There is absolutely NO shortage of things to be angry about when it comes to the response to COVID over 2020-2023'ish. That being said, this book was a fantastic "diary" written in real-time as that insanity was taking place. Very quickly into the "pandemic" I thought things were fishy but I was surrounded by people who bought the overarching story hook, line, and sinker. I could not for the life of me fathom why people were so gullible but when you realize that a terrified populace will comply with just about anything for the sake of safety, it makes a bit more sense. There were so many "takeaways" in this book but I have to trim down to the biggest ones. The "takeaways" from this book were more just a "oh yeah, I forgot about how stupid THAT was" right before moving onto another "oh yeah and THAT was really stupid too".....This book should be required material for anyone who thinks "oh the gov will definitely have a handle on ____"
***2020***
- May 5 / Neil Ferguson was one of the modelers who predicted AIRBORNE ARMAGGEDON! Same guy predicted 65k people in the UK would die of swine flu; the actual number was 457. He said that 200M people would die from bird flu; the actual number was 282. This clown, even after vouching for the most stringent lockdowns for everyone ELSE had some visitors himself, enough that he resigned from his position. What an absolute clown.
- May 6 / Lord Sumption, a British author and judge states early on "What sort of life do we think we are protecting? There is more to life than the avoidance of death. Life is a drink with friends. Life is a crowded football match or a live concert. Life is a family celebration with children and grandchildren. Life is companionship, an arm around one’s back, laughter or tears shared at less than two metres. These things are not just optional extras. They are life itself. They are fundamental to our humanity, to our existence as social beings. Of course death is permanent, whereas joy may be temporarily suspended. But the force of that point depends on how temporary it really is."
- May 25 / This "Daniel Uhlfelder" loser who dressed as the Grim Reaper handing out body bags to people enjoying themselves on the beach
- Aug 10 / Author passage "If I graph the progress of the virus in numerous states—some with bars open, others with them closed, some with restaurants open at 25 or 50 percent capacity (good luck staying in business like that) and some with restaurants fully open—you will not be able to tell me which is which. It’s all theater, egged on by politicians who have a unique opportunity to exercise power righteously, and to portray themselves as having saved lives even though the virus appears to peak and taper off according to the same pattern everywhere, regardless of our non-pharmaceutical intervention"
- Sep 3 / Studying the statistics and turns out the areas with the most extreme lockdowns had the HIGHEST spread of the virus; so weird, almost like staying inside and depriving yourself of Vitamin D while breathing in the same rotating air just MIGHT not be the best method to deal with an airborne virus
- Sep 14 / Doctor reports that an old lady broke her femur in a fall but was so terrified to leave her house that it remained fractured for MONTHS.
- Dec 16 / "If I’m elderly and in a nursing home and cannot see or embrace anyone in my family, and I cannot socialize or do anything, please don’t congratulate yourself for keeping me alive. You’ve already killed me"
- Dec 17 / "This is why decontextualized numbers don’t help us. We need to know what’s typical. Saying an ICU is 85 percent occupied sounds scary to people who don’t know anything. But they generally have to be at least that occupied for a hospital to stay afloat." This was the first thing that felt "off" to me in April of 2020; the news touted the doom and gloom that ICUs were at 88% capacity or something, which DOES sound bad. Taken in the context of a normal operating budget requires it be be 80% or something anyway, that just means that like one more person came in. Damn that critical thinking and context when it comes to propaganda.
***2021***
- Jan 26 / "Thus the government insisted on a mass early release of prisoners because an estimated 2,700 would die of the virus. In the event, 47 died. 'I appreciate that these estimates aren’t an exact science, but the difference between a prediction of 2,700 to the reality of 47 is embarrassing to say the least, and shows why the government must not hand over total policy control to the scientists who are clearly not infallible with their predictions.'"
- Feb 2 / Remember the "wear two masks" from Fauci?
- Mar 15 / "A recent study confirms that up to 78% of cancers were never detected due to missed screening over three months. If one extrapolates to the entire country, up to a million new cases or more over nine months will have gone undetected. That health disaster adds to missed critical surgeries, chemotherapy, organ transplants, presentations of pediatric illnesses, heart attack and stroke patients too afraid to call emergency services, and others, all well documented"
- May 12 / So many broken brains as a result of their nonsense..."My daughter made dinner reservations, and another friend invited them to see live music outside. It is important to note that my daughter has one shot of the vaccine, and that her long time friend not only had Covid, but is fully vaccinated, and the friend they are meeting had Covid—and they are all under 25, so already not at great risk"; anecdote continues that the long time friend had a panic attack and started freaking out about the crowded restaurant and the follow-on concert.
- May 20 / Fantastic multi-point takedown on how unbelievably ineffective (and just plain stupid) the masks were
- Aug 16 / "It is truly like living in a Kafka novel. Nothing makes sense. People touted as experts on TV repeatedly tell you things you can disprove with three mouse clicks, and most people act as if this is normal."
- Nov 14 / Remember when they redefined "vaccination"? 😡
***2022***
- Jan 6 / After an outbreak of COVID at a research station in Antarctica; "If this can happen as far away from civilization as it is possible to be, then forget about it. By depriving yourself of the joys of life all you’re doing is stealing time from yourself that you can never get back."
- Apr 22 / "We already knew that’s how Fauci felt about restraints on him or on “public health” at large, but it’s refreshing to hear him state it so clearly: you can’t have legal recourse against us because we’re looking out for what’s best for you."
- Jul 22 / "...drastically lowered my estimation of mankind. I am still flabbergasted at the nonsense so many people went along with, when the truth was not hard to find—and when these people’s very lives hung in the balance! They couldn’t even take a few minutes to figure out whether their lives were being ruined for a good reason or not?" - This right here is how I felt the entire time
- Sep 22 / "There is comfort in following the crowd even while it is stampeding in the wrong direction. We wouldn’t let go of lockdown even after the evidence of the harm it was causing became so compelling that the WHO itself came to reject it.”
***2023***
- Feb 7 / The entire entry is a pretty complete breakdown/pushback on the abject failure of "The Experts" during this time period; he references a document put together by some of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration with questions for "The Experts" to include the following;
Why did Fauci and Collins get such a monopoly on decision-making?
How many people had complications from diabetes as a result of lockdowns and being unable to visit the doc?
Anxiety, depression, alcoholism, suicide etc etc ALL increased as a result of lockdowns
Why were people discouraged to go OUTSIDE to exercise?
What were the rates of obesity during this time frame (hint, 42% of adults claimed to have gained an avg of 29lb)
What was the fallout of the small businesses that were forced to close as a result? What about those owners? Those employees?
How could the modelers have been SO WRONG?
Was there any clinical advice/input on the widespread use of ventilators (which ended up killing more people than necessary by blowing out their lungs)
At what point did the vaccine "can keep you from getting and spreading the virus" became an obvious lie that continued to be touted in the media?
Again, this book should be required reading if for no other reason as a reminder of how incompetent (and downright malicious) people can be if given a little power and a direction to use it.