I was chatting with some buddies last weekend and the year 2020 came up. If you don't remember, that was the year the Chinese virus called Covid-19 took over the world and arguably changed it forever. We were talking about how it came into being, how individuals dealt with it and the reactions and responses from governments around the world. Of course, conspiracy theories came up and we all had thoughts and opinions on what, why, how, where and when, most of which will remain theories or opinions, but one thing that was unanimous was how fast the intervening five years have passed.
I remember where I was when I first heard about it. A mate and I were having a business meeting in early March and he'd quipped about having just been to a Chinese yum cha place for his previous lunch meeting and that "he'll probably die after having eaten there considering the virus that had just been announced." I don't watch the news so hadn't heard about it and we joked a little never once thinking what might be coming...and two weeks later I was working from home for months and months after government lockdowns were imposed here and around the world.
I say, "working" but I was really doing fuck all and getting paid for it which suited me just fine.
It was the same all over the world and things spiraled well out of control quickly with some foolish governmental reactions and decisions with (maybe) some good ones...and then came the vaccinations rushed through with limited testing, and jabbed into human lab rats whomever decided, or was forced, to get it.
Throughout, people dealt well with the lockdowns and "isolation" and thrived, (that was me), or did the total opposite.
It was a crazy time that caused shortages, made already wealthy people and corporations even more wealthy, started and ended careers, increased the suicide rate, decreased the flu-death rate (funny about that huh?), caused lack of supply of basic items and failure of supply chains, sent businesses and companies out of business, brought others to life, brought tension between countries, changed the face of global financial markets, gave governments more power over the population and fundamentally changed how people think which has endured for these past five years. Of course, there were other aspects to it, I'm trying to be brief though.
So, my mates and I discussed all of this and had a rather interesting chat in which we solved pretty much every problem known to mankind that currently exists, (some of those solutions wouldn't be popular so I'll not mention them) and had some laughs too. But for many the situation and 2020 and beyond wasn't at all a laughing matter.
Anyway, these days one hardly hears the words Covid-19, it's old news that the media cannot hype up anymore; we've all gone on with our lives as if it never happened but I've been wondering at the longer-term effects, (possible effects), that may come from it, the vaccinations that were administered with little to no testing and the levels of population control that sprang from the pandemic. I don't know what they are but something tells me things will come to light down the track and we won't like them.
I wonder about you folks and how things were for you at that time. Did you cope with the lockdowns and isolation, lack of products and services, working from home and other such things? Did you grow a second head on your shoulder or did your dick or tits drop off due to the vaccination? How did it change your life professionally and personally? Maybe it didn't at all?
If you want to have your say you can do so in the comments below and comment on whatever you like, share your opinions on one of the many conspiracy theories, how you handled and coped with the situation or anything else you might like to share.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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We are never told the truth about such things, simply left to obey or disobey, to believe or disbelieve. I believe there was a virus travelling about, made much, much worse by a handful of bad actors intent on reducing population and putting a chokehold on those remaining unbridled.
The stupidity I saw first hand told just how much of the populace believed the end was near. Driving alone in your car? Better wear a mask. Sitting down to eat in a diner? Better wear a mask in between bites. Shopping in the supermarket in one way aisles? Yep, you're an idiot. Need a dentist appointment? Sorry, Charlie...no can do.
I lived life as I always have, going up and down grocery aisles not paying attention to the taped signs on the floor, which incidently cause a few lawsuits over tripping on those taped signs. I did wear a mask as I worked on the Space Force Base shucking eyeglasses and had to wear it or lose my job. I did wind up leaving there after a few weeks of that.
All in all, a very telling display of human fear and submission to threats fabricated by 'experts in the field'.
It was pretty much the same here and probably other places. I was interested to see how some embraced it, lapped up all the propaganda and embraced the fear, and others did not, got on with life or enjoyed "working from home" like me and getting paid for doing nothing.
I hate lines, standing in them, and being told to follow them, and being forced to stand on an "X" on the ground while waiting to get served was something I rebelled against in my own little way (standing "not on the X") as a small act of defiance and I did other things as well just to say fuck you China virus and government who wants to control me. Small things, but it helped I guess.
I didn't embrace the fear as some did but as you have said, the responses some had and society in general was rather telling about where people's heads are at.
100
Agree 💯%
I think Covid-19 is still a huge deal... I don't know anything about medical anything, but my understanding is that it attacks your blood vessels and your immune system - so now the flu and whatever else is knocking us all for six. I don't know how you're going, but everyone I work with gets sick like every month or two, especially families with school-aged kids. In the US, Thanksgiving/Christmas time is brutal, literally everyone gets sick.
Apparently 10% of people end up with LongCovid, which basically means the symthoms hang around for weeks or months afterwards.
I agree, there seems to be a lot more illness. Speaking personally,I have had the "flu" twice this year, the first quite badly, and once last year. In the pre-Covid 19 years I reckon I had the flu once in ten years. I don't think I have the long covid thing but I reckon it's affected me since having it in 2021.
Totally man, you're definitely not alone there... so many people I work with, in different parts of the world now just casually drop into conversation "Oh, sorry I didn't get back to you, I was in hospital last week with the flu" - which is wild.
I didn't know this before, but apparently the flu also attacks the immune system, so it super sucks that you've had it twice this year, but I think medically, that's not surprising... but yeah, totally agree, the flu was always brutal, but pretty rare, and now, it's a multiple times a year event.
As someone with a lower immune system anyway (type 1 diabetic) the common flu has a greater effect on me anyway. I got covid-19 once and it hit pretty hard for about three days and then I was on the mend and feeling better after about six however I've never felt completely right (or the same as prior) since I had it and I often wonder what's waiting just below the surface.
Yeah, I worry about people that have had Covid like 5 or 10 times already. If it's doing damage under the surface, what health problems will it make worse over their lifetimes.
It's nuts that this is an issue people have to think about, but yep, I agree...time will tell what happens.
I'm not a great believer in viruses, that is I don't think they exist but I'm not certain. Covid prevented me from catching the bus to Dublin to visit friends but otherwise I went about my life as normal, engaging in no masking, distancing, locking down or hand sterilising and I was as right as rain.
All of my friends got vaccinated and every one of them is sick or dead, a couple with cancer and another two have had heart attacks. I suppose you have to believe in viruses for them to make you sick.
Interesting. Didn't the government enforce lockdowns there like most other places?
Government? I don't have much belief in them either:) But yes, they locked down and we drove around on empty roads and shopped maskless and unchallenged. It was fun in a way but horrifying in another to see how many people complied without question.
Believe in them or not, they're there and they do what they do, usually with impunity or only cursory checks and balances, and people follow.
In as much as is possible without ending up in jail, I ignore them, keep my head down and hide away in the countryside.
I was once involved in overthrowing a government.
Ok, not really, I led a revolt against the operators of the kindergarten I went to - the cookies and milk weren't up to my standards - and...well, it didn't go well and I ended up missing out on my cookie and milk that day.
Ah, those heady days of childhood innocence before the realisation that resistance is futile. Viva la revolución!
Good morning Galen, what a subject you've chosen to chat about. Five years have passed and it's still controversial. Of course I remember them very well.
In these years, both the world in general and mine in particular have changed in ways I never thought possible and at an incredible speed.
In my case, the business model changed. Now I see a lot of people online. One more step in the deterioration of healthcare practices, but sadly it is what people demand. Soon they will be satisfied with going to an AI to ask for “solutions” and will also be very happy to use “science”.
Regarding conspiracy theories, some were crazy and others, unfortunately, true. There is already enough evidence of how the defamation of elite scientists such as the epidemiologists who signed the Great Barrington Declaration was coordinated.
I don't know if they caused or are still causing side effects in relation to vaccines. What is certain is that they did not save any lives (and I'm not arguing this with anyone, it's what the clinical trials say).
The new world that emerged from 2020 is poorer, more Chinese and more obedient. That's just my opinion (a bit long-winded, I'm sorry).
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There's a strong push towards phone and online appointments since 2020 (even AI doctors appointments) but I'm not sure that's a person getting the best possible healthcare. I wonder what your thoughts are.
Here is my opinion, and I hope I don't upset anyone. I will limit myself to the field of psychology / psychotherapy.
To begin with, when someone asks for help, the first thing that should be done is an evaluation of the patient. Questionnaires provide information, but, as you know very well, there is a lot of non-verbal information when we interact with a person.
In online therapy, much of that information is lost; it is an almost artificial situation. We only see the face, on a few occasions the hands, there is no bodily contact such as a handshake, we do not know the proxemic distance of our client... In other words, online we lose a lot of information. The evaluation is poorer.
The empirical evidence that what heals is not techniques, but a good therapeutic relationship is overwhelming. And in my opinion, a good bond with the patient is better achieved in a face-to-face relationship than behind a screen.
Furthermore, a “depressive” never arrives at the consultation, perhaps a person who was fired from their job arrives, after a divorce and surely with a childhood that explains the current response to these losses. A person arrives, not a symptom. Working with the person's problems and not with the symptoms requires a good patient-therapist bond.
In my experience, a very high percentage of the men and women I treat in my practice have suffered some kind of abuse in childhood. In order to address these issues, which the patient may never have told anyone about or may not mention in the first few sessions, a level of trust is required that, in my opinion, is difficult to achieve online.
On a technical level, accompanying patients in the difficult situations that arise in the consultation is more genuine and real face-to-face than online. And, even if it's not “scientific”, a hug with the patient's permission can be very therapeutic. Until now, hugs have not been possible online. I could go on...
My opinion is that telephone consultations are appropriate for the current medical model, which is centered on the drug and the symptom and not on the person. All that is needed is a decision tree, put a label on it: “depression” and then comes the medication or a technique.
A now deceased Spanish doctor, Myra y López, called this way of practicing medicine “veterinary”, and I couldn't agree more.
I don't know if this long-windedness has been of any use to you. Maybe you fell asleep.
Happy weekend!!
How did we cope?
I just "Trusted the Science"
That scientist being my cat!
Sammi Jo Said...
Lol, Sammi knows all!
I can imagine what the unpopular solutions would be...
I assure you that the things that will come to light will not please you at all, but not at all.
The confinement didn't affect me, but the madness of the people affected me a little bit, only at the beginning of the confinement. It was a stage when I opened my eyes and started to see the reality. It was a radical change for me in that sense, now I could see!
Many acquaintances died from the vaccine, others with autoimmune diseases, others with impaired immune systems that will never recover... neither my family nor I have been vaccinated and never will be.
The theories... there are many, I suppose you know them. But they don't lead humanity to anything good... it won't be long now... a year maybe.
What do you think could have been done differently now you're able to look back with hindsight.
I would change... not to be scared when it all started. But there was nothing I could do about the others... they wouldn't listen to me.
As for me to keep calm and prepare myself even more for what's coming... I'm already seeing it.
Being scared of it was most people's reaction however I think it's important to control that emotion and work in more positive ways.
Today I have a different experience... I think I would react differently.
I cope just well with isolation and shortages of any kind, what really broke my back was the lack of option to keep our jobs, in Portugal many people simply became jobless because of this. I also refused to take any jabs, so that made me lose some friends and discriminated against me on job interviews since then... This days of course i found solutions for money and work, but some people in my family took the jab and died of turbo cancer a few months after... I am always amazed how everyone passes over this issues, the myocarditis rising, the kids simply dying and nobody shares the data and state in Portugal to this days wont publish particular stats regarding this things.
I'm sorry to here of those troubles but for sure it was the same here, some would get vaxxed, others wouldn't, and there was much discrimination, job loss/disadvantage and all. It was a crazy time for many reasons.
I was talking to an elderly friend (he was over 65 years old).
He told me: "Since corona and the vaccine I received then, I no longer have strong erections, like before...".
My friend, it's not just because of the vaccine, there's something about your age as well 😃
The corona situation totally ruined the employees' attitude towards their workplace, first demanding to work from home, and when everything started to return to normal, it was difficult to get people who were used to coming to my office to show up in the office again. There are many professions (especially in IT where I am) that can work remotely, but some technicians have given themselves the right to demand work from home, even though their presence is necessary...
One must have a rock hard fucken boner, not much use having a soft-on.
There were so many changes in such a short time back in 2020...I wonder, what do you think was the most impactful (upon you) change that occurred?
My father passed away at the beginning of February 2020, so in the first months of the corona epidemic I was out of office in general.
In addition to what I mentioned, regarding work and working from home, some fear crept under the skin and, in addition to the general increase in prices, additionally complicated earlier road trips.
I hope you were able to control the fear, if not it tends to control the person and that's not good.
Indeed, how fast 5 years passed. It was just weird to experience working from home at first, then we embraced it. However, I think pandemic was created as a trigger of Digital/AI era and for wealth transfer by causing inflation in the world.
There's a lot of really plausible conspiracy theories going around, some are very difficult to refute. I'm not sure on which is correct, if any, but I have my own ideas and opinions which many others seem to also believe and there's evidence also.
In my case it was a very hard time, due to the loss of many friends and the illness of my wife, two sisters and my brother.
I must say that here the problems accumulated and after the pandemic life changed completely and not for the better.
In my case, I think I was not affected, but since March 2021 I have been suffering from a respiratory crisis and they have not found the crisis.
At the social level, the negative effects have also been seen.
But, I consider that in spite of the damages and negative effects, we still do not learn that life is short and we continue to do harm, we get upset for anything, we try to accumulate more things than necessary and we continue not to live day by day in the best way.
Thank you for sharing.
Happy day.
Cheers and greetings.
It was a challenging time and the residual issues people face economically and from a personal health perspective exacerbate the issues faced back at the outset. It certainly changed the world but also made many people reevaluate their lives and that's a good aspect.
It is like this.
As in any process, there were negative things and many lessons learned.
Happy weekend.
Cheers and greetings.
Yes, @galenkp ...
... discerning truth is vitally important, to any meaningful conversation. Still hotly debated, of course, given its implications, but "Chinese virus" seems to be a clear example. Without talking honestly about not only where it come from, but why it came into being, aren't we just wasting our time?
Yes, arguably. Fear is a remarkably powerful motivational force and it is very sobering to see how much of our freedom around the world evaporated under the power of it, all the while governments around the world claiming they were protecting us from it.
Using your word "arguably," what was one of if not the most important outcomes? In my view, it was the damage done to our freedom of expression. With relentless claims of "misinformation" and "disinformation" being made, without any open and honest discussion of who was making these judgments and by what authority.
We may finally be experiencing some pushback on this vital topic, given the recent election results in Argentina, America, Germany ...
In which case, hopefully, in another 5 years, you can write that the damage done 5 years ago has finally been openly and honestly acknowledged and was reversed, as a result of our ability to talk about it freely.
Thanks for bringing this up again, as I do not think we are anywhere close to being done with honestly and openly talking about the consequences of all the decisions made for / imposed on us, during that time.
It was used as an excuse to gain a greater degree of control by governments and corporations and that made society the loser yet again. of course, as you pointed out, there's some pushback but these things take time and sometimes I wonder what's lost in the interim.
My wife and I were pretty lucky that we got to keep our jobs during that time too. Like you said, basically just sitting home not doing much of anything and still getting paid for it. I know many people who weren't so lucky and they have a very different view or memories of that time period than I do. I remember seeing the rate of domestic violence greatly increasing during that time period as well. I wouldn't be shocked to find the rate of divorce also increased right after the pandemic. My wife and I were also able to still go camping, so that was kind of a release for us.
I heard domestic violence cases increased as well, suicide rates also. It was a strange time and difficult for many in different ways I suppose. We don't hear much about it now, here at least, however I believe the residual effects of it will be felt in many ways. Maybe they'll engineer another one soon because the last was so successful?
Well bird flu is on the rise apparently and those silly folks down in Texas seem to have allowed measles to start spreading again....
We get that same situation now and then. Egg shortages at the moment actually.
Yes, we have those right now too!
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