Is there social consensus about the terrible disease ravaging the United States and the globe, including the Intermarium? No. Two contradictory narratives have emerged.
One is that the pandemic is real and lethal and we must follow all directives from the government to save ourselves. The other position argues that the virulence of COVID-19 has been exaggerated and we should make our own choices regarding the orders from the powers-that-be.
Let’s call the first attitude “liberal” and the second “conservative,” for the lack of better labels.
Adherents of competing schools have incorporated the pandemic into their mental universe in congruence with their ideological preferences, or cultural prejudices, whether consciously or not.
On the origins of the pandemic the “liberal” party tends to deny the Chinese connection. But the narrative has shifted now to stressing that we do not have enough evidence to place the blame squarely on Wuhan labs. True enough. Yet, this is so because the Chinese government neither shares information nor allows us to investigate independently.
In distinction, the “conservative” side has always been firmly convinced that the CCP did it. There are only differences of opinion whether it was intentional or not.
For example, in spring 2020, when COVID-19 rampaged first, I told my closest family in Poland that we should expect three to five years of the global pandemic and then there would be occasional outbreaks regionally for some years to come.
They were baffled. Why?
Historical evidence suggests such an outcome, I responded.
In the mid-14th century, the Black Death raged for about that long in Europe. Same applies to the Spanish Flu in the early 20th century.
They waved it off: that was then. Now we have science and technology on our side. It will be over in a jiffy. We just have to follow the instructions.
By the way, my family in Poland can in no way be classified as “liberals.” They are anti-Communist conservatives.
However, they are highly educated (mathematics and engineering) and are great fans of science. And science was supposed to be the key to making COVID-19 irrelevant.
Well, it has not.
As the pandemic spread, the “liberals: touted vaccination as the philosopher’s stone. It is not.
I got news from Singapore and Israel. Both are the most jabbed societies on earth. Yet both have seen reoccurring bouts of infection, including of vaccinated individuals.
And the numbers are through the roof.
Because the coronavirus mutates, the original vaccines become less efficient.
The “conservatives” interpret this as a mandate to reject not only inoculation is of dubious value, if not useless at all, but also other precautions, such as masks. They also point out the express way the vaccines became available, which, for them, indicates insufficient testing.
Japan has taught me that masks work to protect others if I am infected. Sick people routinely wear masks on the Tokyo subway for that reason, pandemic or not.
Regular masks (since they are not the HAZMAT suit) are too porous to protect us properly. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci has admitted as much.
The knowledge about all this, and the pandemic-weariness, stands behind the swelling wave of unrest in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. While the “liberals” consider the opponents of vaccines and masks as benighted threats to public health and order, the “conservatives” find no logic in following the government strictures which violate individual freedom.
In the U.S. we have “my body, my choice” and constitutionalist vaccination objectors; in Europe the folks object to what they dub as the “COVID apartheid.” They therefore oppose violently the so called COVID passports.
Israel’s Minister of Health himself admitted that “there is no medical or epidemiological justification for the Covid passport ("green pass"), it is only intended to pressure the unvaccinated to vaccinate.”
A friend in France confirms the anger of hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen who take to the streets weekly to object to “COVID apartheid.”
Vaccinate and mask and you can ride public transportation or use restaurants. Otherwise, it is verboten. Germans, Danes, and others have taken to the streets to object.
What is truly amazing is that the foreign narratives reaching me reflect very much the story lines developed originally in the United States.
It does not mean that the international stories of COVID-19 are identical. Rather, they echo to American-like concerns, while grounding themselves in local, native affairs.
I am sorry to report that there is no happy end yet in sight.
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz is Professor of History at the Institute of World Politics, a graduate school of statecraft in Washington D.C.; expert on East-Central Europe's Three Seas region; author, among others, of "Intermarium: The Land Between The Baltic and Black Seas." Read Marek Jan Chodakiewicz's Reports — More Here.
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