"Everyone is infected. Whether you're bitten or scratched by a walker or not, you will become a zombie once you die"
That’s what the last doctor alive at the CDC during the zombie apocalypse whispered into Rick Grimes’ ear right before he blew up the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters in the first season of the Walking Dead. Rick was surprised to hear that, given that his little tribe firmly believed the opposite—that you only became a zombie if you were bitten by another zombie. They had come to CDC for answers, but that wasn't what they thought they would hear.
Rick decided to keep that secret to himself rather than tell his people, believing that if they heard that there: a) was no cure for the zombie toxin threatening the human race and b) that everybody left alive already had it anyway, they would lose hope and disintegrate as a group. Reasonable minds can differ over whether that was the right decision.
When (13 episodes later) Rick was forced by circumstance to reveal what Dr. Jenner had told him, the members of his tribe were understandably irate. He may have had his reasons (and, in Rick’s mind, they may have been noble), but his followers didn’t believe that Rick had the right to keep that truth from them.
I think I would have been with them. Personally, I’d rather have known the truth, even if it was hard to take.
Now, I’m not trying to advance a conspiracy theory or even question the integrity of the CDC, but I am starting to wonder if we are having a life-imitating-art moment with COVID now
Whenever a government agency starts contradicting itself with overly-complex explanations my assumption is that it is trying to avoid revealing a simple but difficult truth, and the CDC has been contradicting the heck out of itself lately. Maybe, just maybe, the doctors are loath to publicly disclose the Walking Dead-ish truth that we are all going to be infected eventually, whether we get COVID by natural transmission or through vaccination—we are all going to get it.
If true, I can see why the CDC would do this. There a lot of people out there who are very afraid of catching COVID. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of people who are very afraid of the COVID vaccination. Put those two groups together (and adjust for the group of people that are afraid both of catching it and the vaccine) and you have a lot of people who be terrified to learn that eventually we are all going to get COVID one way or the other—that it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when—and there is nothing anybody can do about that. Which would mean that we'd be better off focusing our resources on preparing for getting it rather than trying to control its spread.
Assuming that’s true (and I personally believe that it probably is), the CDC’s decision not to reveal it directly (and just try to confuse us instead) is likely the result of a well meant desire to avoid making things worse for the fearful. Like Dr. Jenner, it may have whispered the hard truth into the ears of the Ricks of our tribe and left it to them to decide when to tell the rest of us. And, at least so far, our Ricks haven’t done so.
I understand that impulse and reasonable minds may differ, but personally, I’d rather know the truth, no matter how hard it is to take.
Along the lines of possible hard truths about Covid - a doctor shared this article with me earlier in the year. It is one of the best researched pieces of journalism I’ve read recently, perhaps because it is a periodical. The origin is an important piece of the puzzle and this would explain a lot.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html
My entire family had it(end of April and beginning of May), including me. We run the gamut of pre-existing conditions. Diabetes, over-weight, pregnant, 90 yrs old, male, female, prone to clotting (x2 members), compromised immune system. Total number of people I know that have had it: 14. Total number of people that recovered fully: 14. I didn't miss work. I went to bed on a Friday, early and basically slept through Monday morning. My sense of smell is still compromised; however, no other lasting issues.
We have anti-bodies. Why would we need a Vax?
It would help if the CDC and FDA didn't surpress alternative treatments! There is no justifiable reason for that!
As a physician, I believe this is the truth. The problem is the longer it takes the more variants arise.
The people getting admitted to hospitals are those that are unvaccinated.
Fear is a motivator. Without fear power is diminished. The truth sets one free and potentially justified clarity to the apposing viewpoint. Power may not want the freedom that comes from truth. And or power may not know the truth therefore acknowledging their power is futile.