Four Lessons That We (Should Have) Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the Delta (Eris) variant increases, these lessons will help us combat this new variant.

I originally wrote and posted this article on August 1st, 2021, during the midst of the pandemic. This and other articles eventually got me kicked off Medium for “counterperspectives and unpopular opinions.” I’m reposting it here on Substack (especially as we’re hearing “waves” on the topic recirculating). Enjoy!

Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash

Before the year 2020, you probably never heard of the Spanish Flu of 1918. You probably never heard of how the influenza pandemic of 1918 changed America.

You probably never heard Anthony Fauci’s name, the terms mRNA technology, or were even familiar with what an immunologist does.

These new definitions to your vocabulary show how the average individual has increased their knowledge in virology, the study of viruses. Comparing the awareness base from 2019 thru 2021, we can say that that awareness has increased ten-fold.

And this is a good thing. As the world took on the COVID-19 pandemic, we became more aware of what this pandemic brought with it. And for a moment, it looked like we were out in the clear. But with the Delta variant, it seems like we are heading back to where things were in 2020.

Since we may be going back to our pre-pandemic knowledge base, here are four essential items that we’ve learned in the following year about pandemics, mRNA companies, and more. Hopefully, as we attack the Delta variant, we’ll be able to use the tools of science at our disposal.

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Point Number One: Anti-Maskers are Smart and Educated

During the pandemic, we came face to face with those anti-maskers, those individuals who decided not to wear masks and go against the science. When describing this anti-masker group, the mainstream media used derogatory terms — even politicizing them with the Republican party.

However, MIT published a study on this anti-masker group and found some interesting results. The study followed anti-maskers threads and social posts to see and understand what the anti-maskers were thinking. When they infiltrated the anti-maskers secret lair, the researchers were impressed at what they found. The following is an excerpt from the MIT article.

We basically created a network of communities who are interacting with each other. Clusters included groups like the “American media community” or “anti-maskers.” The researchers found that anti-mask groups were creating and sharing data visualizations as much as, if not more than, other groups.

And those visualizations weren’t sloppy. “They are virtually indistinguishable from those shared by mainstream sources,” says Satyanarayan. “They are often just as polished as graphs you would expect to encounter in data journalism or public health dashboards.”

“It’s a very striking finding,” says Lee. “It shows that characterizing anti-mask groups as data-illiterate or not engaging with the data, is empirically false.

So it turns out that these hillbilly, conservative, anti-maskers are using science to make decisions for themselves! Who would’ve ever known?

Next time the media categorizes a group as anti-anything, refer to the following piece from the study:

Jones says the anti-mask groups’ “idea of science is not listening passively as experts at a place like MIT tell everyone else what to believe.” He adds that this kind of behavior marks a new turn for an old cultural current. “Anti-maskers’ use of data literacy reflects deep-seated American values of self-reliance and anti-expertise that date back to the founding of the country, but their online activities push those values into new arenas of public life.”

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Point Number Two: Moderna and BioNTech were precision medicine companies before entering the pandemic

As mentioned earlier, 2020 was the first time most individuals heard the term “mRNA technology.” Once the pandemic hit, we were told that the only way out of the pandemic was with a vaccine, and it would take 18 months to create one.

The world could not wait 18 months — in fact, the world barely waited nine months. How did manufacturers produce such a novel vaccine so fast?

It turns out that the two companies which produced the first vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, had been working on this mRNA technology for quite sometime before the pandemic.

These mRNA technologies were known as precision medicine, and they were heavily promoted as treating all sorts of diseases before COVID came on the scene. According to the Unlimited Hangout:

“Prior to COVID-19 and the vaccine roll outs, the mRNA vaccine technology used by the DARPA-funded companies Moderna and Pfizer were marketed as being precision medicine treatments and were largely referred to as “gene therapies” in media reports. They were also promoted heavily as a revolutionary method of treating cancer…”

To summarize, Moderna and BioNTech had had mRNA technology sitting and waiting, collecting dust, just waiting for an opportunity to go to use. The pandemic afforded both companies that opportunity.

Just look at how their stock prices have soared recently. Before 2020, both companies with their gene therapy were trading at under $50 per share. Now, both are over $300 per share.

Moderna Stock

BioNTech Stock

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Point Number Three: Lockdowns are detrimental to society

When the pandemic first hit, the message was, “two weeks to flatten the curve.” At first, it seemed like a great idea. But then, two weeks became two months, and we saw no end in sight.

During the lockdown, instead of flattening the curve, what was being flattened was the life of society. Many studies have shown the devastating effects that the lockdowns had on society.

For one, they robbed our children and future generation. Here’s the AIER and their callouts:

Before Covid, an American youth died by suicide every six hours. Suicide is a major public health threat and a leading cause of death for those aged under 25 — one far bigger than Covid. And it is something that we have only made worse as we, led by politicians and ‘the science,’ deprived our youngest members of society — who constitute one-third of the US population — of educational, emotional and social development without their permission or consent for over a year.

And it’s not just our children who are suffering. Our poor people are suffering as well. We claim to be looking out for their best interest, but the data shows otherwise.

And as we’re bracing for the Delta variant, let’s remind ourselves that the Olympics are happening right now. You may wonder, how are the Olympics occurring during the middle of a pandemic? What about the spread of the virus?

From ABC News, we have the following:

The Tokyo Olympics should not be judged by the tally of COVID-19 cases that arise because eliminating risk is impossible, the head of the World Health Organization told sports officials Wednesday as events began in Japan.

If only this same logic can be applied to our society. You can never eliminate the risk — you learn to deal with it.

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Point Number Four: Vaccines didn’t help with the previous pandemics.

Vaccines have always been totted around as the cure to pandemics, but if we look closely, they never helped with any of the previous pandemics.

According to STAT NEWS:

…There were no flu vaccines in 1918, when the world didn’t yet know that the great influenza was caused by a virus, H1N1. In 1957, when the H2N2 pandemic swept the world, the flu vaccine was mainly a tool of the military. In the pandemic of 1968, which brought us H3N2, the United States produced nearly 22 million doses of vaccine, but by the time it was ready, the worst of the pandemic had passed, and demand subsided. That “too little and too late” phenomenon played out again in 2009, when the world finally had the capacity to make hundreds of millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine; some countries canceled large portions of their orders because they ended up not needing them.

This is where the mic drop occurs. There has been no need for vaccines because humanity always overcomes these pandemics.

Unfortunately, unlike times past, this current pandemic is happening when mainstream media, pharmaceutical companies, and many more are capitalizing — pushing a vaccine that doesn’t stop the spread. This opportunity grab may have occurred in the past, but not to the extent we’re currently seeing.

But how do we get out of the pandemic? Easy. We do nothing. According to STAT NEWS again:

Humans and viruses reached an immunological détente. Instead of causing tsunamis of devastating illness, over time the viruses came to trigger small surges of milder illness. Pandemic flu became seasonal flu.

The viruses became endemic.

Essentially, we all need to relax because we, as humans, always come out on top. No novel vaccine needed.

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Conclusion

As we hear about the Delta variant, we need to reflect on the pandemic’s lessons this past year. To summarize, here are the four takeaways afforded to us:

1. Anti-maskers are showing us that there’s more than one way to look at science.

2. Unless you’re interested in taking vaccine doses from a gene therapy company, its best to avoid the mRNA technologies

3. Lockdowns have no positive outcomes associated with them. The best approach is to accept the risks that come with the pandemic.

4. Vaccines haven’t stopped any pandemic to date. They’re not going to stop this one.

The best thing you can to do arm yourself against the pandemic is with knowledge — and not the knowledge that’s fed to you. You have to be the one to do the research for yourself. For that’s how we’ve ever beat these pandemics.

With knowledge — and not overacting.

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