As Covid cases rise, here we go again, again

By Walt Amses

Editor’s note: Walt Amses is a resident of North Calais.

As the current uptick of Covid comes into focus — likely more than reported since keeping track of infections became a political nonstarter — the initial fall season’s conspiracy theories are making their debut. 

Weirdest so far is that these new cases mark the beginning of the “die off”: Those who have gotten the vaccination(s), riddled with mysterious toxins, have reached their expiration dates, orchestrated ostensibly by a corrupt deep Sstate seeking to squelch our freedom by killing millions of us. Best not to overthink it. 

The 5,000 expiring boomers, punching their tickets each day for parts unknown, might inadvertently bolster the case, launching Quanonentities into their furrowed brow thinking and proclamations like “See, I told you!” They will again explore intravenous disinfectant as a viable medical intervention, proclaim “I did my own research,” breathlessly reminding us that epidemiologists “changed their minds,” advocating something different than they had suggested a few months earlier. 

Welcome to science, where minds (and recommendations) change based on available information. You know, data. Like if your drive route is blocked by a fallen tree or washed out road, you detour to an alternate roadway.

Of course, if rationality isn’t how you roll, the sky’s the limit on how far off road you can take it; IV bleach is mere prelude. As medical facilities, for instance, take more precautions with the virus on the increase, the outrage machine is primed and ready to go, cranking out more unsubstantiated nonsense.

With omicron EG.5 a “variant of interest” designated the dominant strain by the World Health Organization, medical experts suggest some — those at higher risk for severe disease, the elderly or people with compromised immune systems — consider wearing masks in public. And while a few colleges and businesses have announced mask requirements, there is no indication of any government-mandated restrictions, which predictably did not prevent Alex Jones from claiming “government lockdowns are coming,” citing his source as a “high-level manager” in the Transportation Security Administration.

Known mostly for his inhuman defamation of Sandy Hook parents, claiming the mass murder of their children was a “false flag” operation, for which he was eventually ordered to pay $1.5 billion in damages, Jones asserts without evidence that the country will return to “full Covid protocols by December.” 

Still able to peddle his swill, Jones may be one of the most prominent, but he is far from the only troll swirling around in the ether, bent on dangerously undermining trust in the institutions charged with maintaining public health, particularly in emergencies like a pandemic. 

The implications of this erosion of trust of institutions and professionals such as the WHO and CDC could seriously threaten a global health system that relies on public support for adequate funding, recruitment, retention of talent and adherence to best practices, according to the website thinkglobalhealth.com. 

While it’s no secret that identity politics, populism and especially anti-elitism — in working-class, rural America — are rampant and contribute to undermining trust in numerous institutions as well as the government itself, most Americans, 78%, maintain confidence in medical science in general, based on Pew Foundation surveys. But evidence gathered during the pandemic suggests that trust has dropped significantly, especially among those with conservative populist views.

While questions abound regarding who would believe the conspiracy theories associated with the widespread mistrust in all things governmental that we see today, the National Library of Medicine includes on its database an intriguing Portuguese study addressing precisely that, and provide policymakers a glimpse of the challenges they face reestablishing credibility in managing future pandemics. 

While this research demonstrates no apparent political bias, some of the theoretical models offer between-the-lines insight on how people’s fears can be manipulated into the rampant magical thinking that leads to belief in the unbelievable. We want to make sense of our social and physical environment(s), particularly after being isolated and lonely, and our facing perceived existential threats is the root of conspiracy theories. 

And once we have what the scientists call a “conspiracist mindset,” we are prone to seeing conspiracies where they do not exist. Another finding associates education levels — “lower analytic thinking, open mindedness and intuitive thinking” — with a tendency to attribute agency and “intentionality,” called persecutory ideation, especially when facing real-life events, negative emotions and perceptual anomalies.

While Americans face yet another uncertain autumn — with social gatherings moving indoors, another Covid variant becoming established, and increasing skepticism over vaccine protocols and masking — some right-wing Republicans appear intent on making what may be a bad situation exponentially worse. 

While none of this makes a lick of sense, in MAGA World that doesn’t seem to matter a bit.