In a sane world, many of the above things would not be related, but yet, here we are.
In March of 2020 in North America, a Virus was running rampant. It caused the government to impose lockdowns to prevent the rapid spread of the disease so the healthcare system did not get overburdened. In Europe, these lockdowns started earlier, in February, and in China in January. A global pandemic.
Over 4 and a half million people have died from the virus so far, and nearly 1/3 of those infected have reported suffering long term effects from the virus, even after it is no longer in their system. As of the time of this writing, 226.2 million people globally have been confirmed to have contracted Covid-19.
Governments around the world started to act, quickly. They imposed lockdowns. Mandated wearing of masks, once they realized their effectiveness, and started funding research on a vaccine. A vaccine that was built off the previous groundwork done on the SARS vaccine a decade ago. A vaccine that was never finished because SARS had mutated into a less virulent and less threatening strain.
But, there was more happening in the world than just a virus. Many had become frustrated with their governments and there was a large misinformation campaign going around demonizing certain politicians, calling them pedophiles and child traffickers, amongst other things. When the virus came along, those spreading this misinformation used the virus as another tool. They claimed the virus was a hoax, not real, despite the number of deaths.
Many believers of these conspiracy theories refused to follow public health guidelines. They refused to wear masks. Ignored lockdowns and continued to gather, and started demonizing the health professionals who were working to end this virus. But people were dying. People were getting sick, and being hospitalized. Hospitals were being overwhelmed, and many had started canceling elective surgeries. In some areas, doctors were being forced to make decisions on who to treat, and who to let die.
Despite the misinformation about it being a hoax, fear began to spread, but those with an agenda to “fight the establishment” had more tricks up their sleeves. The virus, they claimed, was not only not real, but it was part of a global conspiracy to strip away your rights, to make people compliant and to follow orders. To make them like sheep. People started looking for ways to fight the virus. A western nation leader suggested injecting bleach to fight the virus, as bleach was found to effective at killing it on surfaces. Suddenly calls to poison control centres surged. Another drug was touted as a cure for the virus, chloroquine. While it’s effectiveness against the virus is now considered to be nothing but hyperbole, at the time, many still believed in its effectiveness. An elderly man, not able to get a prescription for the anti-malarial drug, died after ingesting aquarium tank cleaner, which had chloroquine phosphate in it. His wife was hospitalized for the same reason.
Fear had caused this man to do this. Afraid of dying from a virus, this man listened to politicians instead of health professionals, and when not able to get a prescription, found a different product with a similar name and drank it. All the while, people who support that politician, and that ideology, called everyone else ‘sheeple’ for what they say is ‘blindly following the government.’ They accused those who supported the health measures of living in fear, of allowing the government to control them. Of participating in the government’s attempt at global tyranny.
The group accusing those taking precautions against a deadly virus of living in fear, but they were the ones who were afraid. Whether it was from the virus, or some fictitious tyranny, or perhaps the feeling that the world had changed and they did not know how to deal with it. But they were afraid. Afraid enough to consider injecting bleach or drinking fish tank cleaner. Afraid enough to storm the capitol building of a nation to stop the certification of an election.
The saying goes, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. Over a year after the aquarium cleaner incident, there is another drug that has been touted as an effective treatment for Covid-19. This, unlike the last time, comes after an effective vaccine has been made available, and free to all. This drug is an anti-parasitic medication called Ivermectin. It is effective as a way to control parasites, such as worms. It is a prescription medication, but it has not been shown to be effective against the virus. So instead of taking a proven vaccine, people have started to get Ivermectin from other sources. In this case, from a veterinary grade medication meant for horses and (ironically) sheep. And they are taking it. Many have started to loose the internal protective lining of their intestines, some are going blind.
The rest of the world is pleading with them to listen to the specialists, but they dig in deeper. ‘The specialists are in the tyranny, they are trying to control us. They want to take away our rights. They want to dominate us.’ As if every nation in the world could agree on anything, much less global domination. Now, we look forward to an unknown period of time, as we try to fight a virulent virus, deal with a portion of the population that is so afraid of not having control, that they will spread the virus further and longer, while blaming everyone else for that exact same thing.
