World War O

Posted on by Thor

Walls and borders do not stop the virus. Travel bans might gently slow the spread but are not a solution. on will become the dominant strain of COVID-19 around the world. Everyone will be exposed to it. The hope is that it is not as deadly as Delta. We will knw this in several weeks. Only world wide equitably distributed vaccinations and a change in human behavior will help slow the virus spread.

In a Huff Post article Max Brooks the author of World War Z, pointed out the general public’s disregard of science and argued that the biggest threat to the United States is “the gap between the American people and those who protect them.”

“One of the reasons [COVID-19] has been such a devastating plague in the United States is it’s a generational problem,” Brooks said. “If this had hit us 40 years ago, there would have been enough Americans still alive and in positions of authority who still remember the dark days of polio and whooping cough — the pre-vaccine days when viruses and bacteria used to kill and cripple a large portion of our population.”

Most members of today’s U.S. population “grew up post-World War II and don’t have the muscle memory and gut terror of germs,” leading to the current situation in which the coronavirus has blindsided America, Brooks said. He argued that all the scientific knowledge in the world isn’t “worth a warm bucket of hamster vomit” if it isn’t succinctly communicated to the average American.

Country Mouse

Posted on by Thor

HuffPost reported that COVID-19 is killing rural Americans at twice the rate of urban residents.

The first surge of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 initially hit urban areas hardest, with high rates of infections and deaths, according to the study for the Rural Policy Research Center published in September 2021. At the time, many rural communities were largely untouched.

But subsequent waves of the pandemic tore through rural areas, where many people are older, in poorer health, unvaccinated. Rural rates of infections and deaths began pulling ahead of metropolitan areas at the beginning of summer 2020, the study noted.

Since the pandemic began, about 1 in 434 rural Americans have died from COVID-19, compared with roughly 1 in 513 urban Americans. But as of mid-September 2021, metropolitan areas were experiencing a seven-day average death rate of 0.41 per 100,000 people, while rural communities had an average death rate of 0.85.

Alan Morgan, head of the National Rural Health Association, told NBC News, “We’ve turned many rural communities into kill boxes,” he added. “And there’s no movement towards addressing what we’re seeing in many of these communities, either among the public, or among governing officials.”

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that COVID cases and deaths were notably higher in Republican states than in Democratic states.

Of the 23 states that had new per capita case totals higher than the U.S. average, 21 voted for the former president in November, the Post noted. Sixteen of them were among the 17 states with the lowest rates of vaccination.

The newspaper called it an “inescapable overlap of pandemic and politics” as Republicans battle against mask and vaccine mandates, essentially killing their constituents.

5G COVID Conspiracy Theory

Posted on by Thor

5G is the next generation of wireless network technology that is steadily being rolled out across the United States and around the world. It provides faster data speeds and network capacity than existing 4G LTE technology.

An implausible 5G Conspiracy theory is based on the strange notion that the launch of 5G caused the spread of COVID-19. With social media platforms plagued by the spread of misinformation, this idea circulated like wildfire. The basic premise was that COVID-19 was man-made or something evil, a sort of viral Frankenstein. One version of the conspiracy goes like this, the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a strategy conceived by global elites to roll out vaccinations with tracking chips that would later be activated by 5G, the technology used by cellular networks.

More than 70 cellphone towers were set on fire in the United Kingdom in April and May because of their alleged link to the spread of the virus. Other arsonists struck around the world, while a woman in North Carolina fired her gun at cell phone workers as they worked on a tower. This is like the villagers taking to the streets with torches and pitchforks to corner the monster.

This level of fear inspired irrationality reminded me of the 1938 Orson Wells produced radio play War of the Worlds. This radio broadcast had residents in New Jersey running for the hills  and shooting at water towers thinking the Martians were attacking. The mind can become unhinged in times of crisis.

“The weight of scientific evidence has not effectively linked exposure to radio frequency energy from mobile devices with any known health problems,” the FCC noted.  I’m left wondering why these conspiracy theorists wear face masks if they believe the towers cause the infection. Tech companies have had struggled to combat COVID-19 misinformation. As long as the pandemic has been in the news, there has been an endless torrent of false information about it.

“People are drawn to conspiracy theories during periods of crisis and uncertainty, and this is certainly one of those times,” Karen Douglas, a professor of psychology told the HuffPost. By connecting dots, conspiracy theories take the unknown out of the equation and give people a sense of control. Even if the belief is untrue, having some sort of explanation for what’s going on can be soothing.

The reality of the situation is that COVID-19 was naturally caused, and we don’t know how to stop it from spreading yet. That is scary. If a person believes 5G towers caused COVID-19, they have something concrete to fight rather than facing the unknown. A study from Princeton University found that social isolation is linked to dark, superstitious thinking. People have more time for conspiratorial thinking. People who believe in conspiracy theories are more likely to be associated with prejudice, violence and crime.

Of course the president of the United States is often guilty of spreading these conspiracy theories leading to a perfect storm of stupid. He has even Tweeted that the CDC and media are lying about the virus to hurt his re-election chances. He has troubles with his priorities. He loves throwing gasoline on the fire.

One thing we can all do to prevent the spread of conspiracy theories is to look for trusted, reliable information backed by facts and science and maybe some art.