Civil society recognizes citizen responsibilities to protect the safety and wellbeing of others as well as to resist transformational assaults on basic individual liberties premised upon “a greater common good.”
Public and individual responses to a very terrifying and traumatic coronavirus pandemic have created a consequential conflict between these two externalities, where one person’s behavior can put another at momentary risk, whereas authoritarian diktats that abrogate individual rights put everyone’s freedom perpetually at risk.
The deadly coronavirus caught the entire world off guard, posing a mass survival threat which legitimately called for extreme safeguard and intervention measures.
Whole countries shut down travel; states and communities locked down residents and prohibited public gatherings; parents did their best to home school and monitor children “distance learning;” masks became ubiquitous social attire as people suspiciously circled around each other in six-foot arcs; and high-risk elderly populations were “compassionately” isolated from society altogether.
And as grandma and gramps died alone; drug use, alcoholism and suicide rates escalated; children’s social skills and educational performance plummeted; and businesses and family budgets collapsed; COVID still thrives.
Some promising vaccines came along – even much sooner than predicted – and it seemed for a while that maybe we could all finally get back to “normal.”
But the virus had other ideas. It elusively morphed, and it continues to do so.
One vax jab proved insufficient for lasting immunity, then two weren’t enough, so maybe a third or fourth booster might work.
Or, then again, maybe not.
A retired medical doctor pal and his wife, both of whom have had COVID – following up with two inoculation jabs plus a booster for her – later both contracted Omicron.
And after two vaccine jabs, I caught it also…very likely from them. Fortunately, my current symptoms are very mild – much like a moderate allergy experience – and perhaps I can thank the vaccine for that.
Nevertheless, based again on people close to me, those jabs came with other big risks.
My formerly healthy niece suffered a stroke very soon after receiving a shot, and my sister developed a lung clot which may or may not be attributable to her injections.
These family incidents prompted medical analyses that determined that I carry a family genetic variant that substantially increases a vaccine clotting and stroke risk. Had I been aware of this circumstance prior to my two injections, the personal decision would have been a very difficult and sobering one.
Special high-risk circumstances as an 84-year-old cancer survivor who electively continues to teach my graduate students face-to-face would have required choosing between added dangers posed by injection on one hand, versus equally serious potential consequences of infection on the other.
On a more encouraging note, according to a December average case lethality rate in South Africa, the likely omicron variant origin, deaths of those infected tumbled from 8% to 0.2% over a six-week period … reaching levels barely higher than resulting from the seasonal flu.
Assuming that omicron confers new complimentary antibodies on its victims, the milder pathogen may quite conceivably offer a “natural vaccine” against other more lethal COVID variants.
Curing the present plague of deadly viral politics is quite a separate matter.
Recall that former candidate Biden had centrally campaigned that he had a plan to shut down the virus – not the country – although also pushing a narrative at the time that President Trump’s Project Warp Speed vaccines couldn’t be trusted.
Since then, universal en mass applications of those same emergency use-qualified vaccines now comprise the Biden administration’s “new” COVID intervention plan – including those who have already gained natural immunity through infection, work from home, or have religious or medical reasons for refusal.
Perhaps even more consequential, these experimental treatment regimens are being pushed on young very low-mortality children with no possible way to calibrate the extent of added recognized long-term cardiac risks, plus other currently unknown dangers.
On top of that, the Biden administration has also issued broad federal rules requiring that tens of millions of government workers and military personnel be vaccinated, along with an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirement that private companies nationwide with 100 or more employees be injected or regularly tested.
The Supreme Court began to hear arguments on Jan. 7 in cases challenging the vaccinate-or-test rule for large employers as well as the vaccination mandate for staff at healthcare providers participating in Medicare and Medicaid.
The question shouldn’t be whether OSHA has constitutional authority to require mandates, but rather – either way – if they should exercise it.
Key mRNA vaccine developer Dr. Robert Malone, who nevertheless strongly opposes mandatory injection requitements, describes a phenomenon known as “mass formation psychosis” which draws parallels to a mentality that occurred among the German population in the 1920s and 1930s in which highly intelligent, educated people went “barking mad.”
Dr. Malone explains: “When you have a society that has become decoupled from each other and has free-floating anxiety that things don’t make sense, we can’t understand it. And then their attention gets focused by a leader or series of events on one small point, just like hypnosis. They literally become hypnotized and can be led anywhere.”
What are some signs that Malone might be right?
We have seen cheerlessly staged fear-messaging Christmas holiday season video footage of President Joe Biden and wife Jill wearing masks as they walk alone together on a beach.
We have watched COVID lockdowns and attendant lawlessness that filled a vacuum of activity transform the once great, spirited city of Manhattan into a barren woebegone colony of sheeple.
Most egregiously, we continue to witness our nation’s children suffer from inferior education, mental health issues, and denial of normal social relationships and activities as politically powerful teachers’ lobbies such as the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) use a new, milder omicron variant as an excuse to again force classroom shutdowns.
Let’s take heart that this latest omicron strain – which is rapidly becoming dominant – seems to have followed the lead of the common cold and flu virus in figuring out that its long-term interests are best served by taking up residence in host progeny incubators without killing them.
Despite spreading like wildfire, omicron is producing far fewer hospitalizations or casualties than the previous delta strain. Also, many of those who are becoming infected have received multiple COVID-19 vaccinations and/or have naturally attained antibodies from a previous bout with the pathogen.
In other words, they are being accultured by evolution to live with us. And we may have to apply the same logic to live with them without killing our culture as well.
I, for one, will take my chances with surviving a virus over certain death of liberty that makes life meaningful.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 11 books, "Beyond Flagpoles and Footprints: Pioneering the Space Frontier" co-authored with Buzz Aldrin (2021), is available on Amazon along with all others. Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.