A Covid Perspective

by Kohlson Turner

I was having a conversation with a close friend who takes Covid mitigation very seriously. She was discussing her plans to visit her best friend to exchange Christmas gifts a month late, as her father’s family all tested positive for the virus the week of Christmas and she self-quarantined based on her proximity to her father. She finds herself at odds with how “silly” she feels for being so fearful of the virus, but also acknowledges how simple wearing a mask and social distancing is to combat what could potentially save someone’s – anyone’s – life so she has no problem following these new social “norms.” I took the time to type a perspective of the social climate Covid-19 has created to share with her.

This is what I said:

“Your true feelings aren’t silly. They are real. And valid. I’m more angry at the source of those feelings, to be honest. There are a lot of institutions, both political and private, big businesses, like Walmart and Amazon, that have benefited exponentially because of the pandemic and the measures both small companies and governments are having to take to 'stay safe' … and I don’t, for one single second, believe that 100% of their intentions are for the good of anyone or anything else but their profit margins. Yet the people suffering, like you, feeling the way you do, terrified of this virus, are a consequence of that. Big tech, big business, and almost all of social and news media are financially in bed together. We know this. The same people logging your search history for vacuum cleaners are the same ones who make money when you see ads for them on Facebook and YouTube. The same people selling the fear are the same people selling the measures to combat that 'fear.' They all stand to gain from this, be it financially, power over the masses, or both.

“My main point being: On a left to right scale of 'Safest thing in the world' to 'Most deadly, painful death imaginable,' don’t you think it’s at least possible that the people who benefit from this being as close to the right of that scale as possible are also capable of manipulating it to be much further to the right on on that scale than it actually is?

“I know for a fact that the virus is real. I have friends who have caught it. They said it sucks. But fear-for-your-life sucks? Nobody who I know who had to face it firsthand feels that way about it.

“And I know what you’re gonna say! What about the ones it does affect horribly?

“There can be evidence found for every illness known to man where people are affected horribly… where they died from simple symptoms and common illnesses. If enough focus is put on it by so many powerful sources of information as Covid has had, anything could be just as scary.”