Can We go back to the the 'Old Normal' Soon? ... my experiences, thoughts, opinions, and research
From day zero, I've been super careful with my own actions by spending 24x7 in isolation in my own home where I live together with my none-flesh roommate (interested who he is? click me). Before the (soft)lockdown was announced in my home country the Netherlands, I was already working from home and I avoided supermarkets and other indoor shops by getting my groceries from the outdoor food market. From day zero I tried to bring and spread positivity, by bringing fun to my friends in chat messages and social media and try and be uplifting to those who needs it. At first I was not alone, the whole world seemed to be trying to contribute to this positivity.
Society is Changing
Now a few months down the road, I start to see - gradually - change of behaviour and mindset. More debates about the lockdown, lots of debates about governments support packages, even more debates about censoring those who have different views to our official institutions and governments. I see more negativity. I see more people becoming unhappy. I see a growing group of people feeling lonely, not only the elderly, but also amongst the youngsters. Gradually I start to think differently, mostly because of the research I've done on topic of COVID-19.
Questioning
By now, most to all countries in the world show declining numbers of infected and declining numbers of deaths, regardless the measures taken by each government and society. Added to that, four countries in Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Norway and Denmark) opened up after Eastern - more than a month ago - and still show a decline in numbers of infected and deaths.
- Did we achieve herd immunity already?
- Is COVID-19 dying out?
- Can we leave the new normal behind us soon and go back to the old normal?
All questions I have for which proof is still not available, but more and more scientists are supporting.
I'm Getting Woried
Regardless these realities and possibilities, I kept on isolating myself just to be sure I would not be infected before I visited my mother and stepdad a few days ago. This was the last time I will see them before they sail off for a tour of 6 months on their little motor boat. In particular my stepdad has great fear for the COVID-19 virus. Although he met his children from time to time in the past few months - always outdoor and always at distances larger than the social distancing norm of 1,5 meter - I was allowed in their home for an entire day. Though I'm 100% certain I don't have the COVID-19 virus - since I spend the 1,5 weeks before this visit 24x7 in my own home and didn't see anybody, not even on a larger distance - I respected the 1,5 meter distance my stepdad wanted us to keep. I was hoping he was more relax about this knowing he trusts me when I told him what I did to make sure I could do no harm to him and my mother. When I left for home, my mother was very sad we could not give each other a hug. We would've hugged for sure! But both of us wanted to continue to respect the wishes of her husband and my stepdad.
This event proofed to me our governments brought great fear into our societies, especially to the elderly people. It also proofed to me whatever the rules instated by our government, these rules became the absolute truth to many. Like the 1,5 meter distance: No studies shows this is the distance to prevent transmitting the COVID-19 virus. But still, the 1,5 meter became the truth in my country. I do very much wonder how we shall continue.
In my honest opinion we can't continue with the lockdown, we need to open our societies again. We not only have an economy to take care of, but we also need to attend to the human aspects again. More and more people feel lonely, not only elderly people, but also a lot of young people. The inability to touch one another is driving more and more people to feel sad; A negative feeling that will do no good to our societies in the longer run. It may even causes more deaths because of that (note: this is just my view, not substantiate by some research I've done). It certainly leads to more unhappy people!
Why I don't believe in the New Normal
As mentioned before, our societies may already achieved - or is close to - herd immunity. Several recent interviews with top scientist in the UK suggest this possibility to be very real. I certainly hope they are 100% correct in their thoughts so we can go back to the old normal soon.
I don't believe in the new normal all our governments are pushing to us on a daily bases. Though I understand what they try to do, the new normal can only be a normal for a very short timeframe in my honest opinion, for reasons given before. Although more and more entrepreneurs try to run their companies under the new normal rules, many business (hospitality and cultural sectors for instance) will never be able to continue as a profitable business for too long under these new normal rules. And even much worse, we people will not be able to become and stay positive and happy by keeping social distance from family, friends and co-workers. We will become a new type of robot!
Unfortunately we don't have solid proof yet for achieving herd immunity, therefore we shall still be open for other possibilities. That said, I think we shall become more vocal about these possibilities. We shall be questioning our governments more. We shall take our own responsibilities. We may even go against our government rules... although the later I would advise not to do too much out in the open, since this can lead to enforcement of stronger lockdown measure again.
Herd Immunity is very Plausible
To give you in inside into the research and thoughts of herd immunity, below you'll find two videos with interviews with two very respected scientist. The first one was supposedly taken down by YouTube just after it was uploaded, but I was not able to confirm this. Yesterday when I watched it, it was available. This interview is with Professor Karol Sikora, the Founding Dean and Professor of Medicine at the University of Buckingham Medical School and an ex-director of the WHO Cancer Programme. The second video is an interview with Sunetra Gupta, Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and head of the team that released a study in March which speculated that as much as 50% of the population may already have been infected and the true Infection Fatality Rate could be as low as 0.1%.
Link to the original publication: https://unherd.com/thepost/professor-karol-sikora-fear-is-more-dangerous-than-the-virus/
Link to the original publication: https://unherd.com/2020/05/oxford-doubles-down-sunetra-gupta-interview/
Final Note
Think of the magnitude of this when these scientists are correct in their thoughts!? When we indeed reached herd immunity already!? We'll be able to go back to the old normal very soon! We will be able to start living our lives as we did before COVID-19 was first discovered. We will be able to go to restaurants again. We will be able to drink something with our friends in a bar. We will be able to dance together at some outdoor festival as well as in indoor clubs!
If we continue the lockdown, or relieve the lockdown rules but keep the social distancing, we'll see larger parts of the hospitality sector die and possibly 100% of the cultural sector. Do we want to live in a clean world without entertainment, without the ability to touch each other?
We shall 'force' scientists to do their utmost best to provide proof for the possibility of achieving herd immunity already. We shall push our governments to accept this kind of thinking; Push them to support the research in any way possible. In the mean time, we have to take our own responsibilities and make sure we protect those who are more susceptible to negative outcomes of the virus.
Stay Sane!
a HIVE original
hive curator for illuminati-inc / c-squared / c-cubed
