COVID-19

If Donald Trump’s “Churchill moment” came down to a single instance when he was asked, “What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?" So what did he say? “I say that you are a terrible reporter, that’s what I say. It’s a very nasty question."

It appears that we may have made a series of critically false assumptions in the comparison to influenza, which this “novel coronavirus” is clearly not. Yet the idea of seasonal “waves” of infection persisted, a presumed lull in the summer heat, followed by a “second wave” in the fall – just like the flu. But COVID-19 had other plans.

We vehemently bid goodbye to this nightmare of a year, the quarantines, empty shelves of toilet paper, nurses forced to wear garbage bags, and ignorant white people declaring in public places that wearing a mask and sanity is oppression. So, to review the year that never should have been, we offer a selection of graphics that have appeared on PlanetPOV during 2020, in chronological order.

This week, Trump mused about using insulin without a professional medical diagnosis, as a general preventive. Once again it has to be said, "the man will kill and kill, out of stupidity, until he is stopped!"

Democratic politicians are giving Trump all the rope he wants - to hang himself. But that is murder.

Chloroquine is a rampant public health problem in India - it is yet another drug epidemic in itself. And it is poised to hit the United States; especially after the American president's endorsement by planetary dispatch.

I quickly descended into a nightmarish cycle of lying on my side because of exhaustion, followed immediately by sitting up to breathe several breaths, manually controlled. It was the only way that I could breathe, but it was exhausting. The complete cycles became shorter and shorter until they were only about thirty to forty seconds long. This went on for ten days.

The most "wicked" symptom, probably, is that you can tell that your thinking norms have changed. One part of your brain sees with perfect clarity, another part is thinking things that are impossible.

Interconnectedness isn't just philosophy, it is the way of the Universe. Balance, harmony, co-existence; they aren't social experimentation. They are survival gear. Balance! If all those billions of species aren't in balance, then the system goes haywire, and previously HARMLESS viruses unite and turn deadly.

There is one single most important moment in the life of an epidemic, it is when virality is achieved. They should have known that they only had a few months to prepare.