We no longer have a typical pandemic (what is a typical pandemic, anyway?).
We have this ongoing situation with a virus that mutates and spreads in order to survive. It’s a son of a bitch, and at this point, in a recent co-published article in ProPublica and Vanity Fair, the investigation goes deep into the lab that coincidentally is located near the market where the other investigators who have gathered have pointed to as the “source”. Some sort of animal that they say brought this virus over the wall into the human population. Despite that this is one way these viruses vectorize, the coincidence of this happening in the very same city where there is a major global research lab studying this same type of virus has a minuscule percentage chance that this coincidence is correlative. As big as the world is and hey, that really isn’t very believable, is it?
In a jungle setting, maybe. Or out in a place where people are sweeping up excrement where the virus was shed by the animal hosts, okay, that’s fathomable, but since there is so little access to who patient zero actually was/is, and what they did – like buy some interesting raw meat from a local market, then got sick… well, it’s not probable and in some circles, it seems outlandish. Yeah.
But this animal chosen for the patsy… the Pangolin. Geeze, I would think something more believable might be used – but I’m sure there is a reason for why this one was chosen which is likely rooted in the local culture and not ours.
Here below is an illustration of what these critters look like. Yeah, I wouldn’t think, “mmmmm, let’s fricassee that for dinner”, either, but that’s me. It could be the equivalent of a turkey dinner at Thanksgiving that we are looking at – the turkey part, I mean… And possibly, the idea of eating a turkey is weird to some. So there is that.
But nonetheless, Chinese cuisine often uses ingredients that are interesting and unusual to westerners. Like the time a co-worker brought me this little packet that contained tiny dried fish with slivered almonds, eaten as a snack, he said, in his home country (an island off the mainland of China). So, I tried not to laugh, because it seemed ludicrous, but I also thought, this is the guy who introduced me to wasabi peas, which I used to be addicted to, but that was another day and time, and I had to stop…
I never tried the fishy almonds. I could not get over that hurdle of attempting to assign a category to that flavor combination. I reserve judgement.
We won’t criticize other people’s cuisines. Many times throughout my life I have been introduced to new cuisines. The majority of those have been positive experiences. We just have our own preferences and some rules that we think are important.
- I don’t eat raw animal parts from mammals. Sometimes, I eat oysters raw, and raw fish like in sushi, and fish eggs like in sushi and caviar, but those have been treated with stuff that minimizes them making me sick (although there are warnings).
- I don’t eat stuff I can’t identify readily that isn’t cooked. And I don’t eat raw poultry, pork, or other herd animals – only occasionally raw/rare beef – but that has to be the good stuff.
- If I can’t understand what is in something, I won’t eat it – someone has to ‘splain… I have too many allergies. ‘Nuff said.
Related to eating interesting animals, I’m sure that the closest we might come is rattlesnake chili, maybe? Who knows?
And then there are those here in ‘merca who hunt squirrels, opossums, and other critters that I wouldn’t eat if you paid me. Deedle deet deet deet deet deet dee dee dum.
BUT, back to the article, according to the thorough, still ongoing investigation, by a team with a guy who is an expert in the nuances of communication flavors used by various levels and groups of people in that locale, it is looking more to be like an accidental release from that lab that coincidentally studies coronaviruses is a strong possibility for why this nightmare began and how it got started. Just framing out the details will take time and of course, there will likely never be any validation of that from people in the locale. They are not like that. Imagine that.
But of course there is all the cover-up falderah that really seems to be the tell-tale sign that the first story about the animal for sale in the market is a bullshit story. For every cover-up story there is a reason. For every picture, there is a story behind it. What that is is the feed-stock for conspiracies and those are plentiful by now, depending on the day and who you ask.
So, here we are tailing towards the end of year three.
We have this continually evolving threat for which the pharmaceutical companies are being paid zillions to keep making new versions of the vaccines and boosters. We know that this bug impacts people differently. We know it’s going to be around forever. Kind of like influenza but potentially more deadly. You compare the statistics of influenza deaths to COVID-SARS-2 deaths and that tells the story.
So, we go and get our boosters when they come available and pray like hell that we don’t get a bad case. The contrast is that one person can have NO symptoms and another person exposed at the same time can have a hell of a case, with lots of symptoms. What is this discriminatory situation? We have our immune systems as the potential differentiator. We have our DNA differences that potentially could spell out how we respond to viral threats. Again, the ongoing research is prolific and evolving.
Despite the hiccup, we still trust science, because news people may be investigator generalists, but once you get into the science part, it takes a lot of edumication to understand the field of virology as a category of biology and medicine, both. However we categorize the hierarchy, the learning is very detailed and intense to become a virologist. There would never be a day that I would call one of them stupid. I am smart enough to understand when something is clearly out of my wheelhouse. Some people aren’t and they have loud mouths to broadcast their stupidity.
Advice to those who are doubters. Don’t be stupid. Recognize your own strengths and weaknesses. You look like a fool when you don’t. You have to ask yourself, “what is the value of me behaving like this?” If you can’t answer that question, then maybe you ought to think about why you behave like that. It’s harmful. Start making sense if you have a brain. We feel sorry for you if you don’t.