THE PACE OF FEAR

 The Pace of Fear

 

The pace of our fears quickens with every breath. The volume of information doubles each day. The call for isolation is louder every hour. The demand to mask your thoughts is ripe for the taking. The need for isolation from others is great but gravely reticent and embellished as euphemisms in every written word in yesterday’s newspaper: floating on the winds of this change. The Mountains of graphics propound the end of the world. The world is ending. Indeed, the world we knew is being forced out of our minds and into darkness. That world, where the joy of living, communicating, happiness, liberty, and freedom to discuss was the norm, seems eerily fogged into a distant memory, receding as it does by the hour. A vague memory.

 

Now all is sad. All is a waiting room before the final hour of life. Step out of the confines established and in place and you flirt with the grim reaper. Not only that, you flirt with the idea of causing the death of another. How dare you? Speak not your thoughts for they can anger another. How dare you? Write not your desire to wrench another’s. How dare you? Express not your frustration for rattling another’s nerves. How dare you?

 

What is this plague of mind control that has so overtaken us that builds and builds and pushes us further into the vaults of our own minds? What is this virus that clips the identity of our own frontal cortex of thought and action? What is this virus that deafens us and blinds us from ourselves?

 

Experts abound, expressly, expressing their demands of, do this or that, but oh no don’t do what comes naturally to you. These experts feed us with the daily dose of potential deaths and the dread of the loss of our own, counting each infection with a relish of a carpetbagger. They concoct mechanisms and extrapolations to iron out more dreadful potentials as the previous one fades from the limelight. They are experts after all and must be worshipped. They are directors and professors after all and know more about what you should think rather than what you actually think. They are all-knowing, for they have spent their entire lives under the aegis of other people’s money living comfortable lives with handmaidens and chauffer driven vehicles, contemplating forever, a vision of a dystopian life for the plebians. They are so impressed with their thoughts that they present themselves almost every day on the news network of easily persuaded television anchors. They want a change to your way of thinking so they can get more powerful.

 

Among these few masters of control and command are those that have built fortunes on the fears of the many. These few merry men and women of leisure with vast fortunes gained through the manipulation of the many minds have minions monitoring any differences of opinion. When one innocent arrives expressing the converse he or she is immediately filtered out of the realm of general discussion and targeted by a plethora of their virtual harassing goons.

 

In real life armies of black hooded characters roam freely disturbing the peace of others, relentless and unpursued by authorities. Causing havoc in their wake. Destroying others’ lives and throwing them into the vortex of ruin.

 

The virus, oh yes, the virus. What about that damn virus? It seems the virus was a perfect stepping-stone for the mighty to project heir might. That damn virus planted as a revenge of sorts to cripple a happily functioning and thriving society seemed to have caused a thousand million thorns to grow where once colorful flowers bloomed. That damn virus is now our daily bread and butter of thought and action. Stand here until you are called. Sit here and recite but don’t think. Wait here for your turn. And at all times hide your face, lest your emotions or frustrations show.

 

That damn virus has infected and killed as most viruses will do. The projected deaths were supposed to be in the millions. The real figure is much less a tenth of the official number. Yet there too, misdeeds of a few has swelled it by confining the vulnerable with those convalescing from the viral illness. If that was not enough these experts have conflated the numbers by calling any and all deaths during the ensuing pandemic as the virus being the only proximate cause of death, even if that death was a suicide, homicide an accident of a failing life from other morbidities. Even the millions of infections cast wide onto the unsuspecting populace, needed to be cajoled for the sake of making the heartbeats, beat faster. Using diagnostics that pick fragments of non-infectious material as infections, or other false positive mechanisms that inflate the numbers have been employed lest the fear lessens and people are reminded that life is to be lived in a free and open world and ideas expressed and discussed and thoughts volunteered to be reviewed and understood.

 

Ah, we have arrived at the crossroads of living itself. Stand there and live or if you walk and talk and express your opinion be shunned from society and be as good as dead. Unauthorized words have terrible meaning and are hurtful. Other than those sanctioned, all other words must be disdained and censored for fear of harming another’s sensitive soul!

 

New Hampshire’s license plate comes to mind; “Live Free or Die.” They missed one word in that motto, the last word after “Die” should be “Fighting.”

 

The gyre is fully established. The vortex threatens to pull the roots of our society and shred it to pieces. The vortex grows, but it is still only the expert’s projections in our minds. Live Free or Die Fighting to rid this travesty against Liberty and Freedom.

 

Bless you, for reading this and soldier on with your own thoughts…

A Short, Short History of a Bad, Bad Time

 A Short, Short History of a Bad, Bad Time

 

In the scheme of things, this year; 2020 will be a blip in history, when all the paroxysms of human emotions and desires are collated. The intensity of emotions driven more by the inherent flaws in their ideologies, than by the actual realities that paraded on the ground. History for some is a source of learning. Things happened and how did they turn out? So, every opportunity for those that avail themselves with clear eyes and open minds cradle the source of the past. It is the crucible with the elixir that propels us into the future. So, I begin by asking myself that same question, what did I learn from this whole COVID pandemic?

 

To start at the beginning is a very good place to start. Mind you that start is based solely on what is known to us as average individuals going about our simple or complexified lives.

 

When the story broke with a bang and there were Lysol spraying in the streets and healthcare and other workers were garbed in hazmat suits. Things in the city of Wuhan, China seemed quite desperate. The daily death toll was broadcast and a hospital with over 1000 beds was made in 10 days for the world to see. Things were going terrifyingly smoothly. Meanwhile the Chinese and the World Health Organization stated that there was little risk to humans across the world. Meanwhile, the city of Wuhan where the Level IV Biotech laboratory existed was quarantined from the rest of China, as they faced the virus, which would ultimately be named COVID-19. The trains, planes, and automobiles from Wuhan to the rest of the world continued unabated. Recently a dissident Chinese Virologist (Scientist) Dr. Li-Meng Yan who studied the virus has stated publicly on a National TV that the virus was manufactured in the (Wuhan) laboratory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFlqXPl_hZQ&feature=youtu.be. The veracity of that statement lies in the article she wrote: https://zenodo.org/record/4028830#.X3Ddpi2z0Y0

 

As the virus burrowed itself into humanity’s weaknesses, the infection quickly followed by a gruesome lonely death for the individual. Italy bore the brunt of the spread as the former Wuhan citizens that had emigrated to Lombardi, Italy brought with them the unpleasant visitor. From Italy, Europe’s borderless roads took it far and wide into the Union.

 

Meanwhile, the travelers from Wuhan had made a beeline to the State of Washington in the United States. Immediately following that travelers from China alighted in New York and the country got slapped by the bookends. The infection spread to a nursing home and claimed the lives of all of the elderly inhabitants and then traveled unabated through the rest of the country. 

 

The theater of disinfection and healthcare overburdened images in China was a perfect backdrop for every nation in the world. Soon all began to follow the script to contain the microbe. 

 

The world hesitated at first given the dubious statements from China and the WHO. But human fears forced the US to impose a travel ban from China in spite of WHO’s reasoning that there was little danger of spread within humans and later as the scourge spread to Europe, the Eu was added to the travel ban. Politicians tried to minimize the potential of spread by parading in the streets, but the microbe was not easily fooled. It marched on.  Then as if by the sheer magic of mathematical manipulation, from the collective statistical genius of the IHME came a very dire prophecy that millions of people would die from the virus. The world shivered and hunkered down.

 

The sound of the screeching halt of the economies of the world reverberated like gravitational waves forcing the citizens to cower under their blankets. “Flattening the Curve” was the order of the day. 14 days of the shutdown was ordered as infections rose and hospitals filled to capacity. Alerts went out for the need of PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) and ventilators and more hospital beds. Comfort and Mercy arrived on the East/West shores of the United States and make-shift hospital beds were built in record time. The private sector went into overdrive manufacturing went into full-tilt with millions of PPEs and thousands of Ventilators became available in record time. The alarm bells hospital bed utility stopped ringing and the thousands of beds remained vacant as the victims of the infection never arrived at these makeshift facilities. Meanwhile, some authorities in several states decided to house the convalescing COVID patients in the Nursing Homes in order to free up the hospital beds. That seemingly “well-intentioned” policy caused thousands of frail and vulnerable elderly beings to forfeit their lives. The exact number of deaths from such a policy Is estimated by some to have harmed 60,000+. Humans had once again over-reacted and under-appreciated the problem at hand.

 

Some high-brow experts started posting daily graphics of the infections and the deaths proclaiming Armageddon was upon us. And they proclaimed that the only way to harness this virus was to do widespread testing across the country and follow that with contact tracing to prevent the spread. Unfortunately, the cat was out of the bag, and with limited resources of human capital, the contact tracing was a fool’s errand. Yet with the capital committed to resources millions of tests were conducted daily and lo and behold the infection rate skyrocketed, both the real and the false positives. This furthered the cause of the experts and confirmed their biases of the potential rise in the deaths and the future tragedy that would purportedly be unfolding. 

 

Two interesting scientific thoughts emerged about the testing and soon circulated across the wires: 1. The antibody testing was a past event and 2. The PCR testing due to the 30+ thermal cycle amplification may have been detecting fragments of coronaviruses other than COVID. Even if it wasn’t  COVID, the scientists reasoned, it was most probably a past or asymptomatic case. So once heralded truths of the PCR and Antibody tests were called into question.

 

PCR and Thermal Cycle Amplification and Negative cultures

What to believe? 

 

By now in September 2020, claims of 6 million infected cases were called into question by some. And it was revealed that some of the deaths attributed to COVID were correlated and not necessarily causal in nature (previously posted). Some truthful states have begun dismantling the total numbers by virtue of the mirror of reality. One institution reviewed 67 Autopsies and found only 2 actually confirmed as COVID related.  In other words, questions arose if contact between the deceased with an infected source was considered causal. All deaths occurring in the hospitals were reported as COVID-related. Part of the problem was the lucrative incentive to the hospitals for each COVID death was worth several thousand dollars, earmarked by the Federal Government. So now we had a perfect storm of an inflated infection rate and an inflated death rate from this COVID virus.

 

States that lodged a thousand deaths with sending convalescing patient into Nursing Homes

Meanwhile, it was well known by then that those at risk were mostly elderly individuals with comorbid conditions of Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and altered Immune states. The young were relatively protected. When infected they were mostly asymptomatic and posed little risk. 

As the spikes dove to their respective surfaces, crashing in a parabolic arc, the hyper-concerned individuals and those charmed to the ideas of constant fear began laying the groundwork for continuous testing of all citizens, so they could contact trace them and prevent further spread? With nary a few thousand “contact tracers” at hand that was projected to solve the dilemma of this scourge? Needless to say, a million tests a day were being done, and lo and behold to the delight of the modelers and the statisticians and some self-proclaimed experts, infected cases began to rise again. A few stalwarts looking into that reality figured that this time more than 50% of those tested were in the ages between 18-40 years. Hmm, one wondered why should that be? Apparently, according to the experts, the peaceful protests that had devolved into looting and vandalism were not to blame. The fingers pointed straight to the early opening of commerce. Great pains, they took to cajole and combine and collate the data to fit their narrative. The only saving grace for the average human who paid attention to these developments was that hospital admissions did not escalate and in fact, the death rate continued to decline and flat-lined in spite of efforts to gin it up. Most of the spikes in certain states earlier on were the direct result of the Governor’s policies of inserting convalescent patients recovering from the COVID infection into nursing homes. Those policies, it is thought to have caused over 63,000 deaths alone sadly. Power inflates the mind of the powerful in his or her capacity, which may be sorely lacking in reality.

 

The spike in the infections was too much for the powerful managers of some states and draconian measures were taken to shut-down any potential source of infection. New Zealand that had regaled in zero infection rate for a few weeks had 4 cases and the long arm of the law came down hard on her citizens. Meanwhile, another wannabe totalitarian politician in Australia decried the same mantra, and “thought-police” was added to the “mask-police” and began issuing summons and arresting the innocent citizens for their opinions. These draconian and seemingly unnecessary measures sparked a worldwide protest against the loss of liberty and freedom in other countries. Meanwhile, in the United States, the window-glass breaking and store looting continued unabated as the police were told not to interact with the rioters as they were only “expressing their rights to protest.” Small businesses belonging to minorities and others were ransacked and forced to close. Generations of work in those businesses lost overnight to the dark cloud that governed the state of mind of humanity. Gyms were closed so no one could exercise, while the governors and congress-people had fully stocked gyms ready for use. Restaurants were closed except if you happen to be the governor. Hair salons too had the same fate except if you happen to be powerful and called the shots. The whole system of the consent of the governed had been upended in one short period of time. The neighbor was encouraged to report the neighbor for any misdeed. Social media decided it would get in on the act and use censorship, because they were private, and they could with impunity, being protected from prosecution under the aegis of Section 320. Anything that did not fit their narrative was considered “bad for society,” and censored. They became the arbiters of their version of the truth. 

 

Frustration and anger spilled into a rage on either side of the argument when things were forced. The bedlam needed an open valve to release the pressure. Where was that valve?

 

Was it the vaccine still in its late phases of discovery? Or was it the real science affording glimpses of therapeutics yet to come? Small molecule antibodies that destroyed the virus on contact tested in animal models or the ubiquitous Heparin itself that might afford an insight into the workings of the virus? Humans being who they are, were hard at work deciphering the code of survival of this virus. Several lessons had been learned; no ventilators, immune-related cytokine damage to organs, and the rage within the blood vessels. All could be and were quelled through the ingenuity of the human mind in short order. Yet the “experts” continued their drumbeat. “It isn’t over! It isn’t over!”

 

To that drumbeat, some science-less, senselessness pervaded into previously reasonable minds. Shutdowns when refracted through the prism of reality seemed not to have done anything to stem the tide. The virus did what it had to do: gain access to humans to propagate and in doing so, it challenged the immune system. If it found a solid immune system, it was stifled, if it found weaknesses, such as infirmity of age, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure or pre-existing heart diseases it conquered and decimated. The young ones were mostly spared the wrath with almost asymptomatic infection, that they barely noticed, the older ones hunkered down in their homes. 

 

And truly as the sun rises every morning along the eastern shores, a new mandate arose; “Wear the mask!” What was interesting was that several studies prior to the pandemic, about masks, had failed to show any benefit. Yet the mantra continued, and cartoon Gifs began to appear on social media about the need and relevance of the mask. The question arose if “asymptomatic” infected individuals did not drive the pandemic then why should they wear the mask? The question hung like a dewdrop on a leaf teetering on the edge threatening to fall and never seem to alight on the mental synapses of those in power, drowned out by the loud voices. So much so that as things went on, any contrary opinion was considered a hateful event and worthy of reprimand and censorship. The antimaskers were added to the antivaxers to form according to the experts the “ignorant collective.” Yet when it was made aware that a Vaccine against the COVID would be available soon, the “Vaxxers” turned into “anti-Vaxxers” themselves! The Gulag had arrived and seemed wanting to enter every home and business. A strange wild tuber of confused stupidity was growing in the mindset.

 

The well-established science of the Long-term immunity through T-cell lymphocytes was offered as a potential cross-reactive immunity of a large population previously infected by other coronaviruses and hence the possibility of herd immunity was cast at a much lower percentage of 30%, than previously thought at 80%. Soon that was discarded by the “expert” because the populace was getting too comfortable with the idea of a release from the draconian measures. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac and once enjoyed is magnetized by repetition. The parade of the experts continued their daily Television appearances and Op-Eds in various newspapers. The Armageddon was upon us and we must not let our guard down, they said.

 

Only one type of commerce seemed destined to grow and flourish: the internet kind. That business was considered essential and raked in billions of dollars because people had to live on food and things. The brick and mortar smaller ones, however, were starved out of their soul.

 

Politics eroded the sanctity of medicine and studies purporting this and that conjured up via correlation were served on the platter as causal facts. The world was a mess. The rage of the destroyers however remained unabated and soon the halls pf power decided that they needed to defund the police, because they figured, had started this whole messy rioting process in the first place. But, as all things forced and lacking any thought, unintended consequences showed their ugly heads. When the citizens need arose and there was no police force to take care of those needs since most had resigned, the politicians seemed taken aback. How could this be? 

Yet as the saying goes, people deserve the government they choose. And some states in the US learned that lesson the hard way: ransacked and in economic despair!

 

The drama has continued and yet some minds have been alerted to the false prophets of doom. The day of reckoning it seems will come soon. Life is not meant to be subjected to such blanket impositions of denials of liberty. Life is meant to be celebrated through Liberty. When all is said and done, this pandemic will go down as the single worst case of human hubris and human greed. It will have unnecessarily caused thousands of avoidable deaths from the infection, the economic despair, from opioid abuse, and suicides. The fault line is squarely on the self-proclaimed experts and the Governors and Managers of various states, where their powers exceeded their capacity to understand science or common sense. For they exercised power with little regard for human life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of their citizens.

PS:

All information contained within is verified by scientific data and by relevant facts reported in the News.

PANDEMONIUM

 

It dawned on me the other day that perhaps there was an ulterior motive behind all this pandemonium that we have encountered over the past few months. I mean, think about the issues we have faced together: Shutting down our lives, our commerce, our social interaction, our liberties, and our freedoms.

 

Now I guarantee, someone will run up the flagpole with the “public good” scenario and say how thoughtless of me to even conjure up such a vile thought. But questioning answers opens up the mind to additional possibilities and adds a potential confluence of even better than the hypotheticals used in the initial question. Or in other words, question the initial concept of cancer and associated therapies as disparate as radical surgeries, chemotherapy, monoclonal antibody treatment, stem cell transplants, bone marrow transplants, and immune-modulatory therapy that come to mind, and you realize that if not for questioning we would not be here today in 2020 in cancer management. The results from these therapeutics may not have been as stellar as one would want them to be, but as always, progress is made when questioning the current modus operandi, to make our future brighter, as we slowly march towards a larger cohort of cured individuals.

 

Going back to the pandemonium, we began with the forced migration of a virus manufactured in a Chinese Laboratory to the United States and Europe. This claim was made by the 2008 Nobel Laureate for the HIV discovery. (https://www.livemint.com/news/world/nobel-winning-scientist-claims-covid-19-virus-was-man-made-in-wuhan-lab-11587303649821.html) . From there it spread like wildfire onto the world. Media triumphed in bringing us daily visuals of the people infected and dying from the virus. After statements from the Chinese Authorities as well as the World Health Organization, regarding the transmissibility of the virus, it became obvious that those statements were falsehoods. 

( https://www.businessinsider.com/who-no-transmission-coronavirus-tweet-was-to-appease-china-guardian-2020-4 ) 

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/health/china-virus-who-emergency.html )

 

Needless to say, we shut down, hunkered, isolated, and found shelter in the yearning for a reduction in new infections and the death rates that were being broadcast hourly via dedicated websites, as inflammasomes for our minds. But as all things come to pass, the death rate did slow down and the light seemed to glow at the end of the tunnel. 

 

Or did it? The very next moment a case of police brutality against a citizen, sparked an outburst of protests that grew into violence, then looting, arson, and then killing! The leaders in some places paid heed to the protests and condoned them and even went on to say that looting was a way for some poor people to get “Bread” for their households ( https://youtu.be/AzlRVUJLOwo ). The protests continue to rage and simultaneously the force du jour of the “calamity” experts started singing the praises of the need for massive testing of the population. The death rate on the daily broadcasts seemed to be plunging precipitously and one wondered what the need for this new venture? An experiment worth billions of dollars to understand the numbers infected and the infection mortality rate or was it some other vital piece of scientific inquiry, needed for another hypothetical? ( https://youtu.be/3GqhApWmFtA ) But with 65 million tested in the United States as of August 10, 2020, you might question as to how strict isolation or contact tracing be accomplished, especially with only 100,000 contact tracers available? One might wonder? Yet the CDC Director reasserted that “you do not have to be sick to get tested.” ( https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/symptoms-tested-cdc-director-tells-abc-news/story?id=71594849 )

 

The testing started in earnest and soon millions were being tested a week. As questions began to arise about the validity of the tests themselves. The CDC had to admit that the tests were not contemporaneous nor were they accurate (high false positives and high false negatives) and these tests (especially the antibody test) even reflected past infection with COVID-19 as well as “other Coronavirus infections.” The majesty of truth had raised her staff.

 

The drumbeat, however, continued in full swing. The graphics of rising caseload was a social media and television's daily morsel of horror inflicted on the quiet and law-abiding crowd. 

 

But then some common-sense folk questioned the issue of the COVID-19 related deaths. And the doors reluctantly started to open. Truth seemed to disinfect. Many such states with that wisdom on their sides retracted thousands of deaths counted as COVID-induced were re-tagged as “from other causes.” While other states started to game the counting of all deaths during the period as a COVID-related death. There had to be some prize somewhere in there? It turned out to be a Federal bounty to a state for each COVID-related death to the tune of several thousand dollars. ( https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/state-by-state-breakdown-of-federal-aid-per-covid-19-case.html ) So, the charade intensified, especially in the cash-strapped states that had been fiscally mismanaged for many years. These states drummed up their fear-mongering via their “experts” who had newfound celebrity status and who did not want to give it up so easily, The politicians continued to enforce policies by restricting the liberties of their citizens with their new-found power. The play went on, uninterrupted and each one of these specific state celebrity experts played their vital part in keeping the narrative alive. Each one had his or her own verse to offer.

 

Then and perhaps more importantly graphics from other countries began to arrive which suggested the rise of new infections but there were no correlated lagging death rates associated with the rising infection rate? How could that be? Indeed, that was impossible because the celebrity experts had predicted the lag and were eagerly awaiting data to prove the dire circumstances of added deaths related to reopening the society and commerce. They ignored the protests and the riots in the context of the rising infection rates noted in the testing. One wondered why? Indeed, why were the thousands who clogged the streets not considered the source of the rise? When, in fact, the data, based on testing suggested that 20-40-year-olds represented >50% of the infected. But let us not get under the skin of the experts on that for now. There will be plenty of time for further evaluation, I hope.

 

We, therefore have a rising tide of infections in various countries based on testing but WITHOUT the lagging indicator of the rising death rate.  Ivor Cummins in this tweetorial shows us what might be going on. ( https://twitter.com/FatEmperor/status/1293576086413103109?s=20 )

 Why did the United States start counting all deaths during the period as COVID deaths and violate all scientific rigor? Sometime in the future, someone will take these fear-mongering, false prophets of doom to the task. I certainly hope so. History, if we are allowed to question events in the present, although that seems destined to become an impossibility these days, will tell the truth in all its purest form.

 

Here are some graphics from Ivor Cummins video:

Perhaps, as we give up our hard-earned liberties and freedoms in this Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, and capitulate too easily to fear and fear-mongering, we should look to the Peoples of Hong Kong, who are being arrested for speaking and for searching for the truth as they fight the tyranny of totalitarianism to reclaim that which is being stolen from them: 

THEIR very LIVES!

How and Why do Pandemics Die?

Indeed! How do they? This question perplexes the mind. We start with hypotheses, also called notions, or assumptions or just plain hair-brained ideas. And from that gels a composite. Much like the Wall Street Market Place, now a cavern of blazing colored screens that digitally-talk to each other without much human interaction, but once not too long ago was the hub of commerce and invested loans between humans, yes this very market place is the ebb and flow of the ethereal serum that vitalizes and replenishes the collective sense between humans and the machines and arbiters the value of a company. Similarly, the virus that is the basis of the pandemic also is the requisite arbiter of desolation, destruction of some human lives. But once the collective ire of the humans in the form of understanding and immunity has been raised to a level worthy of a firewall, well, then the little “bastard” dies. But good does come of it. As Camus’ Father Paneloux cries from the pulpit, “This same pestilence, which is slaying you, works for your good and points your path.” Indeed, all joy is remembered relative through the lens of hardship. So instead of the fear of death, perhaps we might look to the wonders of living. Even while the dues, for these viral mutations that change its potency and virulence, we as humans are paying with the currency of our demise, we know as a species, overcoming these odds is just a matter of time. Our systems are equally built to outlast the rigors of this insolent microbial beast and be the stronger for it.

Perspective:

(from: Visual Capitalist)

What then is that collective firewall, that I spoke of earlier? It is often termed as the “herd.” To keep this monolog short let me make it simple so that even I can understand what I am about to say. 

Perhaps we should delve just a bit into the 1918 Influenza pandemic. The graphics from history books show that there were three phases of infections. The initial one followed by a much larger one and then a small one. Theories abound as to the potential causes of these phases. Some say, the hot summer months during World War I, helped reduce transmission and the winter months exacerbated due to confined proximity between individuals. Perhaps precautions were undertaken and relaxed after each phase died down? Or perhaps it was not anything to do with the human endeavor? Perhaps it was all in the magic circuit of the four nucleic acids of the small RNA chain within the envelope of the virus itself? Viral emergence can be by chance or perhaps manufactured as suspected in COVID as one with “gain of function” by a Chinese scientist in the Wuhan lab and reiterated by a molecular biologist in Hong Kong. Chance as well as scientific conceit will inflict pain on us and that ultimately becomes a conduit for our understanding. We suffer from this indiscretion but much more in our imagination than in reality as Seneca would say. There is a creative endeavor by a few folks to harness the power of the mind and catapult it into the catacombs of manufactured disasters. True, COVID causes death. It has killed 150,000+ Americans over the past four months and infected 4+ million in its wake. Denial does not obviate such reality, but it also should bring some perspective. And that seems to still be lacking from this 30,000-foot perch where I sit in my imaginary loft wading through the clouds, envious of the simplicity and grace in nature that we have become blinded to.

Let us ponder on that for a minute. What am I implying in that last sentence? Perhaps each phase or cycle of infection is a natural phenomenon for the virus to find a new herd of hosts that have not been infected? So, if we are to “shutdown” or go into a “lockdown” for a period of time and then as the infection rate diminishes significantly, we open up society, which happens. The dormant guest reignites and launches itself into another herd of uninfected hosts. The size of infection may be less or more based on the degree of transmissibility and the guest’s ability to mutate enough for its own survival. Such mutations define the very nature of viral infections. The virus, if considered a life-form has its own issues of surviving. The more access it finds to uninfected hosts, the more likely it is to leap at the chance. And so, it does. Humans cannot be in a perpetual phase of a lockdown unless we as humans plan to live as troglodytes or die-off as a species. No commerce, no work, and eventually people die of starvation from food, from suicides, from illnesses, from a host of other maladies that afflict the flesh that can be managed with proper care.

That then brings us into another conundrum. Should we lockdown at all? That question seemed to have had answers from Sweden and some other European nations that did not move into the drastic action of shutting down their societies and their economies and lived to tell the tale. True, the number of deaths was more than in neighboring nations, but their story may not have been written as yet. By that I mean, artificial attempts at shutting down societies to prevent transmission may be a temporary phenomenon that perhaps makes us as humans feel that we are doing something, yet it may have little to do with reality. In other words, the virus will continue to linger and find new hosts for its perpetuity and survival, until it finds the firewall of fewer and fewer uninfected or immune individuals. 

That level is now projected or estimated at 30-35% of the population. Countries that were considered free of the COVID pandemic, like Japan, Australia, and New Zealand are now having a rebirth of this microbe. Apparently, you cannot forcibly put the genie in the bottle that easily and proclaim a faux victory. The only time when such a controlled lockdown would have worked was probably at the Wuhan Lab and its outskirts. But that is a tale in itself, raising its hands to broadcast.

If one looks at countries like Pakistan and India where millions and billions live respectively in relatively smaller parcels of land. Healthcare and hygiene are all not educationally enforced in those societies as it is in the western world. The travel there is a form of expected chaos, with bodies upon bodies riding on four-wheeled vehicles meant to carry only six. And large numbers of family members cohabiting in confined spaces sometimes with limited water supply, electricity, and sewer drainage creates rampant transmission. Hence, proximity lends itself to easy transmissibility of such urchins as seasonal flu and viruses, that constantly linger at the doorsteps of humanity. The recent data from these two countries in particular show the rapidly declining rate of infections and deaths after the peak. One, then has to consider the question, “Why?” It seems to mimic the graphic from UK and Sweden when compiled together....and perhaps reconciles the past and the future as well?

Perhaps the previous melting pot of viral infections within these societies and the antifragility related to previous coronaviral interactions with the human hosts have hardened the T-Cell Lymphocytes into creating long-term immunity against the newcomer? This newcomer, the COVID, has origins in the ancient version of the influenza virus and therefore immune-recognizable. Thus, when provoked into action to spread its progeny, only the previously uninfected (or without immunity) are falling ill to the disease and the elderly with comorbid conditions are dying from it? That must give us pause, for just a bit. Shouldn’t it?

On a sidebar, did you know that the human intestine plays host to billions of resident bacteria, and the Human DNA has tiny snippets of viral material protected and placed in the once termed, “junk DNA” or the introns. So, no matter how much alcohol and chlorine one uses to wash the outside, the inside is a teeming hotbed of miniature creatures. Let that sink in.

The 64K question then is, “Are we deluding ourselves by shutting down?” Will the flattened curve keep haunting our societies until the magic number of 30-35% infected population has been achieved? That question remains unanswered. But it is thought-provoking.

Perhaps knowing the modus operandi of the virus as we now seem to know, suggests that those infirmed, elderly, and with other co-morbid conditions need to be protected and the rest of the country would do better to continue on its merry way with prosperity for all.

I ask these questions to probe potentials. I ask these questions to light a fire of understanding. I ask these questions so that another point of view can gain traction rather than the constant drubbing by the well-placed mouthpieces that lose credibility by opening their mouths much too often. Using John Keat's famous words, we are here to "unweave the rainbow" not its beauty, but the reason behind the colors, and use that reason not to stifle the imagination but to advance the knowledge and understanding of things, as they exist.

“I’d rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned.”

 -Richard Feynman

The FOG of a PANDEMIC

There are certain things that one can predict with ease; All pandemics are bad for human beings. All pandemics assert a certain degree of fear and panic among those that know about their deadliness. And yet, all pandemics die-off in search of a host when none are available to infect. Simple truisms are hard to ignore even in these days flooded with a boatload of information. However, this fog of this pandemic, one can slice through with a knife. 

It seems this is different when you take its pulse. It started off in the Chinese province of Hubei in the city of Wuhan. Where and when it actually took its origins, remains a mystery shrouded in an enigma. But there was a certain flare and drama associated with its birth. The Chinese provided us with a televised theater of street spraying and authoritative policing control of its citizenry for a full 2-month period. Then, under the auspices of a willing World Health Organization, it was broadcast that the virus showed no human to human transmission. Amazing how this was swallowed in toto without a question. Surprisingly this followed in the wake of the daily TV drama from China of the human toll, but no one seemed to take notice. The powers that be encouraged mingling with the crowds and people were encouraged to “live your lives.” A good thing these past events have been documented, or else, we would be labeled delusional. Some might reflect with a snort of derision, but facing reality is always a good antiseptic to all the virtual illnesses afflicting the human mind.

The dissociative fugue that has followed in this fog of uncertainty is quite a remarkable evolution of events. A short time ago, there followed a flight of fancy from the “epidemiologists” that sparked a fear almost as inexorable as the pull of gravity. The experts with M.D.s after their names or Professor before opined with daily graphics showing the meteoric rise in the numbers of COVID infected cases and there followed the numbers of daily dead across the country in large bannered headlines. The Grim Reaper was nearby, “Stay away, Pull on the mask, pull down the shades and dissolve yourself into a state of oblivion. The litany continued unabated. But over time things began to settle down a bit. Call it regional herd immunity or shutdown policy. Whatever that was, was a welcome course of events. And curiously at about the same time, an unfortunate event sparked protests that grew in momentum and continue to rage across the country, and some enlightened parts of the world soon were collaborated with arson, looting, and destruction of personal property. The protestors were in full gear in large numbers compressed within wide streets, miles long, and were hailed as heroes, expressing their First Amendment rights. Then as if on cue, two weeks later the infection numbers that had been declining started to rise again. There was plenty of blame going around and mostly on the “premature reopening of commerce and trade,” yet no one seemed to point to the hundreds of thousands that had, and continue to clog the streets, as perhaps partially responsible for potentially initiating the infection spike. But semantics is the order of the day.

The expert professors expressed their vociferous consternation against those violating their dictates and more projections started arriving at the doorsteps of the newspapers opined by various professors and M.D.s with a certain flair for authority that the world was in a tailspin and unless all commerce was to cease immediately there would be millions who would lose their lives. One gentleman, a former government employee, specifically meted out a 90% shutdown of all movements across the country. He never specified who or why the 10% were exempt. One wonders, if the COVID patients had not been relegated via some state decrees to the nursing homes and the elderly resident there had been protected, potentially up to 80% of the deceased might have been protected? 

Counting is the new Game. Even in this whole drama of counting daily infections, a case of a car accident with a positive COVID virus test was recorded as a COVID death, sparked an interest in the curious minds. Questioning eyes started to ask the Centers for Disease Control for answers and even one of their chief supporters, a mostly cautious Dr. Brix suggested that she could not trust any data from the CDC. Now here is where we must pause. Pause, because the significance has to be underscored. The CDC was considered god-like in its powers over anything “infectious” after all the hierarchy at the CDC was full of veterinarians and were considered experts in zoonotic diseases.  And because the rhetoric seemed to follow the initial playbook of wild estimations by the epidemiologists and the statisticians that seemed to fall in line with the latter group’s thinking. The statistical game of fear was afoot. Alas, humans being error-prone creatures had used the wrong variable and that potentially dramatic deadly future frosted over quickly. The charade, however, was still on. It was now onto counting numbers. The CDC the beacon of information was over-zealous in reporting of any human with a suspected infection, exposure to an infected individual, false-positive result, might be, or symptomatic with fever, cough shortness of breath from any illness, was a recorded as a potential case even without proof and any death in the hospital where the COVID infected cases were present was considered a COVID death. In other words, most anyone dying during the pandemic was considered a case. Given the expansive, inflationary universe of “suspected but never proven” infected individuals the numbers started a second meteoric rise. Counts of infected meant those with a positive RT-PCR test (a potential 20% error rate) and a positive antibody test suggesting a past infection were included in the daily “new” cases. Thus, began the systematic abrogation of all the scientific rigor, supplanted by pseudo-intellectual complex high-minded speeches and op-ed pieces perpetuated as a meme by the media into the soft underbelly of the groupthink crowd. The higher the daily number of those testing positive the better the narrative of the professors and their exalted M.D.s. The more their graphics got retweeted and likes, the happier they got with this new-found popularity. The more graphics got dished out to the eager crowd. The need to perpetuate the narrative seemed an imperative of some consequence in the U.S.  The only problem was the lagging-indicator-death-rate was not showing a similarly meteoric rise. But infection-rate was infection rate and thus all activities were to come to a screeching halt immediately was the mandate from high above. Yet in India, which continues to remain unadulterated by the western science of IFTTT (has its own different sets of problems to contend with) had realized the potential of herd immunity concept and embraced it. Sweden, a much-maligned country by the “experts” during this entire deadly drama has emerged as the sanest of all countries.  Common sense does exist after all.

As the fog cleared in some minds, two reports caught my eye. One, a Connecticut lab discovered flawed data on 90 people falsely reported as positives were recanted. And the second was in Texas where 3484 people were removed from the COVID related death roster since no verification was available. These poor souls who had succumbed to natural causes outside of COVID had been added on as “might be” or “probable cause” to inflate the numbers. Other cities, counties, and states have yet to clean out their databases. When all is said and done, and reality rears its sovereign head, this whole debacle might be perhaps the biggest manufactured crises the United States, nay the world has ever known.

Meanwhile, groupthink is in progress, any thinker with a different idea or opinion is rendered a kook. There were furious attacks on thinkers and skeptics. If someone brought up the subject of a drug called (HCQ) Hydroxychloroquine, then a sudden plethora of poorly designed studies claimed it didn’t work. But no one asked the physicians who had been treating patients in their clinics whether there was merit to the drug. Why was the vitriol against the drug so amplified that anyone discussing its benefits was considered a “Charlatan?” Why? As “blind” luck would have it, a new drug emerged and was touted as the next thing since sliced bread against COVID, but the data was weak, yet it was the chosen one and millions of doses were bought by the government for a paltry sum of $3400.00 compared to $200 for the HCQ. So much so, that the company received a multi-billion contract to supply millions of doses, all based on an “interim analysis,” of the data. The HCQ use in early cases of COVID infections still remains under fire by the professors and the experts and the political football is still in the air, waiting for an interception. 

Life has come to a screeching halt, mostly. Schools are closed for children and at least one Harvard Professor issued her concern that children should not be taught at home, fearing the loss of the curriculum-induced-indoctrination. Her motives seem very strong and personal to her. Yet the State Governors continue to delay the reopening of the schools. Their motives seemed even stronger.  If we look at the infectivity rate in children, it is virtually “zero”(0.0026%) in the 0-20 age population. One wonders why then? But closing the schools is an opportune moment since it prevents the parents from going back to work as well. It affects those more so in the middle-class service and vocational industries who have to do physical labor, rather than the finance and money-transferring industries where most can sit at home in PJs and work from home or from their vacation resorts via computers. The very core of the sector these “experts’ claim to help save is the one systematically and financially being decimated.

Indeed when one sets one’s mind to inquire into the goings-on during this pandemic that seems to continue to this day and will probably go on for some time, there appear to be forces within the medical and scientific communities that are so attuned to rhetoric, so vested in the narrative, so hardened in their resolve, so entrenched in their way as the only way, that they fail to see the forest for the trees (a perfect metaphor here). These experts seem to have a deeply vested future in claiming that all previously cherished life-norms have to be undone. That commerce has to cease to kill the virus once and for all. Yet in their “deep thought” they have lost their concern for the loss of life from other ailments that need care. And speaking of such care, hospitals have realized a decline in their revenues because all elective surgical and medical procedures were canceled by governmental fiat and thus as a fallout, they have furloughed doctors and ancillary healthcare personnel. Clinics and hospitals with limited resources have closed to the detriment of the communities. Meanwhile the “public good” rhetoric goes on. But the reality of the numbers of patients with diseases that have unfortunately succumbed to these expert-opined-practices might never be known. What is known is that Suicide Rates have soared by 600% over the past few months. I am sure that there will be subtly stated spin that absolves the masterminds and inflicts this happenstance on those who resist their rhetoric. When it ends, and it will one day, is anyone’s guess. One cannot with certainty theorize the end date. Time will hold these fabricators to answer for their actions. 

It is a sad commentary on this dissociative fugue that has claimed the minds of the “scientists, economists, professors, and some elitist doctors.” And that is a shame. In the end, one wonders, what drives their motives? 

The SCIENCE of MASKS

CP and SLR debate about how Masks affect Humans...

The maxim of reason is never passive for it implies; one thinks and reasons for oneself. Immanuel Kant said, “if reason will not subject itself to the laws it gives itself, it has to bow under the yoke of laws given by another; for without any law, nothing—not even nonsense—can play its game for long.” Indeed, that is true for all time and for all places. This brings me to the central tenet of this discussion, about masks.

So, here is how you put on the mask over your face. If it has a single elastic band, you pull it over your head and carefully let it snap into place around your head and over your ears. If it has two vertical sidebands, then pull them around you’re the ears and make it snug by compressing the mask around your nose, to limit the ingress of any air from around the mask into your nostrils. If it has two horizontal bands the idea is to use the lower band around the neck and the upper band around and over the top-back-end of your head. Again, pinch around the nostrils and make sure there are no open areas between the contours of your face and the architecture of the mask. That’s it!

Now if you are a feral skeptic, this brings up some neck-hairs to stand on end and perhaps for good reasons? In the first address by the powers to be, the masks were not important, not because they were not important, but because they said, “they were not important.” The rationale in the early part of spring was that there would not be enough for the healthcare workers who take care of COVID infected patients. But meanwhile, if that evaluation is correct, everyone else was to go about their daily business, spreading the infectious COVID agent around like, applying liberal icing on a cake! A classy response that only came to light when the lofty scientists broke that code of silence on that minor bit of information. Dutifully, everyone who was in on the gamification of this virus nodded and accepted it as gospel. “Oh, that was so thoughtful and wonderfully orchestrated by the experts that we are speechless and in awe of such intellect,” they breathed in unison. Now suddenly facial masks are the most important mechanism in curbing the spread of COVID infection. An amazing turnaround, perhaps, even for those people with short-term amnesia, whose past memory does not extend beyond 6 weeks.

Then in an amazing feat, as if by a flip of a switch, the entire machinery of the government in the United States turned on to produce masks to protect and defend the 340-million populace from this horrid of all diseases that usurp life by infiltrating through tiny pores in the endothelial layers of the mucous membrane. “That should stop the progress of the disease!” claimed the mighty machine behind the megaphone. As if by clockwork, the daily dose of harm, against the encircled wagons filled with skeptics, caused by ridicule-and-venom-tainted arrows, fired with flames lit, at will at anyone brave enough to ask, “Can I please have some more…information?” Needless to say, the masks were to become the totality of thought in this current breed of civilization, worn at all times under all circumstances in any condition. “For the sake of everyone’s life and yours. You idiot!” They chanted. Of course, there was a preeminent ethicist with many capital letters after his name, who propounded that if you do not socially distance and do what you are told, you should forgo any potential future medical help if you contract the infection.” As if that wasn't enough, the newspaper and the television meanwhile, the source of constant verbal badgering, lionized every COVID death and broadcast the daily numbers of infected cases in banner headlines for all to see and shrivel in fear. “Wear the mask or hope to die,” is what they seem to imply.

Yet there was this lingering scratch of scientific facts that seem to want a satisfying itch. The science of oxygenation. That tidy bit of factual data which has alluded all except a few. What about this breathing thing behind the mask, called the human? Is there potentially some harm to him or her? Does wearing the mask while driving cause some cognitive breakdown, akin to lowering of lights in a once brightly lit room? Does it? To answer that question, I came across this report buried under a mountain of “Hail to the Experts” reports. A car that veered off the road and hit a lonely tree. The driver of the car was wearing a mask and the conclusion was that the driver might have been mildly hypoxic (as in low oxygen in the blood). Some chock it to assumption and others as an anecdote, but scientific facts remain (1). There was something in it that piqued the brain cells into action and started firing electrical impulses all over the two cerebral hemispheres, especially among the skeptics.

SLR and CP 

The feral nature of that alarm triggered the bells. “Indeed, perhaps one should look at it.” The Cautionary Principle worried about minutia, the Scientific Lab Rat dug deeper into scientific facts.

Cautionary Principle: “So, what happens when you enclose the breathing mouth inside the mask?”

Scientific Lab Rat replied in his fake Yoda-ish speak: Interesting question, you ask CP?

CP: Well, what is it?

SLR: The atmospheric oxygen partial pressure at sea level is 20.94% of the composition of air. In those lung sacs, after you take a breath, the exerted oxygen partial-pressure is greater than that present in the tiny capillaries (blood vessels). The oxygen being at a higher pressure in the sacs and lower in the capillaries creates an oxygen exchange between high pressure and low pressure or from the sacs and into the tiny blood vessels, while the carbon dioxide as a byproduct of work from the rest of the body, has more pressure in the capillaries (for delivery to the lungs) compared to the sacs, hence, carbon dioxide flows from the capillaries and into the sacs to be breathed out.

CP: Nifty principle of nature. Mother Nature has her act together. I always knew it.

SLR: Yes! But since you bring this mask business into the equation, we have to change some of those parameters, don’t we?

CP: Do we? I don’t know but go ahead with your sermon, Mr. Rat.

SLR: I prefer my full name if you would please.

CP: Ok, Mr. Scientific Lab Rat, go on…



SLR: The breathed-out air or exhaled air as it is called has some different characteristics. It has only 16% pressure and additionally there is 4% of Carbon Dioxide mixed in it.

CP: So, how much was the Carbon Dioxide partial pressure in the fresh air, you say?

SLR: I didn’t, but the answer is 0.04% See this chart:

CP: You mean that the exhaled air has 400 times more carbon dioxide in it then inhaled air?

SLR: You catch on quickly CP!

CP: But that is preposterous!

SLR: It is if you don’t believe in science. Here see the chart:

CP: Skinny little whiskered rodent, that you are, I’ll let that go. Ok, so how does that matter in the scheme of things?

SLR: Well, let me put it simply; if you inhale 4% carbon dioxide (CO2) and only 16% oxygen you are causing combinatorial damage on your respiratory system and downstream into the rest of your body, your brain, your heart, your kidneys, etc.

CP: How so?

SLR: You would over time develop hypoxic hypoxia, I know that sounds like a typical duplicative use of the word, but technically that means that you are depriving your body of oxygen.

CP: So all those organs develop some bad consequences from low oxygen?

SLR: Yes Sherlock and, adding insult to injury, that CO2 causes something called hypercarbia, which can cause mild to moderate respiratory distress. It causes capillary leaking inside the lungs and leads to fluid stagnation inside the lung in the form of "wet lung" or pneumonia. The heart has to pump faster to get the same amount of oxygen and the added CO2 causes acidity in the blood and increases blood pressure, while the kidneys have to work harder to get rid of the excess acidity. All that acidity is bad for the body to fight off infections. See the irony there? or is that a whoosh off the top of your head?

images from Respiratory Care journal

CP: That’s bad, isn't it?

SLR: No kidding, genius. You know CP there is something eerily familiar about you and your policymakers. You are all the same, gifted with the principles of vacuum.

CP: Are you insulting me? I am more intelligent than any average human out there. You see, all activity flows after I have assessed the risk of that activity. Too little import of my ideas and businesses run awry. Too much and they become rudderless. I am Hamlet’s ship of state; too little regard or too much and both end in disaster.

SLR: Hamlet? Who is he?

CP: Move along, little fellow, that is beyond your comprehension.

SLR: Anyway, there is a Shakespearean tragedy in the making if you do not pay attention.

CP: My principles are up and taking notes. Go ahead, spill em out.

SLR: Hypoxia combined with hypercarbia (or increased CO2) leads to dysfunction of the brain. Hey, CP...Somewhere, at the beginning of this treatise, this author who writes about our dialog, has also written about a car accident. I believe, that definitely sounds like brain impairment from too little oxygenation of the brain cells. Perhaps you should read a little about this…(Read) and this (Read)

CP: Hmm…I will, in my spare time. Right now, give me the skinny on this. I have mounds of paper-work on my desk to read. Now give me an example of any other way such hypoxia can occur.

SLR: Climb up a mountain to about 7000 feet from your current level and do some exercise. You will be huffing and puffing with headaches, nausea, and a decline in your physical prowess in no time (2). Here is a snapshot of varying altitudes and oxygen partial pressures:

CP: Umm…you might be correct there. I do get short of breath when I go skiing in the Colorado mountains every year for the first few days. So how would that affect a person traveling in the airline wearing a mask?

SLR: You go skiing, especially with all the cautionary stuff you blab about all day?

CP: A Principle has to do what the Principle has to do.

SLR: As far as the airline travel, obviously it is easy to extrapolate; you are further reducing the oxygen since the cabin pressure altitude in most commercial airlines is at 7000-8000 feet and hence at 16% and wearing a mask is further increasing the relative hypercarbia (4% CO2) and hypoxia (around 13-14% oxygen partial pressure) with potentially deleterious effects (3). See the chart above:

CP: So why are they mandating masks in the airlines during travel?
SLR: Ask them. Oh and by the way, here is some interesting news for what it’s worth, “hypercarbic obese patients required longer to perform the executive and attention tasks.” I hope the pilots up in the cockpit are not wearing masks.

CP: Are you calling me fat?

SLR: No, never, just mentioning factual data to correlate with readily visible information. Although you do seem a bit rotund from my perspective. But hypercarbia in people with sleep apnea can be very harmful as well.

CP: I will ignore that for now. So, you say, that effect is similar to what would happen if you put a mask on?

SLR: I am saying, if you vary the oxygen and carbon dioxide ratios in your breathed in the air you will suffer the same fate. Here is some compelling information to digest; “hypercarbia may slow brain neural activity and cause neurobehavioral impairment. In a brain imaging study, breathing 5% CO2 significantly reduced all functional connectivity MRI indices in 14 healthy volunteers and resulted in a suppression of cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2), which was proportional to the end-tidal CO2 change. Another study found that 5% CO2 attenuated evoked and spontaneous magnetoencephalogram (MEG) spectral activity and decreased early sensory components in both auditory and visual modalities as well as cognitive components related to memory and language in 7 healthy volunteers. Hypoxia has been considered as a key determinant of neurocognitive dysfunction. impairment may well be due to a mixed effect of hypercapnia and hypoxia, and hypercapnia may play an even more important role.”

CP: Hmm…what Caution can I give on this principle? After all, the science bosses and the other high ly trained experts seem diligent and quite forceful in their mandates to have the masks on all the time in public and any place where there is another human being present.

SLR: That’s your problem. I’m here to give you relevant facts. Here is one more; “A majority of studies have reported impairments in the short-term verbal, and visual memory, as well as the long-term semantic memory, and procedural memory. Hypercapnia is a non-permissive environment.”
You, my dear expert CP, are now aware of the facts, now, you can decide what principles you want to adopt and the appropriate cautions you want to express.

CP: Yes, but these humans are weird. They do weird things.

SLR: Indeed, they do! For instance, the news-media was gushing at all the protestors and looters in the streets across the nation these past few days, while the protestors were protesting without masks and not social distancing and you guessed it, wearing masks! Clearly, your caution was not adhered to, that is if you did mention it to that crowd?

CP: Of course, I did! Caution, my dear little fella, is my advice about a hazard that could be a potential risk. So, don’t try your cheeky little probes with me.

SLR: So, the humans decided to throw your caution to the wind?

CP: They appeared to have?

SLR: (Silent).

CP: Darn these humans. They just keep upping the ante by doing something without clearly checking my cautionary principled mandates in-toto.

SLR: Yes, I have got to go. Toto and Dorothy are waiting, for Dorothy to click her heels as we speak.
CP: Smartass! Hey, don’t forget to wear your mask.

SLR: I will be by her red slippers and much nearer to Toto, so quite a distance from Dorothy’s mouth and hands. Don't think Toto is infected.

Liberation from prejudices and superstitions is enlightenment. Understanding is the key to making rational decisions. So, where does this mask story take us? That question can be answered with a fair degree of certainty if one spends an evening with reason itself, instead of following the dictates of popular pundits of the hour. In the end, wearing a mask may have little to do with protection and more to do with changing how society moves forward into the future. For prevention, the cautionary principles are quite certain and exact: Good hygiene (wash hands with soap and water, don't touch the eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands and keep at least 6 feet of distance from those that are ill, have a cough or sneeze or talk loudly. The people most at risk should abide by these cautionary principles, stay home, away from social gatherings if possible or socially distance if not able, and keep good hygiene until the virus dies its natural death thru contact with humans immunized via past infections, or via immunization (if a valid 100% effective vaccine is available). The risk of total disregard of these simple basic principles and throwing caution to the wind. far outweighs that being rash or ignorant.

1.     Wang, D., Thomas, R. J., Tee, B. J. & Grunstein, R. R. Hypercapnia is more important than hypoxia in the neuro-outcomes of sleep-disordered breathing. J. Appl. Physiol. 120, 1484–6 (2016)

2.     
      BMJ. 1998 Oct 17; 317(7165): 1063–1066. Oxygen and Altitude

3.     
      Xu F, Uh J, Brier MR, Hart J Jr, Yezhuvath US, Gu H, Yang Y, Lu H. The influence of carbon dioxide on brain activity and metabolism in conscious humans. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 31: 58–67, 2011.