Is Covid over?

What were your early thoughts about COVID when Covid was just starting? I remember a guy saying something like,"When COVID was just starting, I thought,"It's only 100 COVID cases in China, in another Continent, on the other side of the world. I really don't care about COVID. When it went to 1,000 cases in China, I thought,"This could be a HUGE problem. Now that it's 1 Million cases of Covid in the United States, I'm completely freaking out!"

I personally didn't even know what COVID was until someone on a Gambling Website of all places around January 20th said something like,"There are IDIOTS still going on Cruises with the Coronavirus starting to circulate the world! Enjoy testing positive for Coronavirus, IDIOTS!" I remember thinking,"What the hell is Coronavirus? 🤨 Does this Poster mean the Norovirus(stomach flu) 🤔 Is there a bad Norovirus outbreak circling the world?🤔 I visited Google and I saw that Coronavirus was Trending on Google. I thought,"There's that Coronavirus word again. I found out that Coronavirus was much worse than the Norovirus and I thought,"Coronavirus sounds awful! 😱😳🥶😵‍💫 I hope it gets eradicated VERY soon! It literally was about THREE years later when it was said to be over. 😱😳🥶😵‍💫

Quote: Riverjordan

What were your early thoughts about COVID when Covid was just starting? I remember a guy saying something like,"When COVID was just starting, I thought,"It's only 100 COVID cases in China, in another Continent, on the other side of the world. I really don't care about COVID. When it went to 1,000 cases in China, I thought,"This could be a HUGE problem. Now that it's 1 Million cases of Covid in the United States, I'm completely freaking out!"

I personally didn't even know what COVID was until someone on a Gambling Website of all places around January 20th said something like,"There are IDIOTS still going on Cruises with the Coronavirus starting to circulate the world! Enjoy testing positive for Coronavirus, IDIOTS!" I remember thinking,"What the hell is Coronavirus? 🤨 Does this Poster mean the Norovirus(stomach flu) 🤔 Is there a bad Norovirus outbreak circling the world?🤔 I visited Google and I saw that Coronavirus was Trending on Google. I thought,"There's that Coronavirus word again. I found out that Coronavirus was much worse than the Norovirus and I thought,"Coronavirus sounds awful! 😱😳🥶😵‍💫 I hope it gets eradicated VERY soon! It literally was about THREE years later when it was said to be over. 😱😳🥶😵‍💫

My personal thought was it was just the latest scare like SARS or various monkey virus scares from Africa. I was never afraid of the virus but I quickly became scarily amazed at people's reactions to it. Thinking 6 ft was OK but 5 ft was going to kill you. Wearing a useless mask in the car alone. Heck, the week it started I had to get a computer part for work from home and they would not meet me, just left it in the outer office in one of their drop boxes like we were doing a Mike Ehrmentraut dead drop.

And I still see some people with the masks! It is plainly clear we have part of society that is scared of everything and another part that refuses to be that way with a mostly-conformist middle.

Still not vaxed. Was hospitalized and nearly died in 2022, everyone asked if it was the china virus. Told them, "nope, other things!" Showing that if your number is up it is up, don't live in fear.

Quote: AZDuffman

don't live in fear.

That is a mantra that I subscribe to.

In hindsight, did the government over-react to Covid?

No.

It killed a lot of Americans, "culling the herd" as some wags might say, and it wasn't til vaccines were in place that it calmed down.

No regrets.

The only people who still talk about Covid in 2024 are bitter anti-vaxxers who are mad that their fringe views will always be ridiculed.

The rest of us have moved on.

Quote: AZDuffman

My personal thought was it was just the latest scare like SARS or various monkey virus scares from Africa. I was never afraid of the virus but I quickly became scarily amazed at people's reactions to it. Thinking 6 ft was OK but 5 ft was going to kill you. Wearing a useless mask in the car alone. Heck, the week it started I had to get a computer part for work from home and they would not meet me, just left it in the outer office in one of their drop boxes like we were doing a Mike Ehrmentraut dead drop.

And I still see some people with the masks! It is plainly clear we have part of society that is scared of everything and another part that refuses to be that way with a mostly-conformist middle.

Still not vaxed. Was hospitalized and nearly died in 2022, everyone asked if it was the china virus. Told them, "nope, other things!" Showing that if your number is up it is up, don't live in fear.

I did think it would be like Ebola which was only a problem globally for a few moments, my "I hope it gets eradicated VERY soon!" Was me thinking it was like Ebola. How wrong we were! 🥶💡🤔😵‍💫😱😳

Quote: Riverjordan

I did think it would be like Ebola which was only a problem globally for a few moments, my "I hope it gets eradicated VERY soon!" Was me thinking it was like Ebola. How wrong we were! 🥶💡🤔😵‍💫😱😳

We had many of these post-2000. Every few years there would be a scare. Then it died down.

There was no reason for all the shutdowns for covid. No reason for the masks. It was all about looking like something was being done. Even at that we had a segment of the population upset that Trump did not run around telling everyone to wear masks.

There was a few week buildup before everything went haywire. But lots of it did not make sense. One article said to if you use the restroom wash your hands to the alphabet song in your head to make sure you washed them long enough. Now, I am all for washing one's hands after using the restroom, but what does that have to do with catching a virus?

Or the one-way supermarket aisles? We heard reports of people being told they could not walk back 10 feet to get an item. What sense did any of this make? Yet sheep were saying how they liked one-way aisles.

The whole virus thing has given us a before/after date in our lives now, though.

Quote: ams288

The only people who still talk about Covid in 2024 are bitter anti-vaxxers who are mad that their fringe views will always be ridiculed.

The rest of us have moved on.

I'm thinking ahead.

I think the CDC will still recommend masks on the next virus. Even if the effect is marginal.

The idea that school children should be in school will be a disaster and if they cave to that one it will just kill more people. You want children to suffer setbacks or more people to be dead? I know which one should win. And more children won't necessarily die, but would bring the virus home. Maybe they will get them back in school sooner, but that depends on the circumstances created by the virus.

All the untested claims for alternate drugs should be dealt with the same way. Idiots and charlatans were claiming drugs worked before they even had time to be tested properly.

Social distancing was even understood by people in early plaque eras. There's no debate on that.

Life isn't easy during a pandemic. Why do idiots expect otherwise? And mistakes will still be made.

One difference. is new technology may change things completely. But it might also make things worse in some ways. We saw how jet travel moves the virus across the world much faster than it ever would on its own for instance and reaching more people than it likely would.

Quote: AZDuffman

We had many of these post-2000. Every few years there would be a scare. Then it died down.

There was no reason for all the shutdowns for covid. No reason for the masks. It was all about looking like something was being done. Even at that we had a segment of the population upset that Trump did not run around telling everyone to wear masks.

There was a few week buildup before everything went haywire. But lots of it did not make sense. One article said to if you use the restroom wash your hands to the alphabet song in your head to make sure you washed them long enough. Now, I am all for washing one's hands after using the restroom, but what does that have to do with catching a virus?

Or the one-way supermarket aisles? We heard reports of people being told they could not walk back 10 feet to get an item. What sense did any of this make? Yet sheep were saying how they liked one-way aisles.

The whole virus thing has given us a before/after date in our lives now, though.

About the last sentence, I remember a guy saying something like,"2019 was an awful year for me and I was glad that it was now 2020 and I thought 2020 would be a MUCH better year than 2019. Boy, I didn't know what was in store for me when 2020 came. COVID, Lockdowns, Curfews, Shutdowns, George Floyd's death, Country wide Riots. I actually was wishing for 2019 back ironically after being glad at first that 2019 was over. 💡

Quote: Riverjordan

About the last sentence, I remember a guy saying something like,"2019 was an awful year for me and I was glad that it was now 2020 and I thought 2020 would be a MUCH better year than 2019. Boy, I didn't know what was in store for me when 2020 came. COVID, Lockdowns, Curfews, Shutdowns, George Floyd's death, Country wide Riots. I actually was wishing for 2019 back ironically after being glad at first that 2019 was over. 💡

People around me got to saying the virus was the WWII for our generation. Something that stopped the world and you found your way thru.

I remember the first few weeks of it I mostly just left the house to go to on my daily walk or the grocery store. The later was surreal. I went very early on Saturdays since I did not want to deal with waiting on line because of some limitation on number of customers. In and out fast, just bought what basics they had. Nowhere else to go as most things were closed. The whole thing felt like the Germans invaded and I had a 2 hour pass to get business done.

And wow, the line at the state store* to get booze when it first opened! You would have thought Prohibition had just ended.

*In PA almost all wine and booze is sold in "state stores" owned by the state. A few limited exemptions mostly wineries.