https://t.co/ZLzH00ba8Q “Men . . . go mad in herds, while …

"So wrote Scottish journalist Charles Mackay in his 1841 book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, which for good reason to this day remains in print."

"The Covid-19 hysteria, scientifically called mass psychogenic illness, that began in March has yet to peak. And if some have it their way it will continue indefinitely, merely going, in medical terminology, from epidemic to endemic."

"That is, it will never fully go away no matter what."

"Except. For. One. That’s total elimination of the disease."

"That may be close to impossible and incredibly expensive to even try, but like eliminating all carbon emissions in a decade it is a goal."

"The problem, of course, is that we’ve never eliminated an airborne virus by quarantining healthy people and there’s no scientific breakthrough that has made that any more possible now than it’s ever been."

"For example, the masks virtually everyone is using, even first-liners, are no better than what some people used during the Spanish flu a century ago.

Social distancing dividers at various businesses and schools are just like the sneeze guards at the local buffet."

"So again, when do masks get to come off? Can we ever return to pre-Covid life? Or is the answer contained in the term “New Normal?” That is at least until Covid-19 is eliminated, which took 25 years with a smallpox vaccine."

"(By the way, the polio eradication program has a target date of 2005.) That’s not a typo.

And now it’s being threatened by a shift of resources to, you guessed it, Covid-19."

"As for Time’s “Worst Year Ever” cover, perhaps it’s a matter of perspective, as exemplified in the satirical term “First World Problem.” Which to a great extent is what Covid-19 is."

"Consider that all those comorbidities tied to higher mortality are related to the cultures of advanced societies – essentially bad diet, sedentary lifestyles, and simply living longer."

"Covid-19 this year could represent “a loss of less than 1/1,000th of the population’s remaining years to live,” according to one published analysis.

Imagine throwing a brick into an Olympic-sized pool and trying to measure a rise in the waterline."

"Meanwhile about 2.2 million children alone die each and every year in poorer countries from diarrhea, according to the CDC. That’s last year, this year, and next year as well.(Assuming coronavirus doesn’t drain anti-diarrheal efforts – which apparently it is."

"No Covid-19 shibboleth is more disingenuous than “All lives matter.”

Perhaps, but obviously some lives matter more than most."

"What we clearly have is a pandemic of self-absorption, part and parcel to mass psychogenic illness."

Ik had het niet beter kunnen omschrijven.

"At some point hopefully we will feel the shame of the Salem witch hunters and all those who aided and abetted them, those in the courts who squirmed and screamed every time a suspect witch was questioned."

Ik vrees dat dit moment nog even op zich laat wachten.

"Maybe we’ll shun the current panic-mongers, as those people were later shunned. But for now it’s full-bore hysteria."

"And there’s no end in sight. It’s more for that reason that, indeed, 2020 has been a very bad year."