There is a dangerous, yet predictable, narrative spreading about COVID-19 that too many people are believing, even though the facts do not support it.
It goes something like this:
Extreme social distancing measures saved millions of people, and we must continue to police ourselves until a vaccine comes along- which is our only hope for returning back to a normal life.
Few question this narrative, and politicians are only blamed for under-reacting, while given a green light and all of our blessings to continue to over-react. After all, we have a diagram of a curve, simple to understand animations that explain the benefits of staying home, documentaries on pandemics airing at all times on major news networks, and anecdotal cases being sensationalized by the media like never before. The only thing missing is a virus dangerous enough to merit this attention.12345
But then again, who needs to understand the actual data and all the variables when we are so beautifully united in fighting against the most dangerous pandemic of our lives? Any attempt at discussing the facts and details is not tolerated, and regarded as dangerous negligence. The call to action is for you to fall in line, don’t ask questions, and know that you are saving lives.
One specialist in internal medicine summarized the world’s response to COVID-19 with a simple joke about tigers: “Why do you blow the horn?” “To keep the tigers away.” “But there are no tigers here.” “There you see!”
Meanwhile our current draconian measures are creating more mental illness, increasing gun sales, destroying small businesses, ruining our social systems to a level that may take years to repair, and failing to serve and protect our most vulnerable and at risk population.
And when we get over this plague sooner than expected, we will surely give credit to our brave decision makers who made the hard choices. But I wonder: will we ask for our rights back? Will we allow this non evidence-based narrative to go down in the history books as fact? Will we allow vaccine manufacturers, known to influence CDC and WHO decisions, to force a mandatory vaccination program upon us?
We are the victims of mass panic, and if we don’t develop some critical thinking skills we will continue to experience something much worse than this virus. And for those who suggest that the fear mongering is justified because the public needs to be frightened to act- I do not agree. In fact, I base my career on “people need to be properly informed to act”. Accurate data and informed consent cannot be a thing of the past.
Marc Jaoudé
Naturopath, Health Educator
Nutrition & Exercise Specialist
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