As the dust of the Covid19 media storm settles, we find credible scientific evidence that the virus was more likely a result of some laboratory mishap than a natural occurrence of transmission between us and some animal species.
Public panic and media overreaction subsides to a dull roar and we can remember the firestorm that ensued, following two opposing media/social media explanations for the pandemic and what should be done to stop it.
The great Covid disagreement of 2020 centered around two strategies for fighting the spread of the disease.
One strategy was the Mask and Distance strategy, generally favored by citizens who are left of center.
The other strategy was the Herd Immunity strategy, generally favored by citizens who are right of center.
The Mask and Distance crowd placed significant—if not absolute—faith in whatever strategies were promulgated by scientific authorities such as the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control.
Proponents of the Herd Immunity strategy were generally mistrustful of scientific or political efforts to restrain public liberty that would limit or prevent public meetings and/or commerce.
Associated with these two fundamental strategies were two opposing theories about whether the escaped Covid was a result of a lab mistake or a natural transference from bats or some other animal.
Now, in late May, 2021, evidence for the lab origin of Covid is mounting. As the more scientific data is brought forth and analyzed, several questions arise to complicate our public discourse about the disease.
Unfortunately, the great divide between Left and Right was a significant factor in each person’s, or social group’s assessment of the information and disinformation that was being brought forth at the time.
Dr. Anthony Fauci was one of the main proponents of the Mask and Distance strategy. There was good reason for his position on those issues and his advocacy of public health controls.
Dr. Fauci had a job to do, and he did it. His job was to do everything he could to stop the spread of the disease. sc
His job was not to explain the origin of the escape of a mutant virus because that volatile information would have clouded the issue so heavily with he did/ she did and he said/ she said blather that Dr. Fauci’s capacity to do his job effectively would have been covered in a tsunami of public argumentation.
It is obvious to us all that there was indeed a flood of political and social media blahblah that acted as a cloud to obstruct public agreement about what the hell to do about Covid19.
In the midst the Covid tsunami, the former president displayed an attitude of ridicule toward the scientists and the citizens who believed them. The result was a widespread confusion that contributed to the spread of the disease and intensified our public disagreements to the point of ridiculousness.
Had our former president taken his executive duty seriously, instead of manipulating information for the purpose of intensifying his own control of political events, he might have contributed to our great 2020 battle against Covid.
But the 2020 loser ridiculed appropriate efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic. Referring to Covid as the “Chinese” virus was an attempt to manipulate public information, twisting it into crude, unproven-at-the-time, propaganda to advance his agenda of political control and re-election.
But his obfuscation strategy backfired on him and he lost. As if that wasn’t enough offense against the peace and safety of this nation, he persisted in his unproven accusations even to the point of inciting a riot at our nation’s Capitol.
Now, after the dust has settled, public evidence of the Covid’s escape from a US-funded laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology can be reasonably evaluated; it may prove useful in future control of risky scientific research to understand and prevent future epidemics.
Politics and propaganda aside, we may be able to figure out a few effective strategies for preventing future pandemics on this internetted planet.
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