Before plunging into a controversial and polarizing rant about the pandemic, I’d like to begin with a couple of disclaimers: first and foremost, I am profoundly saddened by all the suffering the virus’ victims and their loved ones have endured. I wouldn’t wish sickness and death even on bad people, let alone the millions of good people affected by all of this.

Second, I feel bad for those gripped with fear, and although it’s tempting to laugh at the absurdity of watching people wearing masks while driving alone in their cars, or walking into a restaurant masked for five seconds until they get to their tables, and then eating, drinking, and gabbing unmasked for the next two hours, I try to be empathetic.
Finally, I don’t think there was a concerted effort by elite, ominous stringpullers who seek world domination or a population-reduced Utopia to intentionally unleash this virus and/or create a vaccine containing a health-hazardous mind-controlling chip.

That said, I do believe in agendas. Most of them – because most people are good – are well-intentioned. For instance, my daughter is routinely exposed to horror stories in school about the dangers of smoking. The goal, scaring her into never trying a cigarette, let alone developing that habit, is indubitably a good and noble one. But it’s a narrative carefully crafted to promote a particular agenda. For instance, I doubt her teachers will tell her about George Burns – who smoked 12 cigars (and drank a three Martinis) per day, and lived to be 100 – or millions of other lifelong chainsmokers without significant health issues.
Similarly, I believe the pandemic’s powers-that-be have a well-intentioned agenda in mind: vaccinate the universe. I don’t think Big Pharma secretly believes vaccines don’t work but makes and sells them anyway just to get rich, but I do think they sincerely deem vaccines miraculous panaceas, so they’re relentless in spreading them worldwide, and perfectly happy raking in billions the process. Similarly, companies that make masks truly believe they’re saving lives, so they have zero qualms about selling glorified doo-rags to hundreds of millions, or masks that actually work – namely, N95s – without including vital instructions about how to properly use and clean them.

Next, I believe vaccines are the best option for some, but not all. If all you’re going to do is sit around and hope you don’t get infected, then maybe the vax is your best bet. But if you spent years preparing your body for such a calamity, then maybe it’s not (NOTE: this is just my opinion, and I’m neither a scientist nor a physician, so take that into consideration).
My family and I got COVID over Christmas. Not to sound flippant, but we were genuinely hoping for it and even high-fived each other when we tested positive. We were happy about the Omicron variant and considered it the best of all situations: a milder version that, once out of our systems, would give us natural immunity, which we consider to be better than a vaccine. We spent the previous year ingesting a daily regimen of Vitamins C and D, quercitin, and zinc, and upon testing positive an immediate (the key here is immediate) five-day stretch of taking ivermectin, followed by another five days of a Z-pack. These were prescribed by our doctors – yes, real, licensed medical doctors. Monoclonal antibodies and hydroxychloroquine were also available for us, but thankfully, our symptoms were few and mild, and so we didn’t need them.

I felt guilty for being bummed that I couldn’t taste or smell for three days, considering so many others truly suffered and even lost their lives. Nonetheless, I coped by eating really spicy food, just to feel a burn on my tongue, and sniffed items emitting powerful odors. I couldn’t taste the wonderful flavors of my single malt Scotch, but it still gave me a nice buzz.

During this time, several friends and family members also contracted the virus. Most also had very mild symptoms, some more serious ones. There were vaxxed and unvaxxed in each category. Those barely affected were convinced it was specifically due to getting the vaccine or not getting it. I don’t know who’s right, but I respect their approach, as they all did what they thought was best for themselves and their families. What I don’t respect is an arrogance of certainty that has infected our society even worse than the virus did; people really need to accept the fact that they could be wrong – about anything.

Speaking of being wrong, I really, really hope that I’m wrong about this prediction: omicron is literally just a little ‘o’. I think the next variant – if there is one, God forbid – will be named Sigma (which sounds ominous, like stigma), and the final chapter will be Omega, which sounds more intimidating than all the others. Why these scary names? To get more people to vaccinate, of course – oh, and to spike the ratings of news outlets, which also believe they’re performing a beneficial public service, and so they’re perfectly happy to make a nifty profit along the way.

Like millions of other people, I continue to have some questions. Most prevalently: 1) why are we administering vaccines when, historically, we do so when there aren’t other viable remedies? 2) Why are the health care muckety-mucks so paranoid about losing control of the narrative? And 3) whatever happened to the flu?

I pray there’s no more suffering for anyone, and that everyone gets a very mild case of the virus, so that it can become a normal part of our lives – just like the common cold, which 300 years ago may have been a deadly virus, too.

NOTE: According to the CDC, treatments used for COVID-19 should be prescribed by your healthcare provider. People have been seriously harmed and even died after taking products not approved for use to treat or prevent COVID19, even products approved or prescribed for other uses. Talk to your healthcare provider about what option may be best for you.