The boy who cried "variant"
The fear dial is being cranked up to 11, and hopefully now more people will begin to ask essential questions
This is the story we are being sold: A “horrific” Covid variant, Omicron, is about to ravage the world without any evidence of increased deaths, hospitalizations, or symptoms.
It could render our vaccines irrelevant, without any evidence to say so.
Since media coverage of Omicron is so far based on wild guesses and vague impressions about what might unfold, why not guess and imply in the other direction as well — that Omicron might have devolved into less sinister variant?
After all, the variant was first discovered by happenstance during routine testing of healthy, vaccinated travelers. Why the rush to hit the Panic button?
Coronaviruses, and other viruses that cause colds and flus, mutate themselves out of virtual existence, becoming endemic and nothing to much to worry about. We learn this in high school biology. Wise researchers who are watching for these signs as Covid evolves are never featured in these stories about breaking variants.
You can dig up “evidence” to support either position. You could say that Delta was worse than the previous variants, so what’s to stop Omicron from becoming a global nightmare? Or you could say that Delta peaked 10 months ago and a “comeback” of a worse variant this late in the pandemic is unlikely. Both are speculation. Neither perspective is based on any known fact, yet one is being painted as our present reality.
The variant was first analyzed in South Africa, so naturally that country’s national medical authorities would be the ones you’d turn to for expert guidance. This is from the South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases:
Currently no unusual symptoms have been reported following infection with the B.1.1.529 variant and as with other variants some individuals are asymptomatic… it is likely that vaccines will still offer high levels of protection against hospitalisation and death.
Reading this morning’s headlines, we are all being fed the impression that people are dropping like flies all across Africa. This has not been happening.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, any positive discovery or reason for hope has been ignored or squelched, unless it involves intervention from a pharmaceutical company. The default mode of our media, government and corporate establishment is one of fear.
As usual, I don’t expect the media or governments to generally be interested in whether Covid is devolving, or whether Omicron actually increases hospitalizations and deaths. For the media, fear sells. For governments, fear solidifies power — nothing like a national crisis to look “decisive and commanding,” executing power for the sake of power. For the public, fear provides catharsis — there’s sure to be more blame of the unvaccinated for Omicron, no matter how much logic must be twisted.
Think about this more deeply, and there are greater questions under the surface. For instance, if travel screening had not been happening at all, would this variant have ever been detected, and would it matter? Nobody saw evidence of Omicron’s existence. Scientists weren’t out there looking for the cause of an existing problem.
Here we have the tail wagging the dog. Our medical and governmental institutions went out searching for a cause before any problem was found to exist.
Facts and science no longer matter in this kind of environment. If Omicron is a freak of nature — a virus that has evolved upward to kill its hosts with greater efficiency — then this will not be a case of the “media getting the story right early.” It will be a coincidence. We’re getting a lot of scary-sounding data about an “unusual constellation of mutations” that looks “horrific.” Nothing concrete to actually fear.
Every story so far sounds like some kind of PR spin — a collection of statements meant to create a feeling that we are being given hard facts — a “ring of truth.” I expect that there will be no rise in hospitalizations. There will, however, be increased testing, and a rise in “cases” without being told what that means in terms of health impacts. We will see more restrictions for the unvaccinated, a greater perception of hospitalizations, more countries resorting to the Austria/Australia methods of police crackdowns, quarantine roundups, and lockdowns for those who don’t get their boosters — something more vaccinated people are saying they will refuse.
And all this will further legitimize mandates, vax passports, and police brutality toward protesters. Critics of such measures are more likely to be unpersoned— “because Omicron.”
Just a prediction based on an observed trend over the past two years. At least I state my bias. Unlike the coverage that’s flooding the corporate news at the moment.
The boy who cried "variant"
I appreciate your more direct criticisms of the media and their constant fear mongering. I just wrote a piece and even though I have much to say I feel like my language still ends up very benign.
It is an interesting thought. If we never checked for COVID would we know it was going on? For the first strain I don't think so since the signal from the uniqueness of the virus is likely to not be masked by flus or colds. However, as it becomes less virulent would we really know if there is concern if all of this ends up being mild?
The real question here is whether or not the media actually know anything about what they report. It seems like all COVID coverage exists on an entirely superficial level. There's no surprise people panic when they have not been given the ability to learn and keep up with the information we are being presented with!