Corona-zona: The Year in Pandemic


I've been doing this blog for just about a year now. The first regular post was January 6, 2021. I'll reflect on that in a few days. Meanwhile, what kind of a media outlet would this be if I didn't do a year-in-review post?

Looking back over the year's posts, it's amazing how much has been going on, and how much there potentially is to review. I can't spend all day on a detailed summary.  So I will try to focus on a bird's eye view.

Vaccines & Anti-Vaxxers

Vaccines have to be the biggest topic on this blog over the past year. Vaccines were very hard to get this time last year. A lot of people wanted them and the distribution was just getting started. 

People had to navigate really crappy systems, like one in Arizona, to make reservations. There were "vaccine tourists" who would travel from other states and even countries in an effort to get jabbed.  

Then, around March last year, those who wanted the shots had largely gotten them, and increases in percentage vaccinated began to wane. Now government officials are pleading with the unvaccinated to get their shots.

This is in no small part because of the efforts of anti-vaxxers, about whom I've written a lot. These turds in the punchbowl spread disinformation about vaccines based on political and/or profit motives. 

They also continue to die in droves. They are stressing our healthcare system, to which they have equal access despite their stubborn and irrational refusal to accept the science and prevent this. Instead they take horse medicine and gargle with iodine, and count on antibody treatments to bail them out.

Masks and Anti-Maskers

A year ago, we were being told that the main way COVID-19 spreads is through contact with droplets containing the virus, so-called "fomites," that would land on us or land in surfaces where we'd transfer them to our eyes/node/mouth by touch. We were told to wash our hands all the time or clean them with alcohol sanitizer. Remember how hard sanitizer was to get a year ago?

We were told it might be a good idea to wear masks too in certain circumstances, but hand washing was the main defense. By May of last year, after a lot of cajoling by researchers, the federal government finally recognized that COVID-19 is an airborne disease spread by aerosols. That means masking, not hand washing, is the first line of defense against the disease.

I've written a lot about masks in this blog. Including how to make cheap ones work better, and how to avoid counterfeit and substandard ones. I've also written a lot about their effectiveness, proven in study after study.

Sadly, facts mean nothing to the siblings of ant-vaxxers, anti-maskers. These COVIDiots have published specious arguments claiming masks really don't work. They've held mask burnings. They've gone around to school board, and government meetings ranting like toddlers about violation of their "freedom," blah, blah.

Politics

Another big story of the past year is pandemic politics. Both anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are part of an unfortunate development wherein conservatives have politicized things that should be simple and straightforward public health measures. 

In order to pander to the base of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers they helped create, they make truly reprehensible efforts to outlaw measures to mitigate the virus. Chief offenders I've written about are Governor Ron "Florida Man" DeSantis, Texas Governor Andrew Abbott, and our Arizona Governor Doug Ducey.

Speaking of Arizona, we have not had a good pandemic year, in no small part due to the efforts of our COVIDiot governor. We've had a disappointing vaccination uptake, making COVID-19 the leading cause of death in the state, and putting us second behind Michigan in deaths per capita.

Companies Being Evil

Two companies deserve special contempt for their roles in helping spread and finance pandemic disinformation.  The one I've written the most about is Facebook. Whenever the heat goes up on disinformation being spread on their platform, they promise to crack down, but never do. They have done this three or four times now.

A close runner-up is Amazon. I recently learned that they actually finance anti-vaxxers through monetary donations. They also sell their books and give them kickbacks on products they recommend.

Shortages

I can't end without noting another major theme of the last year: Shortages. I will never forget my local grocery store looking like a scene from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The pandemic royally fouled up our just-in-time supply chains.

Besides toilet paper and foodstuffs, we have seen shortages of auto chips, garden gnomes, ketchup packets, orgies, and workers.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my readers. Let's hope this one will be better than the last one!

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