To normal pathogens. Not new special especially deadly, evasive pathogens
We wouldn’t willingly expose kids to things like bubonic plague or HIV.
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My point is that you can’t have one without t’other.
You either let kids eat their pound of dirt, or you make them afraid of everything (including other people). The “because” is irrelevant.
As has been pointed out ad nauseam, it is not “especially deadly”, it is not deadly to kids, and it will become less evasive if we stop panicking about it. This is not bubonic plague.
Surely you guys realise that kids are exposed to far worse things than coronaviruses? I mean truly deadly diseases. The world is crawling with things that can kill you horribly. But they don’t kill you horribly because you have an immune system.
And nobody seems to have mentioned vaccines yet?
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Um, no. Children can and should be free to play outside and eat their pound of dirt. They will anyway, because they are hard-wired to explore the world with all their senses, unless their parents keep them indoors all the time and let them play video games, which many more people do these days, even pre-pandemic.
No one is making children afraid of everyone. Children are not, however, stupid, and they are observing and imitating the people around them. People I know in “friendly” places like the Midwest tell me that their neighbors no long give a friendly nod or smile as they pass. Because they don’t know if you might be carrying the COVID plague. And children notice this. Because children are not stupid. No one needs to tell them what to be afraid of. They learn their fear from those around them and right now being afraid that someone might have COVID is a perfectly reasonable fear, especially since pretty much everyone has lost at least one family member to COVID.
Because children can’t get them yet and until they do it’s best to use common sense.
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Sure, but I’m not sure that equates to young kids needing to inhale coronavirus. Kids are exposed to pathogens constantly and through multiple routes irrespective of whether they’re wearing masks for a few hours a day, so it’s not really the same as germ-free animal studies etc.
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Good God, man. You actually think this is a good thing? You think this is normal, healthy behaviour?
I suppose at least we can expect a big dip in human breeding in coming years, so that’s something.
But everyone else can. Terrified of the lurgy? Get vaccinated. Then you don’t have to be terrified of your children. And you don’t have to terrify them.
The statistics say that 1 in 600 Americans died of COVID. That’s a long way from “every family”. The problem here is that inculcating delusions and paranoia in the general public is that once you’ve done it, it’s there forever. You can’t just switch it off. A delusional disorder is virtually impossible to treat. It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with. It doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
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I know lots of kids in this category that are prefectly normal socially, even outgoing and filling leadership roles, and much more responsible than their peers.
I skipped a grade because I was “smart”. I’m not exactly a paragon of normalcy and responsibility. I’m actually extremely antisocial and steeped in phobias. My leadership qualities are about as good as Idi Amin’s were.
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Idi Amin did pretty well for himself, if you overlook the contents of his fridge.
Sure, but not in a leadership capacity.
He had refined tastes.
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“Lockdowns have protected the laptop class of young low-risk journalists, scientists, teachers, politicians and lawyers, while throwing children, the working class and high-risk older people under the bus.”
That’s my personal impression too. The idle rich were most vocally supportive of lockdowns because they could simply carry on with their idle lives and get their lattes delivered. Middle class business owners had their lives destroyed (which was, IMO, the explicit intention of lockdowns), but they at least survived. Those at the bottom were effectively told to dig a big hole in the ground and climb into it.
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When can we expect the paranoia vaccines to roll out? Jesus fugging christ.
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Perhaps it is time that CNN and MSNBC get shut down for covid misinformation:
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I remember back in mid-2020, a large-ish fraction of the British public thought that 5% of the population had already died of COVID. Although that can be partly explained by the fact that a lot of Britons are idiots and don’t know what percentages are, a big factor was the carpet-bombing of the public with propaganda (“if you let your kids hug granny, granny will die”).
I guess Americans are subjected to different sorts of propaganda depending on their preferred news outlets.
That is certainly true, and it is true of both Covid and the risk of vaccinations, unfortunately. It’s crazy that all of this is politicized, but it’s understandable that faith in our institutions is so low.
Speaking of public opinion what do your Taiwanese wives say when you tell them that the COVID situation in Taiwan would be even better if Taiwan had never adopted vaccines, masks, and quarantines? I have yet to encounter a single Taiwanese person who isn’t baffled by that approach.
Umm…what now? I have one wife, and what difference does her nationality make?
Umm…what now? Whoever said that? Taiwan had a problem getting anyone at all vaccinated, which is how I could take it despite not being in the first 8 or so groups eligible to get it in April and May.
That is unsurprising, as you seem to have developed a narrative in your head which doesn’t exist. I’m also baffled.
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I did try to explain to my wife that we should find a Taiwanese wife for me because I have to research the public opinion this way, but she did not like this idea at all.
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My local partner’s wives are definitely anti-maskers and don’t adhere to any of the Covid restrictions. One got her first jab and due to the bad reaction she called an ambulance to the office. Now none of the office ladies are willing to get the shot. Wewe