What follows is a long essay I wrote almost a year ago, in October 2020, on another platform. I had almost no audience at the time, but many people told me they enjoyed it, and I am happy to provide this edited, shortened and slightly updated version for many new readers.
It may be hard to imagine today, but yes gay bathhouses were forcibly closed by New York City in the 1980s. (https://www.bates.edu/news/2018/03/16/did-the-1980s-closure-of-nycs-bathhouses-strip-dignity-from-gay-men/) And the general public (if not public health authorities) did indeed blame and scold the gay community for the AIDS epidemic, in Georgia where I was growing up. But a more informed history of that time only reinforces your point, as a broad consensus (there's that word!) was formed within the gay community and their allies that victim-blaming was not an effective or ethical response to this or any epidemic.
There were precious few gays who either remembered the lesson from AIDS (and Fauci's disgraceful part in it) and spoke out about the public shaming. Or at least, there was one, I followed him on twitter when I was still on the platform and he had some appropriate things to say about the hysterical finger waggers exchanging photos of normal people at Florida beaches all through the spring and summer of 2020.
But unfortunately most people in the gay community are tightly intertwined with the neoliberal establishment, particularly during and after Trump whom it was supposedly a matter of life and death to disempower. An amazing amount of the gay community is employed or otherwise financially dependent on some arm of the gov/ngo/media establishment. Even so, during the spring as everyone in the US who wanted the vaccine had been able to get it, a movement against lockdowns and even mask wearing started to emerge. People wanted their gay lives back. But this all hinged on an unreasonable belief in the infection-blocking powers of the vaccines, bolstered by statistical lies from the expertocracy. As vaccine reality sets in, these gays don't know what to think. They are either in denial that the vaccines are failing, or they're back to sheltering at home. Either way, they are mostly big fans of vaccine passports because these align with their techno-progressive ideals. It's a fucking nightmare.
Thank you for validating my beliefs of Sars-Cov-2 and Covid, the social construct. My life forever changed thanks to Covid, not Sars-Cov-2. Covid separated me from my beloved partner and kept him from seeking needed medical treatment. I grieve his unnecessary, non Sars-Cov-2 Covid death and will for the rest of my life. I also grieve for others impacted this way, especially children like my 6 year old granddaughter, socially isolated from friends and schoolmates, closed out of parks and other gatherings, now addicted to the screen and her virtual community. I shared this blog on FB and hope it gets read and reshared. The return of common sense is my only hope.
Fantastic piece. Your perspectives are unique and greatly appreciated.
The possibility of reaching a stable equilibrium within the covidian state is depressing. If the bureaucrats manage to temper their zeal just enough to avoid utter rejection of all they've wrought, life in much of the world will be permanently degraded with little hope of relief.
Here's hoping they run this thing into the ground.
Here in Oregon, our governor went on Twitter today to opine: "Get vaccinated and wear a mask." Need anyone say more?
In the year or so before the pandemic, Oregon's Health Authority underwent a turnover in the top ranks. If you had sent to Hollywood Central Casting for people ill-equipped to deal with a weird virus, you would have picked the two who now occupy the top slots. I thought of them frequently as I read the above (utterly brilliant) piece on the construction of the bureaucratic virus.
The head of OHA, one Dr. Allen, graduated from 20 years buried deep in the state's occupational health/licensing bureaucracy. He also doubled as head of a suburban Portland school board; he continued in those duties even during the pandemic's opening salvos.
The state's...and here we encounter a problem, because it is hard to pin down Dr. Sidelinger's exact title and responsibilities as 2d in command (more or less). But he has been called the "state epidemiologist" and "chief medical officer" by our somnolent press...but an "epidemiologist" he is not. Prior to hitting the jackpot (OHA people are the highest-paid state employees), he was a mid-level health bureaucrat in San Diego CA, and had trained as a pediatrician, which makes the OHA/governor's hysteria over masking 2-year-olds even more obscene.
These people bought the China-lockdowns early and are a classical example of making policy to cover their own mistakes, starting with "Flatten the Curve," which promptly, after a few weeks, down the memory-hole. The state has locked-down, opened up, re-locked, masks on, masks off, msks on again. The governor has given no metric for releasing restrictions (OHA mutters about some sort of "R-number"); down in the southern parts of the state, full of wooly forest-dwellers, vax rates are de minimus. Shame on them, says the same governor who wants to mask the allegedly immune. Satraps of the governing Democratic party (they have run the state since the late '80s) are clamping down with mandates! mask regs! N95s for city workers! Vaccines for every college student! Three-foot separation at high schools (if they're open)!
And now the state is back to masking for everyone...outside! Hospitals are crowded (no one talks about the chronic understaffing of medical personnel, many of whom have quit to take "traveling nurse" positions in state's where they can make $4500 and up, per week). It's not too many Covid patients, but too few hospital beds--and no planning whatsoever for a rebound that was clearly happening post-vaccines.
Deaths? The state is fifth from the bottom on that metric, but it is never, ever discussed. It's the "cases," stupid! Those who do die tend to be the usual and the ignored: old, very sick, loaded with pre-existing conditions. OHA actually counted a 101-year-old as a Covid victim. Go figure.
Sorry to go on about our little state's little problem...but it fully supports the thesis of Eugyppus's astonishing, brilliant, incisive article.
Absolutely excellent. Not sure if you would want to go there but may I request an upcoming post from you with advice/ thoughts on what strategies we could use the influence a change of course? If we agree the bureaucratic response is a huge problem then it makes sense for us to talk solutions
Prepare now for unsolicited advice from anonymous internet guy!
I know you've had a yuge spike in readership recently—and I'm sure it will continue to grow. Please don't ever feel pressure to post stacks to "keep up."
I'm sure we're all eager to read more. But your analysis, insights, conclusions and speculations are fully-formed. I don't want to see you pull the bun out of the oven too early ;)
So very eloquent! Just before you posted this piece, a close friend and I pondered “could all of this mess be as simple as perception management?” We agreed that seemed to be the case and your words have served to solidify our position.
I have long ago stepped away from Facebook, Twitter, etc., so thank you for sharing your work on Substack!
A friend shared something , and it led me farther to this.
So very bang on the money.
I am so utterly bewildered , and furious at , some of my many friends , for refusing to see this.
Literally. Refusing.
I could share it with the usual "echo chamber" who already can see it from a mile off , but sadly many are so blinkered , and still spouting that same tired rhetoric of early 2020.
Rarely has an analysis reached such a level of astonishing lucidity as this. I fear that we are headed for far darker times than most wish to consider, and as we navigate these murky paths, the few shining lights such as this remarkable essay are as beacons, demonstrating that not all is yet lost. Thank you for this.
What you anticipate in the third to last paragraph of the update, namely, that the "unvaccinated" (such a horrible term) are being positioned as scapegoats for the missteps and ineptitude of the responses to the epidemic by governments -- and indeed, by the publics at large which stand behind them, is an issue of increasing concern to me. I suspect that this tendency may worsen very considerably (some of these governments, it's not too far-fetched to say, would incite pogroms if they could). More and more important, I think, is action intended to prevent this from happening. On my page here I've drafted a statement of solidarity which might perhaps play a small role in this (see: amsterdamexpatiations.substack.com/p/a-declaration-of-solidarity-draft).
I enjoy your prose; not only is the information pleasing to read, but also how it's presented. I'd like to read your thoughts on what happens if adverse effects from the vax not only continue, but increase in danger in the coming months/years.
Eugyppius, great post. You seem to know your stuff!
There are many things I don't understand about what is being done and I am finding it very difficult to find the answers. One of these is why T-cell reactivity to Sars2 (using your definitions) is not being actively used by anybody.
I have seen a number of papers in the last two years that claim that reactivity to Sars2 has been seen in blood samples taken from donors before the Sars2 epidemic. This fact was used to suggest that there exists some form of cross-immunization with other coronaviruses (SARS or even the common cold) and used as an explanation for the existence of individuals that are immune to Sars2.
After reading the first paper describing these tests, I thought they could be extremely useful to inform people about their degree of existing immunity.
I understand they might not be absolutely accurate, but surely they would be better than doing a PCR or antigen test every week.
Yet nobody seems to be promoting this idea. Do you know why?
Brilliant! Way more intelligent than the dominant conspiracy theories…Question remains though whether somebody or something would have been clever enough to foresee the limitations and overreactions of humankind…and if so…for what cause exactly…30-40 Billions in Pfizer coffin are real but perhaps breadcrumbs as a sole justification. Diagnostic and pharmaceutical establishment is probably only surfing the wave a bigger boat created elsewhere….
I have not yet seen a more complete explanation of our current predicament.
It may be hard to imagine today, but yes gay bathhouses were forcibly closed by New York City in the 1980s. (https://www.bates.edu/news/2018/03/16/did-the-1980s-closure-of-nycs-bathhouses-strip-dignity-from-gay-men/) And the general public (if not public health authorities) did indeed blame and scold the gay community for the AIDS epidemic, in Georgia where I was growing up. But a more informed history of that time only reinforces your point, as a broad consensus (there's that word!) was formed within the gay community and their allies that victim-blaming was not an effective or ethical response to this or any epidemic.
There were precious few gays who either remembered the lesson from AIDS (and Fauci's disgraceful part in it) and spoke out about the public shaming. Or at least, there was one, I followed him on twitter when I was still on the platform and he had some appropriate things to say about the hysterical finger waggers exchanging photos of normal people at Florida beaches all through the spring and summer of 2020.
But unfortunately most people in the gay community are tightly intertwined with the neoliberal establishment, particularly during and after Trump whom it was supposedly a matter of life and death to disempower. An amazing amount of the gay community is employed or otherwise financially dependent on some arm of the gov/ngo/media establishment. Even so, during the spring as everyone in the US who wanted the vaccine had been able to get it, a movement against lockdowns and even mask wearing started to emerge. People wanted their gay lives back. But this all hinged on an unreasonable belief in the infection-blocking powers of the vaccines, bolstered by statistical lies from the expertocracy. As vaccine reality sets in, these gays don't know what to think. They are either in denial that the vaccines are failing, or they're back to sheltering at home. Either way, they are mostly big fans of vaccine passports because these align with their techno-progressive ideals. It's a fucking nightmare.
OK, so who ARE you anyway??? Anyone who writes as well as you deserves public praise. Thank you for this insightful essay.
Thank you for validating my beliefs of Sars-Cov-2 and Covid, the social construct. My life forever changed thanks to Covid, not Sars-Cov-2. Covid separated me from my beloved partner and kept him from seeking needed medical treatment. I grieve his unnecessary, non Sars-Cov-2 Covid death and will for the rest of my life. I also grieve for others impacted this way, especially children like my 6 year old granddaughter, socially isolated from friends and schoolmates, closed out of parks and other gatherings, now addicted to the screen and her virtual community. I shared this blog on FB and hope it gets read and reshared. The return of common sense is my only hope.
Fantastic piece. Your perspectives are unique and greatly appreciated.
The possibility of reaching a stable equilibrium within the covidian state is depressing. If the bureaucrats manage to temper their zeal just enough to avoid utter rejection of all they've wrought, life in much of the world will be permanently degraded with little hope of relief.
Here's hoping they run this thing into the ground.
Here in Oregon, our governor went on Twitter today to opine: "Get vaccinated and wear a mask." Need anyone say more?
In the year or so before the pandemic, Oregon's Health Authority underwent a turnover in the top ranks. If you had sent to Hollywood Central Casting for people ill-equipped to deal with a weird virus, you would have picked the two who now occupy the top slots. I thought of them frequently as I read the above (utterly brilliant) piece on the construction of the bureaucratic virus.
The head of OHA, one Dr. Allen, graduated from 20 years buried deep in the state's occupational health/licensing bureaucracy. He also doubled as head of a suburban Portland school board; he continued in those duties even during the pandemic's opening salvos.
The state's...and here we encounter a problem, because it is hard to pin down Dr. Sidelinger's exact title and responsibilities as 2d in command (more or less). But he has been called the "state epidemiologist" and "chief medical officer" by our somnolent press...but an "epidemiologist" he is not. Prior to hitting the jackpot (OHA people are the highest-paid state employees), he was a mid-level health bureaucrat in San Diego CA, and had trained as a pediatrician, which makes the OHA/governor's hysteria over masking 2-year-olds even more obscene.
These people bought the China-lockdowns early and are a classical example of making policy to cover their own mistakes, starting with "Flatten the Curve," which promptly, after a few weeks, down the memory-hole. The state has locked-down, opened up, re-locked, masks on, masks off, msks on again. The governor has given no metric for releasing restrictions (OHA mutters about some sort of "R-number"); down in the southern parts of the state, full of wooly forest-dwellers, vax rates are de minimus. Shame on them, says the same governor who wants to mask the allegedly immune. Satraps of the governing Democratic party (they have run the state since the late '80s) are clamping down with mandates! mask regs! N95s for city workers! Vaccines for every college student! Three-foot separation at high schools (if they're open)!
And now the state is back to masking for everyone...outside! Hospitals are crowded (no one talks about the chronic understaffing of medical personnel, many of whom have quit to take "traveling nurse" positions in state's where they can make $4500 and up, per week). It's not too many Covid patients, but too few hospital beds--and no planning whatsoever for a rebound that was clearly happening post-vaccines.
Deaths? The state is fifth from the bottom on that metric, but it is never, ever discussed. It's the "cases," stupid! Those who do die tend to be the usual and the ignored: old, very sick, loaded with pre-existing conditions. OHA actually counted a 101-year-old as a Covid victim. Go figure.
Sorry to go on about our little state's little problem...but it fully supports the thesis of Eugyppus's astonishing, brilliant, incisive article.
Absolutely excellent. Not sure if you would want to go there but may I request an upcoming post from you with advice/ thoughts on what strategies we could use the influence a change of course? If we agree the bureaucratic response is a huge problem then it makes sense for us to talk solutions
Absolutely brilliant. Thank you.
Prepare now for unsolicited advice from anonymous internet guy!
I know you've had a yuge spike in readership recently—and I'm sure it will continue to grow. Please don't ever feel pressure to post stacks to "keep up."
I'm sure we're all eager to read more. But your analysis, insights, conclusions and speculations are fully-formed. I don't want to see you pull the bun out of the oven too early ;)
So very eloquent! Just before you posted this piece, a close friend and I pondered “could all of this mess be as simple as perception management?” We agreed that seemed to be the case and your words have served to solidify our position.
I have long ago stepped away from Facebook, Twitter, etc., so thank you for sharing your work on Substack!
Social media can be such a wonderful thing.
A friend shared something , and it led me farther to this.
So very bang on the money.
I am so utterly bewildered , and furious at , some of my many friends , for refusing to see this.
Literally. Refusing.
I could share it with the usual "echo chamber" who already can see it from a mile off , but sadly many are so blinkered , and still spouting that same tired rhetoric of early 2020.
Thank you so much.
Interesting and unique framing and a pleasure to read.You have incredible talent.
Rarely has an analysis reached such a level of astonishing lucidity as this. I fear that we are headed for far darker times than most wish to consider, and as we navigate these murky paths, the few shining lights such as this remarkable essay are as beacons, demonstrating that not all is yet lost. Thank you for this.
Another acute analysis; thank you for it.
What you anticipate in the third to last paragraph of the update, namely, that the "unvaccinated" (such a horrible term) are being positioned as scapegoats for the missteps and ineptitude of the responses to the epidemic by governments -- and indeed, by the publics at large which stand behind them, is an issue of increasing concern to me. I suspect that this tendency may worsen very considerably (some of these governments, it's not too far-fetched to say, would incite pogroms if they could). More and more important, I think, is action intended to prevent this from happening. On my page here I've drafted a statement of solidarity which might perhaps play a small role in this (see: amsterdamexpatiations.substack.com/p/a-declaration-of-solidarity-draft).
I enjoy your prose; not only is the information pleasing to read, but also how it's presented. I'd like to read your thoughts on what happens if adverse effects from the vax not only continue, but increase in danger in the coming months/years.
Eugyppius, great post. You seem to know your stuff!
There are many things I don't understand about what is being done and I am finding it very difficult to find the answers. One of these is why T-cell reactivity to Sars2 (using your definitions) is not being actively used by anybody.
I have seen a number of papers in the last two years that claim that reactivity to Sars2 has been seen in blood samples taken from donors before the Sars2 epidemic. This fact was used to suggest that there exists some form of cross-immunization with other coronaviruses (SARS or even the common cold) and used as an explanation for the existence of individuals that are immune to Sars2.
After reading the first paper describing these tests, I thought they could be extremely useful to inform people about their degree of existing immunity.
I understand they might not be absolutely accurate, but surely they would be better than doing a PCR or antigen test every week.
Yet nobody seems to be promoting this idea. Do you know why?
Brilliant! Way more intelligent than the dominant conspiracy theories…Question remains though whether somebody or something would have been clever enough to foresee the limitations and overreactions of humankind…and if so…for what cause exactly…30-40 Billions in Pfizer coffin are real but perhaps breadcrumbs as a sole justification. Diagnostic and pharmaceutical establishment is probably only surfing the wave a bigger boat created elsewhere….