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The Ghostly Traces of COVID

Posted by $ Markus_Katabri 1 year, 3 months ago to Culture
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The archaeology of COVID persists. Outside this acquatic center, on the concrete sidewalks and expanses that surround the pool buildings, are the fading spray-painted X’s that once pinned in-bound swimmers to a “safe” spot, attempting to reassure the frightened, as Jim Breuer so memorably puts it: “Six feet safe; five feet danger!” Gone are the wedding tents that once sheltered incoming practice groups marooned outside as they shivered and waited for an opportunity to enter a restricted indoor space. Invisible but present still are the layers of virus-killing disinfectant that cake every wall. Above the wall opposite the scoreboard, a remote camera maintains a lonely vigil, a memory of the day when parents and non-competing swimmers were not allowed on deck during competitions but could watch their children or teammates compete via video in idling cars. The plastic circles and traffic cones that marked the progression of swimmers through the “sorting cap” of the clerk of the course (where competing swimmers are organized into heats and lanes) prior to entering the competition pool are gone. In the pump rooms are ghostly baskets or bags proudly marked with their disinfecting dates. The plastic shields that divided lanes and their wooden supporting chocks sit forlornly outside. On the entrance door, an ancient sign remains: masks recommended. Over an exit door, a hook seems to have no purpose but it is the fading memory of a warming lamp for swimmers queuing up to leave or enter the pool during the winter of 2020-2021.

Sadly, COVID primarily lives on in its human adherents, the masked cultists who seek to resist the return of normality for reasons best known to some quiet inner mental sanctum they nurture. The “archaeological remnants” answer the question, “What did you do during the COVID Wars?” The persistence of masks prompts the question, why? Specifically, why do individuals persist in their pandemic roles? Who liked what they were doing so much that it continues to provide comfort? The human wreckage will outlast the material debris. Someday, the X’s will fade completely and the walls and decks will no longer foam when sprayed with a pressure washer. Someone will remove the entrance door sign and the camera will be put to another, better use.

This human wreckage is multigenerational. Children whose parents are Pandemic Party members wear masks like latter-day party armbands. Someone pushed it and so it was done. Deprogramming takes time and patience but each moment of persistence delays the day that deprogramming begins. Humans can rationally understand the economics of sunk costs and, with some difficulty, cut ties. TV shows investigating the sad plight of hoarders reveal that emotional sunk costs are far less easily tossed. In fact, they tend to accumulate, multiplying exponentially until a home becomes both an unlivable mess and a crowded crypt housing the emotional trauma that was never resolved, never healed.

These damaged “masking” souls will remain perpetually prone to repeat this cycle. Something will retrigger the fear; the fear will prompt the response to shelter and hide; sheltering and hiding will provide relief, even a feeling of comfort. And a need for the whole cycle to repeat itself. Humans seek comfort in familiar sequences. A sequence that confers comfort gains a talismanic power.

But the greatest casualty may be a lack of sensibility, if sensibility can be defined as an awareness of the surrounding human and natural world.


Here is a reasonably faithful rendition of a conversation I had with a young person bound for her sophomore year at an elite northeastern college. Noticing a band-aid on her arm, I asked its source. She gaily replied that she had just received her fourth booster. I nodded.

“You’re jealous, aren’t you? My doctor said I was eligible so I got it.”

“Jealous?” I asked. “Why would I be jealous?”

She shrugged and seemed to revel in her newly-minted “four” status. Because she has always been a wonderful, considerate soul, she asked about my booster level. I haven’t spoken publicly about my “status” to anyone, but because I was retirement bound, I decided to let loose.

“I haven’t been boosted. I haven’t even been vaccinated. And I haven’t gotten sick.”


As I implied, she is polite, a well-raised young lady so she didn’t harangue me. But I could see slow shock clouding her visage. Her sixty-plus coach is unvaccinated. She didn’t ask and I didn’t elaborate. But I could see that her “sensibility” was shaken. Her world of like-mindedness encountered something chaotic, something unfathomable. She lapsed into polite confusion.

Her generation has fought hard to be vulnerable. Words, glances, the environment -- fears that march like Roman legions, stirring noise and dust. Some defend this vulnerability by cowering physically while unleashing torrents of bile on their favored internet platforms and apps. What they do not comprehend is that their anger and outrage is seed falling on the driest dust. Failing to have its desired effect, it will warp and poison them increasingly with each passing year.

They have also fought to set themselves free of natural law. They have ambushed obvious truths and fancied themselves warriors rather than casualties. Ponder some of what they have accepted as twisted truths: men can become pregnant; men have menstrual periods and need tampons; women can self-procreate. Their fuel is ignorance born of sanctimony -- the sense that right and wrong are clearly delineated and that the high moral ground is always readily apparent and readily attainable. Their world demands simple, unquestioning minds.

When I am around my club’s college-aged swimmers, I remind them gently of the cowardly world they have created. I ask them to update me on the warmest list of banned words and phrases. Occasionally, I pause and ask: “Can I still say that? Is that allowed?” I pretend to defer to their parochial worldview and they shift their weight uncomfortably. They are always speechless, some because they are polite but I suspect others because they have grown accustomed to those who can’t or won’t fight back. Deprived perhaps of the on-line anonymous ability to stab someone in the back, they grow passive, even quiescent. Whatever they want to say, they don’t. The words won’t form; the thoughts don’t cohere. Sadly, what they hear are the ghostly echoes of COVID and their own weakness. Because their feckless elders mostly betrayed them at this critical juncture in their lives, an understandable powerlessness cripples them.

What horror awaits if they do not soon discover the value and thrill of true courage? Something must shake them free. Will it be the patient innumerable blows of an ethical stonemason or will it be something more painful, something truly world-shattering? Stay tuned: archaeology may become a compelling show and I’m not referencing Graham Hancock.
SOURCE URL: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/12/the_ghostly_traces_of_covid_.html


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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 1 year, 3 months ago
    My BFF who lives in San Antonio, had Covid and took the vaxes. She is in the hospital for the second time this year. First time 2 months, this time 1-1/2 months and she's testing positive for guess what C O V I D!
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    • Posted by $ 1 year, 3 months ago
      Proving that the mandates are completely useless. The Vax does NOT provide immunity and it does NOT prevent transmission. If it truly is a palliative it has the effect of making a person possibly asymptomatic. Which makes transmission more likely. That’s just cold hard reality supported by empirical evidence. Yet we are still told to not trust our lying eyes.
      All the shaming, gaslighting, coercion, outright threats, sanctions and just overall zealotry over the last two years.....and I’ll wager LESS than 50 percent of the Branch Covidians even acknowledge that they’ve bought into a cult mentality.
      The United States is so dysfunctional now. There’s no hope.
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  • Posted by CaptainKirk 1 year, 3 months ago
    First, that was VERY Well written!
    Next, that young lady was talking to a coach.
    And make not mistake about it, she is HIGH in conscientiousness. Her "Are you jealous?" is because she, as always, is ahead of her peers.

    They are ALWAYWS jealous of her. She is gifted. Above average in brightness, and high in agreeableness, and probably attractive (meaning the world is always nice to her, especially when she is nice).

    Those young ladies either become great partners, or bitter, IMO. And it's a function of their resilience, and when they learn that they can't do it all alone.

    My heart bleeds for this younger generation. My daughters friends are a mixed bag, while my daughter was well-prepared, she will remind us that she has FAR less in common with 20 somethings (her age), and loves older people... She can blame us... But she stayed away from the vaccination, despite having her dreams of travel DASHED without out... And "all of her friends got it, and are fine"...
    Well, the miscarriages and the birth rates have her opening her eyes.

    You know what blows her mind the most? The INFANT that died after surgery when they got vaccinated blood, and died from clotting unrelated to surgery.
    That, and the fact that there is now an organization collecting Pure Blood for the unvaccinated to be able to use if they have a surgery.

    I will no longer donate my blood... Until I find such a place. Glad to help.

    We have poisoned our children, and bring in illegals to replace them... Who are not getting vaccinated, and cannot be forced to be vaccinated. Just the good citizens...
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    • Posted by $ 1 year, 3 months ago
      And the authorities are trying as hard as they can to tamp down the concept of “pure blood”. We honestly need to develop a completely parallel health system. And as much as some objectivists would hate it, it needs to be couched in the concept of “Religious Freedom”. You can make anything into a religion now. Why not make a sanguine religion that worships pure bloods. Dare the left to tell us it’s any different than all the woke bullshit that they believe. We can’t beat them at the ballot box anymore. Other more unconventional methods must be utilized to preserve our rights.
      The new rules are there are no rules.
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      • Posted by CaptainKirk 1 year, 3 months ago
        I agree, but the Pure Blood label is too easily attacked, and made Cringe Worthy!

        UnAdulterated Blood.
        Non-GMO Blood (I like this)
        mRNA-Free Blood (m in this case is MANMADE)

        But I think it will be a big thing
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  • Posted by $ 1 year, 3 months ago
    Incidentally, I’m hearing that the hospitals are more overrun now with various forms of RSV and upper respiratory infections than they were during COVID.
    Imagine if Trump were still in office. CNN and MSNBC would be pushing their own “Death Ticker” apps for everyone’s fondle slabs. Instead we hear NOTHING.
    Please, someone tell me that joke again about who politicized COVID. XD
    Just another good reason to Go Galt.
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    • Posted by Ben_C 1 year, 3 months ago
      Of course there is an increase in the other viruses. If you want to say healthy and maintain a high antibody level keeping exposing yourself to the various respiratory viruses in the community. Keep those T and B cells busy. If you want to be sick all the time be a germaphobe and allow your antibody levels to reach zero. Basic immunology.
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    • Posted by $ blarman 1 year, 3 months ago
      All of which are a foreseeable and wholly-predicted side-effect of sequestering people from other people: severely weakened immune systems. Immunologists have been studying the human defense systems for decades now and the only constant is that we are under attack by something every hour of every day of our lives. (Anyone remember "War of the Worlds"?) Normal people call this "practice" for our immune systems: we get hit with minor amounts of a variety of different bugs and that helps keep our immune systems stable and up-to-date. If we sequester ourselves from other people and sources of pathogens, all we do is deprive our immune systems from the practice it requires to stay in top form. This was alluded to when hand sanitizer first came out and is one of the reasons I avoid that stuff like the plague - pun intended.

      Best story I have about immunity comes from my wife's trip to the doctor. It's 100% true. My wife took one of our kids to the doctor to get their first round of standard immunizations - probably an MMR or something. My wife wears flip-flops everywhere - when she isn't just barefoot (cue the kitchen jokes). While in the waiting room, she struck up a conversation with a friend who also happened to be there, letting our child crawl/roll around on the floor. Just as the doctor walked in, my wife looked down to find our infant chewing on one of her flip-flops!

      At first, my wife was embarrassed and apologized to the doc. He was an awesome OB/GYN and just laughed, telling her that he encouraged parents to let their kids chew on "dirty" things because it would help them build a robust immune system. My wife's eyebrows shot up at that, but immediately gave up on boiling (or even washing of) pacifiers or other children's toys. Interestingly enough, none of our children have developed a single food allergy, though brussel sprouts come close. ;)
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      • Posted by $ 1 year, 3 months ago
        Amazing isn’t it. Like I used to say loudly and often to leftists the last two years. “Herd immunity isn’t a right wing concept it’s a real thing! Humanity has been fighting viruses since we ourselves were viruses. If herd immunity wasn’t a thing we’d have been wiped out the first time a cold came through.”
        All this of course got me labeled an “ist” guilty of “isms” by the “most educated” electorate the world has ever seen.
        I’m done trying to educate them. They’re too far gone.
        Pop some popcorn. Duck and Cover.

        Honestly,....some of them knew better. And I know they knew better because of past conversations. They also knew that fear was the BEST way to get the Orange man out of the Whitehouse. So whenever they try to gaslight the GOP that THEY politicized COVID I call Bull Shit.
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  • Posted by $ katrinam41 1 year, 3 months ago
    My relatives who received the vaxx and boosts have spent more time fighting off sickness and testing positive for cov than they have enjoying a single healthy day. I fear for my daughter-in-law who has heavy health issues and an emotional trauma coming to a sad conclusion as her mom succumbs to cancer. So many who called me a death-wisher and disease spreader have been unable to stay healthy and unable to say "I was wrong." Unlike some, my daughter-in-law has always supported my right to think and to choose and I am here for her as things inevitably unfold.
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