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With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic hopefully waning, it will be time for many to take a step back and assess the collateral damage. And there is , and is going to be , a lot of it.
With two years of overreaction to and media obsession with the myriad of ways that COVID-19 can kill or permanently disable people, there’s reason to believe a major subset of the population that was faithfully adherent to public health edicts about non-pharmaceutical interventions will remain mentally scarred.
Some might not be able to shake themselves out of the nascent germophobia that wasn’t just encouraged, but mandated. Good thing that a manual for post-pandemic germophobia is on the way. But it’s not just me; others are voicing concern as well . The media did a heckuva job scaring the hell out of people, and someone has got to clean up the mess. The Behavioral Immune System Gone Awry
People haven’t become less vulnerable to germophobia after major improvements in sanitation and antimicrobial therapies of the last century. In fact, as death from infectious diseases have become more rare, our fear seems to have increased, and this fear can and has result in a lot of collateral damage, including an unnecessary burden on healthcare facilities.
In 2019, Steven Taylor, author of The Psychology of Pandemics , explained: Fear of an impending pandemic can precede any actual pandemic and may have to be dealt with in addition to managing the pandemic itself. The surge of patients on hospitals can occur even when an outbreak is only a rumor. This happened during the 2009 swine flu pandemic : At a time when there was a heightened public concern about influenza but little disease prevalence in Utah, emergency room departments experienced substantial surges in patient volumes, with the volumes comparable […]
They’re Trying to Shut Us Down
Over the last several months, I’ve lost count of how many times the powers-that-be have tried to shut us down. They’ve sent hackers at us, forcing us to take extreme measures on web security. They sent attorneys after us, but thankfully we’re not easily intimidated by baseless accusations or threats. They’ve even gone so far as to make physical threats. Those can actually be a bit worrisome but Remington has me covered.
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Thank you and God bless!
JD Rucker