Agent SnarkNov 23, 2024
Ⓥ🏴‍☠️

"What else do we forget about the pandemic? We forget how mesmerised we were as nature rebounded, how clean the air was in the absence of industrial scale human activity. We forget that carbon emissions fell at the sort of pace required to avoid cataclysmic climate change. We forget that no-strings cash payments saw child poverty in America plunge to record lows, that the UK slashed homelessness with schemes that found homes for people sleeping on the street.

We forget that there really was a sense of global solidarity, that the reflection demanded by a pandemic opened up spaces for us to consider truly radical and permanent change. Remember build back better? There really was a sense that the coronavirus, as we all knew it then, could be the catalyst for a better word.

It couldn't last because of capitalism. This isn't some glib statement, it is literally why such promises could never be fulfilled. Because such promises required redistribution and structural shifts to economies that billionaires don't want shifting."

https://www.donotpanic.news/p/five-years-on-a-covid-retrospective

Five Years On: A Covid Retrospective

As we approach the five year mark of the first known case of covid-19, as we contemplate a half decade of watching a novel virus rip through our communities, our countries, our world, I wanted to do a retrospective on the pandemic.

¡Do Not Panic!
Nov 22, 2024 at 5:01amWeb
Show threadFleur VervenneNov 22, 2024
@currentbias i remember the air being so clean and clear people saw the "Universal" Logo fly by
Show threadPedestriansfirstNov 22, 2024
@currentbias And so much less traffic!
Show threadNigel Moss 🌻Nov 22, 2024
@pedestrians1st @currentbias I remember the great feeling when I realised that I could just cross the road at the pedestrian crossing instead of pressing the button and waiting, because there was NO TRAFFIC! 😀
Show threadStoneface VimesNov 22, 2024
@currentbias yes. All the nastiness of the disease apart, it was quite wonderful to actually hear the birdsong and see the canal bed for a change and watch things burgeoning around us. It was also pretty grand to meet people while out with the dogs finding the pure simple joy of walking around in the countryside. I would prefer COVID to go away of course but...
Show threaderaitchNov 22, 2024
@currentbias We forget that some of the most important jobs are the lowest paid and least secure
Show threadMarijke LuttekesNov 22, 2024
@currentbias I missed hanging out with friends IRL but other than that, I enjoyed lockdown more than many. Work was still a major part of the day and WFH was the best (except when teaching, that sucked off-site).
Show threadEntangledPearNov 22, 2024
@mahryekuh @currentbias I loved teaching from home! I was a language teacher, so the transition to zoom lessons wasn't very difficult. Not every subject was probably that easy, though.
Show threadMarijke LuttekesNov 22, 2024
@EntangledPear @currentbias A big class of teenage IT students, over MS Teams, nope. The performance of those who were first-years during lockdown was notably affected too.
Show threadEntangledPearNov 22, 2024
@mahryekuh @currentbias I can see the problems in your case. I wonder how later performance was affected in those I taught. I never came back for face-to-face teaching.
Show threadDave McNov 22, 2024
@currentbias I live in Birmingham, UK city centre. During lockdown, the lack of the continuous drone from road traffic was jarring for the first few days. It was weird to hear birds (although not many of them). People walking and cycling along streets without the cars. Then, when lockdown eased, all the cafes that started setting up tables in the street created a nice atmosphere. A glimpse of what a city could be like without traffic.
Show threadDavid HembrowNov 22, 2024
@currentbias It was a wonderful time. We briefly had a glimpse of a better version of the future. But sadly, we then went "back to normal", for exactly the reason that you state: Ignoring death due to the pandemic was more profitable than a better standard of living for us all.
http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2020/04/a-glimpse-of-better-future-where-are-we.html
A glimpse of a better future (where are we heading to after the pandemic ?)

Suddenly it seems that nearly everyone can see, hear and smell the benefits of fewer motor vehicles. Stories are appearing from all around t...

Show threadTom AndraszekNov 22, 2024
@currentbias - also: shops almost ran out of bicycles, footpaths were full of people walking and riding bikes, kids were playing outdoors... I got so used to the air being clean, that when the lockdown ended, every car stank, not just the exhaust fumes, but also the tyres.
Show threadMx VerdaNov 25, 2024
@tom_andraszek @currentbias https://earth.org/tyre-pollution/
Tyre Pollution Nearly 2,000 Times Worse than Car Exhaust Emissions: Study | Earth.Org

Heavier battery cars are causing greater wear and more tyre particle pollution than from car exhausts, suggesting the urgent need for stronger regulation.

Earth.Org
Show threadJustin FarrimondNov 22, 2024
@currentbias Yes yes and yes. I've been saying this for so long. Human kind, by Rutger Bregman, 2019 - if you haven't read it yet, please do. He challenges our natural assumption that humans are greedy, selfish, bad. All the classic studies that show this are debunked. Then the pandemic occured, a natural worldwide sociology experiment if you will. Did society collapse? No. On the contrary the best of us shone through. Until capitalism retightened its grip.
A better life is possible.
Show threadGeofCoxNov 22, 2024

@justinfarrimond @currentbias

And we also forget that when we went back to work, many of us went back to doing things not just useless, but actually harmful - like making or transporting or selling fast fashion items, cars or gadgets with some fancy new claim but actually little real difference from the ones we already had, but now with built-in obsolescence, or gambling on stocks and shares, or dealing with some other plastic crap...

Show threadJustin FarrimondNov 22, 2024
@GeofCox @currentbias So true.
Show threadJosje TooropNov 22, 2024
@justinfarrimond @currentbias I've read it and I was not convinced.
Show threadJustin FarrimondNov 22, 2024
@JosjeT @currentbias By his rejection of perceived wisdom or by the belief that humans are naturally decent at heart?
Show threadJosje TooropNov 22, 2024
@justinfarrimond @currentbias As he casually mentions in his book is that a virtue like loyalty is weapenized in wars. It's what armies and "public" schools, gangs and patriarchy actively cultivate. Virtues are only valid inside groups. As opposing collectives we are a dangerous species. That is a paradox.
Show threadJustin FarrimondNov 22, 2024
@JosjeT @currentbias Hmmm, interesting point.
Show threadcycleboy1957Nov 22, 2024
@justinfarrimond @currentbias
Read that a few months ago and was impressed. The whole idea in Lord of the FLies debunked. A life-affirming read.
Show threadJustin FarrimondNov 22, 2024
@cycleboy1957 @currentbias It most certainly is.
Show threadFinal Round Player 😷🇪🇺🍸Nov 22, 2024
@currentbias And some small & sensible mitigations against airborne diseases meant we wiped out one complete strain of flu.
Show threadⓋ🏴‍☠️Nov 22, 2024

@jbond

We were treating SARSCoV2 like a droplet disease (turns out the distinction isn't meaningful, they're all airborne) -- if we had implemented actual airborne mitigations, we could have wiped out a whole lot more than just a flu B strain 😞

Show threadMx VerdaNov 25, 2024

@currentbias @jbond

We still can. Don’t stop yourself from talking about air filters, air purifiers, and installing these on trains, in schools, offices, malls, etc.

In some ways, it’d be a distributed network of not-quite CCS, but with immediate benefits for everyone nearby.

Including indirectly, from fewer people nearby being sick, incubating mutations / pathogen variants, taking time off from their daily occupation, etc.

This entire thread https://lgbtqia.space/@MxVerda/113539989249061864

And these links: https://lgbtqia.space/@MxVerda/113539921878986019

Similarly, pls add to / use / share the hashtag

#MagicWandWishList

Mx Verda (@[email protected])

https://social.v.st/@quixoticgeek/113538248763003092 #MagicWandWishList

LGBTQIA.Space
Show threadDavid Penfold Nov 25, 2024
@currentbias @jbond IIRC, Japan and other Asian countries treated it as airborne from the start.
Show threadIcono ClastNov 22, 2024
@currentbias
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15tE-2dgDZkmATdu9V3Qw6JwsEp0r1UCE/view?usp=drive_link
JAccuse.png

Google Docs
Show threadGiles GoatNov 22, 2024
@currentbias I always thought that the benefits that it done to nature only 2 weeks of lockdown were so great that if they'd tell me "we should do two weeks of total lockdown per year" I'd be up for it, totally, what's 2 weeks compared to a whole year ?
Show threadⓋ🏴‍☠️Nov 23, 2024

@gilesgoat

The pace at which corporations would have to make up for the 2 week lull would probably erase the benefits. We would need to permanently slow down the economy 🥲

Show threadGiles GoatNov 23, 2024
@currentbias Then I dare to say "we live in a society/system/world where something is VERY WRONG if we can't slow down 2 weeks per year". Embrace the "Do more with less" or just "do the same ( NOT 'more' ) and be happy". And if you can 'do even less' not 'more' .. all this 'more and more' is really 'the rocket to nowhere' ( and/or to total destruction ) .. sit in the shade of the trees, smell the flowers and grass, take a nap, eat simple food, have fun .. no need for bigger/more anything ..
Show threadMx VerdaNov 25, 2024

@gilesgoat @currentbias
I’m adding this to my

#MagicWandWishList

Show threadRichard BrockieNov 22, 2024

@currentbias

In a brief burst of sanity, the US rejected Trump.

Show threadⓋ🏴‍☠️Nov 23, 2024

@RichardBrockie

We did, and then watched as Biden declared the pandemic over too soon, and sacrificed everyone on the altar of vaccines that don't prevent SARSCoV2 from infecting every organ system.

Adding: https://blog.open-source-eschaton.net/why-the-covid-vaccines-we-have-are-not-enough

[Why the Covid Vaccines We Have Are Not Enough]

Addressing myths and limitations. Note: this is not an anti-vaccine piece.

[Open-Source Eschaton]
Show threadRobynNov 24, 2024
@currentbias
I'm also screamingly frustrated by the vaccine only approach. But I think more nuance on how they work is helpful. They don't completely prevent disease and infection. But they do reduce both likelihood of infection and severity of disease. As evidenced by the reduced disease burden in parts of the world with high vaccination rates when the virus hit. Emotive language about altars and blanket "don't prevent" statements play into antivax black and white tactics
@RichardBrockie
Show threadⓋ🏴‍☠️Nov 25, 2024

@RedRobyn @RichardBrockie

>Emotive language about altars and blanket "don't prevent" statements play into antivax black and white tactics

This doesn't reflect my experience. I'm very familiar with how little antivaxxers care about facts in general -- let alone what we say the vaccines do and don't prevent -- and equally familiar with Biden's nearly-religious adherence to a strictly-pharmaceutical exit strategy (one that cost, and is costing health and lives). "Altar" may be an emotive or symbolic way of saying it, but I'm not writing for folks who will take it any other way.

I do think I should have included the article I've now edited into my previous comment

Show threadlonely extrovertNov 22, 2024
@currentbias we're so doomed.
Show threadMx VerdaNov 25, 2024
@rothko @currentbias
Feel your feelings, but don’t be lulled into complacence. We have choices, options, impact, communities, and responsibilities.
Show threadPlay Ball and Fight FascistsNov 22, 2024

@currentbias

That's why the instant vaccines came out it was "shut the fuck up and get back to work".

Show threadDouglasNov 23, 2024
@currentbias The lockdown didn't last longer than a week in Brazil, so I don't have the same memories as you do. For context, we had our own "Trump" version at the time.
Show threadMusta dawned on me thuslyNov 24, 2024

@currentbias every time I say “the pandemic was the best of times”, I get told to STFU, or at least not say it out loud.

In a rural sparsely populated area with great bands, and we partied like it was the end of the world for a couple of years… and watched nature return to a usually tourist-filled area

Then it ended… the best bands have broken up… tourists fill the outback…

The party’s over

Show threadⓋ🏴‍☠️Nov 24, 2024

@blackburied

The pandemic emergency measures may have been, but the pandemic itself is not over. The WHO considers it ongoing. As Nate Bear notes:

"By the summer of 2021, against all the evidence to the contrary, most people were convinced covid was over. July 19th 2021 was dubbed 'freedom day' in Britain with all protections dropped, and while some countries required masks in hospitals and healthcare through that winter, by 2022 even these were jettisoned and covid was, for most people, definitely over.

It was so over that a brutal June/July 2022 wave in Europe was put down, by experts, to heatwaves, despite the fact that a few clicks could have told you what was driving large excess death that summer. For example Spain, where excess summer death was said to be entirely caused by the heat, had its largest ever summer covid wave, exceeding 2021. But the experts just looked at large excess death, said 'well it has been hot,' and called it. A frightening covid blind spot."

Excess deaths remain above pre-pandemic levels, and SARSCoV2 continues to damage the blood vessels and immune systems of everyone, including the vaccinated

Show threadexDidymusNov 24, 2024
@blackburied @currentbias
And I saw these toots yesterday
Show threadDioNov 24, 2024
@currentbias there was a moratorium on evictions, American mass shootings plummeted, western people learned masks exist, and people braved the streets to fight for justice and dignity in the face of extreme repression. Alas
Show threadJonathanNov 30, 2024

@currentbias For one brief second we were united in a mission to not die from this novel virus.

And then, well, and then the billionaires started yapping again.

Show threadGaelicGrime 🇺🇸 ♓ 🐉Nov 30, 2024

@currentbias

@palin

Billionaires need us to fight each other, and ignore history, which they aso desperately want us to believe Novel Corona virus 2019 is, so we don't turn against them when we realize they have misled us into thinking tbey are useful and have our best interests at heart

Show threadNo Gods , no Masters! RESISTDec 1, 2024
@GaelicGrime
I would definitely move...
Show threadLucinekDec 1, 2024
@currentbias Že by kapitalismus s lidskou tváří? A nebyl to lidskotvářový solidarismus?