How do we know a pandemic's over?
- Thread starter Chanakya
- Start date
Canada:
The article also includes the moronic attempt to make it seem as if SARS-CoV-2 is on the way to becoming predictable:
"Experts say COVID-19 is here to stay, but it hasn’t yet adopted the same seasonal pattern as common cold and flu viruses, both of which are more prevalent in winter."
Because that's what viruses do, isn't it? They adopt seasonal patterns, right? Right? Right?!
X comment:
The article also includes the moronic attempt to make it seem as if SARS-CoV-2 is on the way to becoming predictable:
"Experts say COVID-19 is here to stay, but it hasn’t yet adopted the same seasonal pattern as common cold and flu viruses, both of which are more prevalent in winter."
Because that's what viruses do, isn't it? They adopt seasonal patterns, right? Right? Right?!
X comment:
Some people will argue the pandemic isn't over in 3...2...1...
USA:
Wait a minute! Let me get this straight:
Does that mean that "it hasn’t yet adopted the same seasonal pattern as common cold and flu viruses"?
But it is still becoming seasonal, isn't it? Isn't it?!
USA:
Wait a minute! Let me get this straight:
Does that mean that "it hasn’t yet adopted the same seasonal pattern as common cold and flu viruses"?
But it is still becoming seasonal, isn't it? Isn't it?!
Chanakya
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Useful info, thanks for posting. Haven't seen this reported elsewhere. (Maybe it *has* been reported, and I've missed those reports, but either way.)
In a way it is ...surprising, how enmeshed vaccines (and Covid itself) have gotten with politics. And not just in the US. I mean, one can understand that --- not agree with it, but understand it --- for something like AIDS, say; but why this Covid thing? ...Sure, the orange excrescence's baleful touch has something to do with it. But only partly, and only in the US; and yet this politicization, it's a thing outside of the US as well.
The Atheist
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Sorry, you must have been on a different planet during the actual pandemic phase of covid.
Countries shut down, required people to wear masks and took lots of measures to limit the spread, which got a people pissed off at the government telling them what to do. You're obviously not aware of actual riots taking place during that phase. Even places like Belgium had riots, and we had a bunch of loons take over Parliament grounds.
Governments made it political.
Sensible people saw that as a necessary evil, but unfortunately, a lot of humans aren't too bright and rebelled against it. Did you think they're going to let go that easily?
It is indeed. In Denmark, people younger than 65 weren't eligible for booster shots last year. I wouldn't be surprised if it will be 75 this fall. Only 85+ can get Paxlovid.
The shift in Denmark happened in the winter of 2021-22, post-vax, when the Danish state decided that we all had 'super immunity' thanks to vaccinations + infections. And it was without any of the excesses claimed by The Atheist. There were no "actual riots." And the antivaxxers and other loonies (!) in New Zealand were also very far from being a riot. The rhetoric was as hyperbolic as in The Atheist's tall tales, but they were indeed loonies, and only one right-wing think tank supported them.
People in general were quite happy with the few restrictions. They knew that they made sense and actually worked. Looking at Sweden's (almost) no-restrictions and infections for everybody made it obvious that the very unobtrusive restrictions were preferable. Working from home was encouraged, masking indoors in public places and on public transport, online lessons for students. In other words, there was no popular uprising against the authoritarian oppression masquerading as concern for people's health as the loonies claimed when they saw themselves as the avantgarde of a popular movement of freedom fighters.
As for Belgium:
I am pretty sure that Brussels has seen worse riots than this!
But The Atheist's stories about popular uprisings come in handy as an argument for the claim that people just couldn't stand the oppression anymore of the (always draconic) restrictions, but that wasn't really what happened in most places.
Business interests, the media and politicians wanted things (= business) back to normal (= pre-pandemic), which required that the pandemic had to be declared over, i.e. business as usual required all the falsehoods we have seen - also on this forum: It's over, it's just a cold, it's just another virus like the flu, it's the sniffles, people are immune, nobody is dying, it only really harms old people, children are definitely immune and they don't even get sick in the first place.
It is apparent that the media pushes the narrative that it's over and only reports about COVID-19 whenever it has become impossible to ignore. Like right now.
I can recommend Jessica Wildfire's article. It's is not just about disinformation (and lack of information) about the pandemic but also about disinformation (and lack of information) about global warming. Her article also mentions this article by Nate Bear from last year:
Time to relax and rewatch ¡Do Not Panic!... I mean, Don't Look Up!:
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Utter morons convinced otherwise sensible people that the pandemic was over, that it was just another cold, that face masks were unnecessary, and that children shouldn't get vaccinated.
The media and health authorities enabled those morons (it was actually the other way round) by making information about the pandemic more or less inaccessible or by making it appear to confirm the delusion that it's gone.
No testing, no cases. (Just like Donny pointed out in 2020. He was really way ahead of his time!)
(Why did we let them continue to analyze those damn wastewater samples? Won't somebody put a stop to that?!)
The Atheist
The Grammar Tyrant
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You just keep getting funnier - I'd be keeping tabs on your blood pressure if I were you, you're in a right old tiz, and at your age, heart disease is a lot more dangerous than covid.
First off, after praising Topol for years, you changed your mind pretty quick when he said something realistic and you didn't like it:
Topol is good!
Topol is bad!
I'll accept it's your ESL problem again, but there are places on the internet you can find out what words mean.
For instance, the word "riot"
noun: riot; plural noun: riots
1. a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd.
Which you then go on to confirm were actual riots with the description straight from Wikipedia. Priceless.
Here you go, just in case anyone from another planet is reading and unaware of what actually happened.
Guardian, Brussels Violence + crowd
France24, Paris I wonder why they used anti-riot police for a totally not riot?
Wellington, totally not a riot
While all that's hilarious, you finish with an outright zinger.
Seriously, I'm a bit worried about you - this state of fear you're in is making you contradict yourself.
The media is hiding it from us!!11!!
You've said this nonsense many times, but look at your own post from a month ago:
NYT, WaPo, BBC. Yeah, the media is covering it up!
So absurd it's not even worth saying so.
First off, after praising Topol for years, you changed your mind pretty quick when he said something realistic and you didn't like it:
Topol is good!
Topol is bad!
I'll accept it's your ESL problem again, but there are places on the internet you can find out what words mean.
For instance, the word "riot"
noun: riot; plural noun: riots
1. a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd.
Which you then go on to confirm were actual riots with the description straight from Wikipedia. Priceless.
Here you go, just in case anyone from another planet is reading and unaware of what actually happened.
Guardian, Brussels Violence + crowd
France24, Paris I wonder why they used anti-riot police for a totally not riot?
Wellington, totally not a riot
While all that's hilarious, you finish with an outright zinger.
Seriously, I'm a bit worried about you - this state of fear you're in is making you contradict yourself.
The media is hiding it from us!!11!!
You've said this nonsense many times, but look at your own post from a month ago:
NYT, WaPo, BBC. Yeah, the media is covering it up!
So absurd it's not even worth saying so.
Some people will argue the pandemic isn't over in 3...2...1...
Where did I praise Topol? And for years? It should be pretty easy to find some examples, but if The Atheist spent some time searching for it, he would find ... nothing. He doesn't seem to understand that you don't get the privilege of understanding the pandemic by looking for people to praise. You get it by looking for information. Most of the time Topol is a good source, but in this case, at one point, he wasn't.
My blood pressure is fine as is my health in general - except for my hearing.
That The Atheist doesn't understand that COVID-19 is a cause of cardiovascular (liver, kidney, brain, lung ...) disease shows how little he knows about the virus.
I know which of those organs I would be worried about if I were in his shoes, but I'm happy that I'm not.
If The Atheist didn't have his frequently mentioned problem with reading walls of text, he might have noticed that my counter examples showed that:
1) Far from all places had anything even remotely similar to riots.
2) His spcecific example, Belgium, didn't have much of one: "a few dozen protesters"
And yet, even in the places where no riots occurred, where people by and large didn't object to very sensible mask regulations, health authorities still treated them as if they were draconian and unacceptable after the winter of 2021-22.
The Atheist should look over his own post from May 1! I'm surprised that he has forgotten already because I keep reminding him by using it as the headline of my posts:
The pandemic wasn't over at the time when the media pretended that it was over, which confirmed The Atheist's belief that it was.
That I have been able to search and find several articles about the COVID-19 pandemic despite the media's disinformation (and lack of information) about the pandemic - especially after the virus began to surge again - doesn't contradict the fact that this is something that doesn't exactly figure prominently in the media landscape, which tends to help The Atheist pretend that there is no pandemic, that the virus is just the flu, the sniffles, the common cold, harmless to children and everybody else except people with toe tags, like in the Daily Mail article that he triumphantly presented in the other pandemic thread:
The Atheist read the Daily Mail article and actually believed that it constituted proof that "influenza is a much worse disease" than COVID-19, and that it confirmed his delusional "10:1 odds." And why wouldn't he? It's what he has wanted to believe since 2021-22, i.e. post-vax, and to The Atheist confirmation bias is not a thing to watch out for. It's a thing to embrace and on which to base his entire worldview.
As for praising Eric Topol, The Atheist is confusing me with somebody else. He would know if he paid any attention to the pandemic threads.
Where did I praise Topol? And for years? It should be pretty easy to find some examples, but if The Atheist spent some time searching for it, he would find ... nothing. He doesn't seem to understand that you don't get the privilege of understanding the pandemic by looking for people to praise. You get it by looking for information. Most of the time Topol is a good source, but in this case, at one point, he wasn't.
My blood pressure is fine as is my health in general - except for my hearing.
That The Atheist doesn't understand that COVID-19 is a cause of cardiovascular (liver, kidney, brain, lung ...) disease shows how little he knows about the virus.
I know which of those organs I would be worried about if I were in his shoes, but I'm happy that I'm not.
If The Atheist didn't have his frequently mentioned problem with reading walls of text, he might have noticed that my counter examples showed that:
1) Far from all places had anything even remotely similar to riots.
2) His spcecific example, Belgium, didn't have much of one: "a few dozen protesters"
And yet, even in the places where no riots occurred, where people by and large didn't object to very sensible mask regulations, health authorities still treated them as if they were draconian and unacceptable after the winter of 2021-22.
The Atheist should look over his own post from May 1! I'm surprised that he has forgotten already because I keep reminding him by using it as the headline of my posts:
The pandemic wasn't over at the time when the media pretended that it was over, which confirmed The Atheist's belief that it was.
That I have been able to search and find several articles about the COVID-19 pandemic despite the media's disinformation (and lack of information) about the pandemic - especially after the virus began to surge again - doesn't contradict the fact that this is something that doesn't exactly figure prominently in the media landscape, which tends to help The Atheist pretend that there is no pandemic, that the virus is just the flu, the sniffles, the common cold, harmless to children and everybody else except people with toe tags, like in the Daily Mail article that he triumphantly presented in the other pandemic thread:
The Atheist read the Daily Mail article and actually believed that it constituted proof that "influenza is a much worse disease" than COVID-19, and that it confirmed his delusional "10:1 odds." And why wouldn't he? It's what he has wanted to believe since 2021-22, i.e. post-vax, and to The Atheist confirmation bias is not a thing to watch out for. It's a thing to embrace and on which to base his entire worldview.
As for praising Eric Topol, The Atheist is confusing me with somebody else. He would know if he paid any attention to the pandemic threads.
The Atheist
The Grammar Tyrant
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- 36,408
You post more words than a Stephen King novel. Finding anything would be a herculean task and I'm not about to bother. One example is plenty.
Lying doesn't help your cause - I've posted that exact information somewhere in among the jillions of posts you make.
When you're beaten, build a strawman. I didn't say riots happened everywhere, or even anything close to that, but they unquestionably happened in many places.
That you're now trying to minimise it by saying "It wasn't very many" is beyond funny.
And it's not even correct, of course, but you won't let that bother you.
Burning in the streets, riot police, water cannons... not a riot.
Pathetic.
Some people will argue the pandemic isn't over in 3...2...1...
We already knew The Atheist can't cope with 'walls of text'.
'I have posted exact information somewhere! Find it yourself!' It would have to be hidden away in between the "jillions of posts" by The Atheist claiming that Long Covid isn't real, so no thanks.
The Atheist's strawman is that I am supposed to have claimed that he said riots happened everywhere. I haven't. His inability to follow an argument is the problem here:
The point of showing that riots didn't happen everywhere was to dismiss his idea that it was somehow the reason why governments lifted all restrictions post-vax. It wasn't.
In general, governments rarely bend to "a bunch of loons" protesting. There were no riots that I know of in any Nordic country, and yet they are currently among the leading nation-state minimizers. As for the New Zealand protest, the protesters were indeed loonies, and yet one of their loony claims has been spread around by minimizers elsewhere, including on ISF:
Now, when was the last time I saw that exquisite piece of misinformation in the ISF threads about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? I'm pretty sure it wasn't in the appropriate thread, Corona Virus Conspiracy Theories.
Pathetic indeed, but in line with The Atheist's attitude to the pandemic and his many false 'milder than the flu' comparisons and wrong predictions of its end since 2022!
We already knew The Atheist can't cope with 'walls of text'.
'I have posted exact information somewhere! Find it yourself!' It would have to be hidden away in between the "jillions of posts" by The Atheist claiming that Long Covid isn't real, so no thanks.
The Atheist's strawman is that I am supposed to have claimed that he said riots happened everywhere. I haven't. His inability to follow an argument is the problem here:
The point of showing that riots didn't happen everywhere was to dismiss his idea that it was somehow the reason why governments lifted all restrictions post-vax. It wasn't.
In general, governments rarely bend to "a bunch of loons" protesting. There were no riots that I know of in any Nordic country, and yet they are currently among the leading nation-state minimizers. As for the New Zealand protest, the protesters were indeed loonies, and yet one of their loony claims has been spread around by minimizers elsewhere, including on ISF:
Now, when was the last time I saw that exquisite piece of misinformation in the ISF threads about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? I'm pretty sure it wasn't in the appropriate thread, Corona Virus Conspiracy Theories.
Pathetic indeed, but in line with The Atheist's attitude to the pandemic and his many false 'milder than the flu' comparisons and wrong predictions of its end since 2022!
The Atheist's tactics
I think that everybody is aware that The Atheist's debating 'tactics' leave much to be desired, and yet I didn't notice the quoting-out-of-context 'tactics' that he used earlier today. I am pretty sure I'm not the only one.
Here is a prime example of his dishonesty and manipulation:
So how did The Atheist use this quotation about no actual riots in Denmark?
This is how:
Yes, he pretends that I have an ESL problem and that I wasn't writing specifically about Denmark when I said that "There were no "actual riots.""
The only actual problem is The Atheist's dishonesty problem
It is impossible to have a serious debate with somebody whose posts are as dishonest and mischievous as The Atheist's manipulative posts are, but what is there to do about it? Lying is allowed on ISF and by being allowed it is also encouraged in people who love to lie.
I think that everybody is aware that The Atheist's debating 'tactics' leave much to be desired, and yet I didn't notice the quoting-out-of-context 'tactics' that he used earlier today. I am pretty sure I'm not the only one.
Here is a prime example of his dishonesty and manipulation:
So how did The Atheist use this quotation about no actual riots in Denmark?
This is how:
Yes, he pretends that I have an ESL problem and that I wasn't writing specifically about Denmark when I said that "There were no "actual riots.""
The only actual problem is The Atheist's dishonesty problem
It is impossible to have a serious debate with somebody whose posts are as dishonest and mischievous as The Atheist's manipulative posts are, but what is there to do about it? Lying is allowed on ISF and by being allowed it is also encouraged in people who love to lie.
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The Atheist
The Grammar Tyrant
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- Jul 3, 2006
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- 36,408
Mate, you're so bad at this it really is fun. Are you sure about that BP? You seem to be awfully worked up.
Look at this:
I certainly never suggested "all places" had riots, so the reason you put it like is purely to mislead.
Perfect strawman.
Lurching from one strawman to another! Classic.
I said nothing about removing restrictions being linked to riots and you know it.
I was pointing out - again, as you well know - that suggesting people take measures against covid in 2024 is past insanity, because people were rioting when there was an absolute need for immediate action at the start of the pandemic.
I'd really like to see what happens if you went out in the actual world and tried to encourage people to wear masks. You wouldn't last 5 minutes, which is why you keep coming in here to try to get others to buy into your covid-phobia.
You'll still be calling it a pandemic in 10 years' time.
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away: XEC variant
It is pretty clear to everybody: The Atheist presents nothing but lies and fabricated 'alternative facts'. When I write:
If only he'd put half as much effort into studying the pandemic, but he appears to lack both the skills and the will to do so.
The Atheist's posts are an unfortunate distraction, but they can easily be ignored.
Meanwhile, in the real world, from a short thread on X about the DeFLuQE and XEC variants:
It is pretty clear to everybody: The Atheist presents nothing but lies and fabricated 'alternative facts'. When I write:
He removes the context, i.e. Denmark:
He then claims that I wrote that there were no riots anywhere, and he builds up his elaborate strawman on that falsification.
If only he'd put half as much effort into studying the pandemic, but he appears to lack both the skills and the will to do so.
The Atheist's posts are an unfortunate distraction, but they can easily be ignored.
Meanwhile, in the real world, from a short thread on X about the DeFLuQE and XEC variants:
With a map of the world with the places where XEC has been found. (Not all countries can be expected to do gene-sequencing and release the results.)
Graph of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States.
Covid Vaccine
Notice that this is about last year's vaccines!
As Jonathan Howardhttps://x.com/19joho/status/1826310541343949269 writes: "Better than nothing, but not good at all. "
Notice that this is about last year's vaccines!
As Jonathan Howardhttps://x.com/19joho/status/1826310541343949269 writes: "Better than nothing, but not good at all. "
Some people will argue the pandemic isn't over in 3...2...1...
Canada:
Why do we have to keep getting COVID? (Globe and Mail, Aug 25, 2024)
Isn't it obvious?
There are several new variants a year with new mutations that make them immune-evasive, so in order to get natural (!) herd immunity by infection, you have to get infected again and again and again ...
I loved my teaching career. COVID normalization stole it from me (Globe and Mail, Aug 23, 2024)
There’s been a summer surge in COVID-19 cases. Should I get a booster shot now or wait until the fall for the new updated COVID vaccine? (Globe and Mail, Aug 18, 2024)
Canada:
Why do we have to keep getting COVID? (Globe and Mail, Aug 25, 2024)
Isn't it obvious?
There are several new variants a year with new mutations that make them immune-evasive, so in order to get natural (!) herd immunity by infection, you have to get infected again and again and again ...
I loved my teaching career. COVID normalization stole it from me (Globe and Mail, Aug 23, 2024)
There’s been a summer surge in COVID-19 cases. Should I get a booster shot now or wait until the fall for the new updated COVID vaccine? (Globe and Mail, Aug 18, 2024)
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away: DNC version
Earlier posts about the DNC super-spreader event: 1,136, 1,137, 1,142.
Other comments:
There are many more posts in the thread, some of them from gloating antivaxxers because he mentioned that he had been vaccinated and boosted:
ETA: See post 1,142:
Earlier posts about the DNC super-spreader event: 1,136, 1,137, 1,142.
With a photo of a positive COVID-19 test.
Other comments:
Well, whatever his job is, at this point he actually is a viral replication factory, and he probably already was a day or two ago.
There are many more posts in the thread, some of them from gloating antivaxxers because he mentioned that he had been vaccinated and boosted:
ETA: See post 1,142:
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Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away: DNC version
New York Post also stumbled on Christopher Wiggins' tweet:
This 'guest' really, really, really shouldn't have been a surprise. And it would have been the same after the RNC - except that they didn't talk about it, wouldn't have tested, would probably call it the sniffles, and the New York Post wouldn't write about it.
The small contingent of progressives and Dr. Lucky Tran happened to be right.
Breitbart and several others also write about the DNC super-spreader event - usually based on the same social-media posts:
The article from the Hill:
This not-at-all-surprising super-spreader event could be a lesson to our resident ISF minimizers:
Even though SARS-CoV-2 is as unpredictable as it is, it is actually still possible to make predictions that turn out to be true.
The predictions just have to be based on pandemic reality instead of denial and wishful thinking!
New York Post also stumbled on Christopher Wiggins' tweet:
This 'guest' really, really, really shouldn't have been a surprise. And it would have been the same after the RNC - except that they didn't talk about it, wouldn't have tested, would probably call it the sniffles, and the New York Post wouldn't write about it.
The small contingent of progressives and Dr. Lucky Tran happened to be right.
Breitbart and several others also write about the DNC super-spreader event - usually based on the same social-media posts:
The article from the Hill:
This not-at-all-surprising super-spreader event could be a lesson to our resident ISF minimizers:
Even though SARS-CoV-2 is as unpredictable as it is, it is actually still possible to make predictions that turn out to be true.
The predictions just have to be based on pandemic reality instead of denial and wishful thinking!
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away: DNC version
The young woman interviewed by CNN turns out to be a nurse!
The young woman interviewed by CNN turns out to be a nurse!