Up to now, a lot of us in the reality-based community have focused on the crimes perpetrated against the young, who have had everything that makes life fulfilling yanked away from them, and a socially distanced dystopia put in its place.
But:
Older -- and indeed the very oldest -- folks are suffering, too.
We're all certain that the most humane course of action is to require people who -- if the average lifespan after being admitted to a nursing home is any indication -- are in the final months of life to interact with their families only over Zoom, and be devoid of human contact?
Yes, they are biologically alive. I get it.
I could spend my whole life biologically alive in a windowless room with no art or music and with bland food slipped through a slot in the door.
But I would be a cow, not a human being.
Worse than a cow, really, because at least a cow gets fresh air.
Earlier this week someone in my private group
One such person wrote:
"I think I've hit rock bottom today. I passed the nail salon and technician that did my loved one's nails. I stopped and told her I haven't touched my lady in six months and the tears just start pouring.... How much longer can I do this? It's grieving every single day."
Then another:
"Tonight's window visit. She asks if church is filling up again. I tell her it is. She asked if she can get a pass to go out for church.
"I look at her. I cannot lie to her. I tell her, 'If you go out, when you come back you have to stay in your room by yourself all day and all night for 14 days.' She looks at me waiting, wondering. I tell her, 'Just in case you might have caught the virus.'
"There are no words for the look of disgust on her face. She cannot believe what is being forced on her.
"No one, absolutely no one, not even those caring for her, are subject to such isolation or lockdown. This is criminal. It's elder abuse. It's been six months since she stepped outside. I wonder if she even remembers how to get in the car."
And then she says to Texas governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission:
"OPEN THESE FACILITIES. YOU ARE STEALING PEOPLE'S LIVES. THE LAST BIT OF THEIR LIFE!"
Now:
I can share all kinds of charts with you.
I can chart Peru (with a harsh lockdown) against Brazil (with no lockdown), and you will not be able to tell which is which (except I'll give you a hint that Peru is the one with worse results).
I'll show you American states, and you try to figure out, based on the results, which ones locked down and which didn't, which locked down the hardest, which ones opened and when they opened, and you won't be able to make any consistent sense out of any of it.
I can show you over and over again that the lockdown regime is based on pure pseudoscience.
I can point out the collateral deaths caused by the lockdowns -- the 1.4 million excess deaths from TB, the 500,000 from HIV, and the 385,000 from malaria that will result from them, as even the New York Times admits.
Not to mention:
UNICEF predicted 1.2 million dead children (it would take COVID a zillion years to match that many child deaths), and the UN said between 42 and 66 million children would be reduced to "extreme poverty." And the Well Being Trust and the Robert Graham Center have predicted 75,000 "deaths of despair" in the U.S. alone.
But:
At this point screw all that. The response is inhumane, period.
Let people make their own decisions about their own lives.
Now there's a radical idea.
But:
Older -- and indeed the very oldest -- folks are suffering, too.
We're all certain that the most humane course of action is to require people who -- if the average lifespan after being admitted to a nursing home is any indication -- are in the final months of life to interact with their families only over Zoom, and be devoid of human contact?
Yes, they are biologically alive. I get it.
I could spend my whole life biologically alive in a windowless room with no art or music and with bland food slipped through a slot in the door.
But I would be a cow, not a human being.
Worse than a cow, really, because at least a cow gets fresh air.
Earlier this week someone in my private group
shared (with the names removed) a couple of quite typical comments from a support group for people whose loved ones have been locked in nursing homes for the past six months.
One such person wrote:
"I think I've hit rock bottom today. I passed the nail salon and technician that did my loved one's nails. I stopped and told her I haven't touched my lady in six months and the tears just start pouring.... How much longer can I do this? It's grieving every single day."
Then another:
"Tonight's window visit. She asks if church is filling up again. I tell her it is. She asked if she can get a pass to go out for church.
"I look at her. I cannot lie to her. I tell her, 'If you go out, when you come back you have to stay in your room by yourself all day and all night for 14 days.' She looks at me waiting, wondering. I tell her, 'Just in case you might have caught the virus.'
"There are no words for the look of disgust on her face. She cannot believe what is being forced on her.
"No one, absolutely no one, not even those caring for her, are subject to such isolation or lockdown. This is criminal. It's elder abuse. It's been six months since she stepped outside. I wonder if she even remembers how to get in the car."
And then she says to Texas governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission:
"OPEN THESE FACILITIES. YOU ARE STEALING PEOPLE'S LIVES. THE LAST BIT OF THEIR LIFE!"
Now:
I can share all kinds of charts with you.
I can chart Peru (with a harsh lockdown) against Brazil (with no lockdown), and you will not be able to tell which is which (except I'll give you a hint that Peru is the one with worse results).
I'll show you American states, and you try to figure out, based on the results, which ones locked down and which didn't, which locked down the hardest, which ones opened and when they opened, and you won't be able to make any consistent sense out of any of it.
I can show you over and over again that the lockdown regime is based on pure pseudoscience.
I can point out the collateral deaths caused by the lockdowns -- the 1.4 million excess deaths from TB, the 500,000 from HIV, and the 385,000 from malaria that will result from them, as even the New York Times admits.
Not to mention:
UNICEF predicted 1.2 million dead children (it would take COVID a zillion years to match that many child deaths), and the UN said between 42 and 66 million children would be reduced to "extreme poverty." And the Well Being Trust and the Robert Graham Center have predicted 75,000 "deaths of despair" in the U.S. alone.
But:
At this point screw all that. The response is inhumane, period.
Let people make their own decisions about their own lives.
Now there's a radical idea.
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