cell mediated responses that destroy the virus before it ever takes hold. This would add to the explanation of why kids are rarely affected:

https://immunology.sciencemag.org/content/5/48/eabd2071

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30610-3

As a result of the virus never taking hold, your body thus would not produce any antibodies. These people would then be innately protected from COVID - and I suspect I may be one of these individuals.

COVID Wolverine, bitches.

I have expected this for months as I stated in previous posts.

This makes sense because, if not, I would have expected healthcare professionals to have a MUCH HIGHER incidence of infection than the general population because we deal with sick people daily, including severely ill COVID patients.

This is anecdotal (obviously), but few of my anesthesia colleagues aged 35-45 at work got sick, including those working directly with the sickest COVID patients in the ICU.

It makes sense since that age group has had a number of years to get exposed, and boy, do we get EXPOSED. Patient secretions are a part of our job, with my pediatric anesthesia group getting the brunt of it given we deal with snotty kids every winter in hoards and throughout the year.

But out of the 15 or so of us peds folks, only 1 of our younger colleagues in our peds group got sick with symptoms consistent with COVID.

BUT UNTIL THIS IS PROVEN TO BE ACTUAL FACT, I will STILL continue to take precautions! I do NOT act like I am invincible!

This is why I still refuse to see my mom and sister. Which is fucking killing me, but their safety, and NOT MY DESIRE TO SEE THEM, supersedes ALL else. And always will.

If it is indeed true many more people have natural protections against COVID than originally thought, then this would also mean the number needed to vaccinate to achieve herd immunity could be FAR less than expected.

But at this point, we do not have a way to determine who is naturally immune versus not since there are so many factors that come into play when it comes to immunity.

Until then, I will continue enjoying my Zoom calls with Mummy and Sissy and respecting my fellow humans.

Now will you finally do the same as well?

Pretty fucking please?

#covid19 #nyc #nowinfectingtheentirefuckingcountry #itstillexistspeople #andspreadingwithavengeance #covidwolverine #objectpermanenceisyourfriend #socialdistance #andmostimportantly #wearamask