Earlier in Biden's term it was clear they were trying to take care of our people. Jill went to Tennessee, they talked about vaccines a lot... And at the time it seemed like there was enough counterpressurs by the bad faith actors willing to spread bad science and misinformation, plus Trump's legacy of politicizing it to the point that far too many people take their identity from minimizing the risks...
And then the CDC reduced quarantine times. And they've changed how they measure things...
And so everyone is acting as though covid is over even as I'm hearing concerning news about hepatitis like illnesses in children (that may or may not be due to covid) and long covid, which we're still learning the effects of, and people are catching it multiple times when each time is a dice roll on what sort of side effects you might get..
But whatever. People are exhausted and want to move on, I get that. It's just that someone today was talking about how covid is becoming - ugh, I can't remember the technical term, but basically that it's becoming a disease that specifically impacts certain classes more than others.
Rich people, if they're smart, have gotten the vaccine and boosters... Plus have access to all those new treatments that help reduce the dangers. Like Trump taking that experimental antibody treatment.
Whereas people in some nations can't even get one vaccine... But even the ones who can (like most people here in the US,if they're able to get to a vaccination site) are often in jobs that force them to interact with people. Which increases the risks of breakthrough cases, naturally.
People like me are privileged enough to be able to work from home, but many others can't.
And then when you add an unwillingness to improve ventilation and aggressive attempts to get people to stop wearing masks, the only method of protection is to vaccinate, or hope you built up enough immunity from previous exposure.
Which we all know doesn't fully protect people.
I hear people mutter about why and how it ended up like this. The whole system seems rotten... As though 'the economy' is more important than people's lives (makes me think of the whole 'the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath thing. Except substitute the economy for the sabbath. Like.. What's the point of having a great economy - by some measures. The benefits are so uneven I hate to truly call it great - if it's not benefiting man at large?)
Its rotten, it sucks, and yet we go in and on with this crappy system with f-ed up priorities.
That's all just backstory though. Because it naturally leads to beliefs that, while I understand the appeal, I'm not sure have enough evidence to really say is true.
And this is for more than just the covid example I gave.
Like the idea that all of this is a deliberate goal that 'they' pursued. Eugenics, essentially. Like that evil sounding British prince dude who died, and supposedly wanted to come back as a virus and kill a lot of people. It's this notion that letting a disease like covid rip through the population ultimately is a good thing, because it kills off the dead weight. (it's a shitty idea when you look at it closely, and maybe I'll do a follow up on how it's also extremely stupid and not at all reality based, but I don't want to digress right now).
This idea that some poorly defined 'they' deliberately and maliciously use their power to create policies that make the rest of us suffer.
Covid is just one example.
Inflation is another. That companies rake in record profits while refusing to raise wages (or raise wages, but raise prices even faster... So your wage increase still amounts to a pay cut). Or even that it's deliberately done to make Biden look bad, as a political ploy.. Because the Trump supporting assholes care more about regaining power than they do about regular people.
Or climate change.. That the people in power now know its real. But they'd rather rake in profits and use their resources to find ways to survive what's coming than actually make the systemic changes required to avert that and build something sustainable.
Guess they'd rather just let the world burn. (Just another iteration of 'I got mine, how you do?) Tough luck to people living in the areas that are going to be affected the most. Too bad Pakistan and India are dealing with an insane heat wave right now.. Can't report that in the news, or use it to build support for real change.
Also see the insane housing prices, plus rent costs, and how large a percentage of people's income is required to pay for someplace to live.
Plus the recent baby formula fiasco, which highlights how little competition we truly have in the marketplace.
I don't actually know how much is deliberate maliciousness. It could also be incompetence.. Or even just the logic of social dilemmas. They don't believe things can be better, or that there's enough support for the type of change required, so they'll just get what they can while the getting is good. (too bad about all the other people who aren't so lucky... But what can you do?)
Whether there really is some evil group of powerful people deliberately creating these situations, or whether it's systemic issues that nobody really seems to be able to change...
I don't know. I don't know near enough about the factors in play.
I just know that it's unsustainable, and pretty rotten, and things can't last like this.
I just hope we transition to something better, and that we do so as painlessly as possible.
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