Thursday, September 16, 2021

Cassandra Speaks (Yet Again!)

 For those who do not know,  the “Cassandra” in the title was a character from Greek mythology who had the gift of prophecy.  No one believed her,  mostly because they did not like what she prophesied,  and so did not want to believe.   I know how she felt about that.

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I foresee what no one wants to see,  so no one sees it coming :  there will NEVER be a final end to the SARS-CoV-2 / covid-19 pandemic! 

It is time to start the next “Operation Warp Speed” and rapidly develop upgraded vaccines that counter these newer,  more contagious,  more deadly variants,  that we can already see coming.  That’s the trend:  toward ever more contagious and ever more deadly forms of this SARS-CoV-2 virus. 

There is no longer any defense for being younger:  the Delta variant is circulating wildly among our children in schools,  and it is killing some of them.  And some of their teachers. 

That is just the nature of coronaviruses:  they mutate fast,  and they vary a lot in their threat characteristics from strain to strain.  The rapid mutation rate is the real enemy here;  it is also partly why we have never developed a cure for the common cold,  which is also mostly caused by several different coronaviruses. 

The other part is that they change so fast that any acquired immunity doesn’t last very long,  which is why you can catch cold after cold on a time scale of only months.   We are already seeing that short immunity effect with the covid-19 booster shot issue. 

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It being the case that this virus will be with us forever,  the best weapon we have is new vaccine after new vaccine,  from now on!  Forever!  Which means we start now,  and we do everything we can to speed the process without undermining its integrity.  But history shows these work well,  only when just about everybody gets vaccinated. 

The second best weapon we have is the ancient one of masking / distancing / handwashing,  augmented in modern times by an understanding of microbes and disease.  We will be using those ancient weapons from now on,  whenever an outbreak of a new variant not covered by current vaccines occurs.  This tool also only works well when just about everybody does it.  You can only stop when everybody is vaccinated.

The third best tool we have is shutting everything down and quarantining at home;  and we surely don’t want to have to do that again!  Not unless we are utterly forced to do so!   You avoid it by using the other two tools as effectively as you can.

There are no other tools for fighting such plagues.

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As with other lethal or intolerably-dangerous viruses and other microbes that we cannot yet eradicate,  we have to make the vaccines for this plague mandatory,  and allow only a few exceptions,  very few indeed!  Examples of things we already treat in this mandatory way would be whooping cough,  polio,  etc. 

When outbreaks occur with a new variant that resists our current vaccines,  the old masking / distancing / handwashing tools also have to be mandatory until the new vaccine is fully-administered.  It’s not about freedom-to-choose,  it’s about the public safety of all of us:  something long established in our society,  and its many predecessors over the centuries.

Your freedom to choose not to mask,  or not to vaccinate,  ENDS BEFORE you infect others!  Just like your freedom to swing your fist ENDS BEFORE you strike others.  And just like your freedom to yell “fire” when there is no fire inside a crowded theater,  ENDS BEFORE you injure or kill somebody in the panic that ensues.  Anyone who tells you different is lying to you.

The sooner everybody comes to realize the real truth about this “freedom to choose” issue,  the better off we will all be.

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Bottom line:  the sooner we implement the continuing upgrades to these vaccines as an ongoing program,  and the sooner we make the resulting vaccines mandatory,  the freer we will all actually be. 

It really is that simple. 

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And so also you can figure out when you are being lied-to,  for political or monetization purposes.  In particular a lot of social media sources (and some others,  particularly politicians) profit in some way from feeding you more of what you want to hear,  without regard to truth,  and not feeding you any of the truth that you need to hear. 

Which is something you should never,  ever tolerate!

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A final thought: 

Denying schools the ability to control infection rates in their facilities with the vaccination and masking tools,  is essentially criminal child endangerment.  It is essentially criminal assault when businesses are prevented from using these tools.  Both child endangerment and criminal assault are very serious crimes,  but this is happening in a lot of states,  and for no better reason than a faulty political ideology based on misinformation.   There is no real excuse for such dangerous behavior.

I suggest that the local district attorneys in the places where these schools and businesses are located,  should file criminal charges against the politicians in power who are trying to stop the use of these tools against the virus. 

Specifically,  the officials who sign the offending orders,  and the officials who attempt to enforce them,  should be arrested on criminal charges.  Not civil lawsuits,  criminal charges!  There is no office-holder immunity against that. 

And it needs to go through the justice system process,  all the way through trial.  Guilt is pretty clear,  just ask the medical professionals.  We need to make some examples out of those who behave so dangerously.  Then that dangerous nonsense would stop.

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Update 9-19-2021:  a shorter and substantially-edited version of this article appeared as a board-of-contributors item in the Sunday 9-19-2021 Waco Tribune-Herald newspaper.  


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