Tuesday, December 28, 2021

500 million Kits n’ all.


COVID Testing kit
 

 500 million Testing Kits, and still weeks away, but on the way!

 

In this acrimonious world where even a humorous remark is deemed an aggression and slammed by the technological fact-checking wizards with ideological bent in an instant, we the people are being forced to tread softly, lest we awaken the fictitious fire-breathing dragon that snores quietly in its lair.

 

But a minor question arose that piqued the neurons: Why are we gung-ho in the “Testing” mode? After all the Omicron has swept the globe and the 50 states of this Union without much ado. And to boot, it is a milder version but enforces a natural immunity against almost all the preexisting variants, based on the South African data. On the other side of the spectrum is Israel recommending a fourth vaccine booster against the Omicron. The logic always escapes the confines of rigid thought.

 

In a circumstance such as this what will further testing accomplish? Will it ward off the evil virus?

 

Extensive Testing is needed in the early phase of a viral illness which can prevent spread and additionally help in Contact-Tracing of all the contacts who may then quarantine for a specified period and prevent the onward march of the virus. But that train is long past the station.

 

How do unstandardized home-testing-kits with a significant false negative/false positive potential benefit the people, even it is a virtue signaled as for the “public good?” Will it further the chaotic environment of insecurity and fear?

 

Perhaps, and giving the devil its due, the home testing kits will help people who test positive to stay home. That is a laudable concern. Just as if you feel sick, tired, fatigued, with the sniffles you perhaps want to stay home and avoid the crowds for further spreading the viral genome. That is all good. Makes us feel good that Daddy is keeping us safe and secure in our homes by providing us with expensive tools instead of spending time in educating the need for such.

 

“But daddy,” asks the little 5-year-old, “that makes me nervous for going out.”

“Why son?” asks the tall, towering father.

“Because, daddy, now I feel that before I can step out of the house without testing, I might spread it to my friend, Jill. And I don’t want to do that.”

“Well son, that is very noble of you. Just for that measure, we have ordered a thousand kits and we can test anytime we want.” The father pats his son on the head.

“But daddy, Jill’s parents live in a small home, and they only have three kits. She can only test once. What happens when Jill uses the one and does not have any kits left?”

“Then son, she will have to stay home, or she might spread the virus to others with negative test.”

“But daddy, that is so unfair!” The boy raises his tinny voice in exasperation.

“We all have to follow the rules.” The father admonishes.

“I am going to give Jill some of my test kits then.” The boy murmurs to himself.

“You will do no such thing. Do you know how many favors I had to give to get these for our family so we can live our lives freely?” The father uses his deep baritone voice for effect.

“But what about my friend Jill?”

“Jill is not my concern. You are.”

And thus, for the unconnected, those living paycheck-to-paycheck, and the poor, the disinterested get the call of “take this and shut up. You get what you get.”

 

Again, the prickly question comes to mind, where are we going with this “Testing?” and when is it all going to end? Apparently, the CDC is withdrawing the Emergency Use Authorization for its PCR test. Perhaps that is because of the many inscrutable uses of thermal cycle thresholds to create false positives or perhaps the public awareness of it all is coming to the fore? Who knows?

 

The two-year-old story is finding itself becoming unglued with unresolved threads that don’t artfully coil together perfectly in a braid. The readers are apprehensive and unsettled, because the flip-flop, word-salad continues to dominate the airwaves and the digital markets, enhancing confusion and chaos. 

 

The world is waking up, albeit slowly, and realizing that they, in a matter of two years have lost the comforts of their liberties and their freedoms. The peoples are rising to question the motives of the men and women behind the opaque curtain. 

 

Meanwhile the proponents of such restrictive provisions are quietly admitting some layer of guilt. For instance, New Jersey quietly pays $53 million to the families of the victims of the nursing home residents. And the New York Governor resigns in shame over extraneous reasons, but similar dark circumstances cloud his legacy. They created an untimely frost which stole away rightful lives. And hush money makes for a good legacy, perhaps?

 

And back to “Testing” again. What do we hope to accomplish with the testing? Fear? Or Contact Tracing? Or perhaps telling people who are positive to stay home? If the former two are the reasons they will fail miserably as the rest of the charade has fallen on hard times. If the latter, then perhaps a simpler inexpensive version might be to educate people to just stay home with sniffles.

 

In the end, someone with the tax-payer purse must realize that throwing money at a pandemic is not the answer. These nested finitudes of virtue signals matter most to those in charge and not those mentally imprisoned by the chaos.  The answer lies not with the Mandates, the vaccine passports, the Lockdowns, and shutdowns, the social distancing, the masking, the  school closures, the compulsory COVID interventions, and the Political/Media overreach with Fear mongering. But there is not much mention about the Natural immunity. The Policy mandates have claimed many young and old lives through suicide and depression and job losses and broken families. Any rational person would condemn such a travesty. We hope there are a few rational people still in existence.  

 

These questions need to be answered. And the answers lie not in the vast burden of crafted narrative on the backs of the good will of the people, but it will come surely from the careful chiseling away at that piece of opaque marble into a statue to remind us of this debacle. Our lives are optimally programmed and not needing the manipulation by wrong-headed tinkerers. The society remains unmoored and focused on the narrowed vision instead of the elemental fundamentals of a broad future. It, the society is being guided today by some pathetic counterfeits who keep throwing these sugar-covered pills promising the rapture of safety and security, while the vast overlay of reality stares back in disbelief.

 

These questions may not be answered, because the power inebriated are dancing in a drunken vicious stupor of circular argument: “We know best.” 

 

They Don’t! 

 

Besides any argument or question is considered anti-science by the bureaucratic policy makers. And they know the harm they are doing to the society of humans, daily.

 

What we as humans, in our conquests for a better future, do is in the unmistakable deliberation with reason. Our future becomes our present and then unfolds itself out in our memories. Let us not look back at our own inactions in dismay, cowered by this overhang of fear and cowardice, but boldly strike at the underbelly of that fear and slay that beast within. And then live our lives in the pursuit of happiness!