"Their Truth"

Progressives are fond of using the phrase, "my truth," implying that hard facts are malleable things—that there is no objective "truth" that can be derived from a factual assessment of life. And because progressives are avid members of Team Apocalypse, they have crafted their "truth" about COVID-19. 

Their "truth" is a catastropist's fever dream—COVID-19 is a deadly virus that kills everyone it touches without out selectivity, that puts everyone at great risk, that is so dangerous to children and teachers that schools must be shut down, that is sooo serious we need to lock down the country to stop it's spread, and when that doesn't work (and it doesn't work), ... well, it's just because we haven't tried hard enough. Their truth is anti-scientific, disregards a tsunami of scientific data, and is a catalyst for near-totalitarian policies exerted by mostly Democrat governors and mayors.

James Agresti presents some actual truths that have been published by Just Facts. He writes:

This research also includes a groundbreaking study to determine the lethality of Covid-19 based on the most comprehensive available measure: the total years of life that it will rob from all people. This accords with the CDC’s tenet that “the allocation of health resources must consider not only the number of deaths by cause” but also the “years of potential life lost.”

On one hand, these facts show that:

• the average death rate for people who contract Covid-19 is well below 1% and is much closer to that of the seasonal flu than figures that were commonly reported by the press. 

• the average years of life lost from each Covid-19 death are significantly fewer than from common causes of untimely death like accidents and suicides. 

• the virus that causes Covid-19 is “very vulnerable to antibody neutralization” and has very limited ability to mutate, which make it unlikely to take masses of lives year after year like the flu and other recurring scourges. 

• if 500,000 Covid-19 deaths ultimately occur in the United States—or more than twice the level of a prominent projection—the disease will rob about 6.8 million years of life from all Americans who were alive at the outset of 2020. 

[That's bad, but now consider these facts]

• The flu will rob them of about 35 million years. 

• Suicides will rob them of 132 million years. 

• Accidents will rob them of 409 million years.

On the other hand, elderly people and those with chronic ailments are extremely vulnerable to Covid-19, and the disease is highly transmissible, which means it could spread like wildfire and overwhelm hospitals without extraordinary measures to contain it. This would greatly increase its death toll.

However, measures to limit the spread of C-19 sometimes involve fatal tradeoffs, and thus, overreactions can destroy more years of life than they save.

And there's the rub. It can be argued that the "truth" adopted by mostly Democrat mayors and governors (i.e., lockdowns) does far more harm than good.

But something else is going on. The craziness (and inordinately bad policy) that has been evidenced during this year of COVID is the culmination of a long string of narratives that when taken in sum, have resulted in a "catastrophist culture." I'll have more to say on that topic in future posts.

UPDATE:

Of course, "their truth" tells use that mandatory mask mandates are ESSENTIAL to stop the spread. No matter that scientific studies indicate that masks provide marginal protection at best.

And then there's this, reported in Insanity Wrap:

With the help of the CMU mask compliance tracker, let’s take a look at the current COVID-19 hotspots in the United States and the level of mask compliance within these areas.

San Francisco metro area: 97% mask compliance.

New York City metro area: 97% mask compliance.

DC metro: 97%.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington: 94%.

Philly area: 96%.

Chicago: 95%.

Miami-Ft Lauderdale: 96%.

Seattle: 96%.

The data demonstrates very clearly that Americans have overwhelmingly exceeded the masking compliance percentages needed to supposedly “flatten the curve” and reduce transmission of the virus.

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazier than Insanity Wrap to miss it.

What we have here in the Wuhan Flu is a very successful virus, infecting many but killing few so that it can survive and thrive by infecting even more.

Lockdowns haven’t stopped it, masks haven’t stopped it. Herd immunity, whether by vaccination or enough people catching it, or both, appears to be the only way to stop it.

Meanwhile, we’re wasting the resources we could and should be using to protect those who are most vulnerable.

There’s hardly one bit of our Wuhan Flu reaction that isn’t crazy, stupid, self-defeating, or all three.

Yep.