a virus “hurt” and scared capitalists far more than some planes did; war is profit, pandemic is not.
Traumatic event > emotion > propagandized media response > wealth being funneled towards capitalists
Y’all need the get on the sigma grindset, when tragedy strikes, don’t get sad, don’t emotionally process, just figure out how you can use it to manipulate people and make money
/s
pro tip: manufacture both tragedy and consent for the war in response! now we’re cookin’ with gas!
The pandemic frightened the status quo because for the first time in decades the working masses were forced to pause their grind and consider how we live. And the vast majority of people realized they absolutely hate it.
Which is why “the money” immediately began pushing to crack the whip ASAP to get people back in line, back producing surplus value, and back focused only on the myopic necessities of now.
The pandemic should have been a watershed moment for Labor, and maybe it was- but the Trump administration is actively imploding the economy on all sides now, so there’s very little hope for economic upturn in the next few years. We are in a dark time.
complete agreement here; sad times indeed.
that can’t be true since then they’d do more to prevent future pandemics no?
would “they”? I mean eventually a pandemic becomes profitable by proxy; a thinned and sick labor pool with shit healthcare (USA) will work for a fraction of what they would before, just to not end up homeless or worse.
the fact that a post like this still has people in the comments acting like COVID is in the past and 1k ppl in the US alone aren’t dying of it every week. COVID literally hasn’t gone anywhere all of you have just closed your eyes to the consequences of your actions.
19k people die in us yearly just because they use a gas cooker.
Dont look up how many die per year from regular flu. Covid is over and its a small disease like any other now.
Exactly.
In the US Covid has become a political issue.
After the omicron? variant or whatever one that was harmless and even not noticable to most healthy people ost countries went back to normal.
When I saw images from the US with many people wearing masks outdoors literally years later and I asked why I got immediately attacked as a bleach injecting Trumper.
I’m European. And the US is fucked up in many ways.The shift in conversations on Lemmy after people fled Reddit is so glaringly obvious.
“X or Y? Pssh. How can you even consider something I don’t personally understand? Much prefer to voice an ignorant opinion.”
It really is. Lately, people here are so quick to either attack, or assume they’re being attacked. Someone just accused me of “lashing out” yesterday for explaining why a mobility solution they put forward for disabled people wouldn’t work for two disabled people that I personally know. No insults, no accusations, I even outright said “I sympathize” with the other commenter and their goals. I thought I worded my point in a neutral way, but someone still took offense so… I don’t know what else to say.
I figure it’s a trauma response from being entrenched in Reddit. Like people are primed to expect a fight and don’t know how to process a calm, ordinary conversation online anymore.
I really enjoyed the prior Lemmy wherein people led with their expertise, or approached conversation as an opportunity to learn.
This new paradigm of “my emotional impulse is equal to your knowledge” is definitely a decline, imo.
I’m reading posts as yours thankful to still find some people with common sense. I lost friends to covid while others kept ranting about nonsensical conspiracy theories and proudly rebelling. One of the dumbest shit I’ve heard people say is “Why should I wear a mask for covid if I don’t wear one for flu?”. Well, if you actually gave a damn about anyone’s wellbeing you’d wear a mask for BOTH.
Looking at the CDC numbers[1] for the week of May 10, 2025, I see 201 deaths attributed to Covid and 2465 attributed to a group consisting of Covid, pneumonia and influenza (in other words 2264 deaths attributed to pneumonia or influenza). Yes, people die of Covid every week. People will continue to die from Covid forever. Because Covid is now endemic. It will always be a part of our lives now, just like influenza has been for probably a few thousand years. Just because Covid came up during your lifetime doesn’t mean it’s in any way special. It’s just another virus we will have to deal with now. And unlike some other viruses we actually have vaccines against Covid. Take tuberculosis for example. That fucking thing has probably killed more humans than anything else. We’re talking >1 million deaths every year and that’s a historic low. Just get a fucking grip on reality.
I think the major difference between even just Influenza and Covid is, that Covid continues to have a greater disease burden than influenza and a higher percentage of people with post-acute sequela of different forms and is less restricted to the winter months, having roughly two waves per year.
All together, why should we not implement strategies to reduce these numbers of deaths and disabilities? Especially if they would, in the case of better air filtration and ventilation also help tackle future occurances of airborne pathogens.
Brown people are scarier than an invisible virus.
Boo!
AAGHHH
The 9/11 attacks were a reason to send troops to the middle east. COVID was not.
reasonexcuse to send troops to the Middle East.Even worse, the attackers were from the Middle East, but the US sent troops into Asia, to Afghanistan.
The 9/11 attacks were a reason to send troops to the middle east.
And roll back personal freedoms, which contrasts greatly with the hub-bub so many people made about their “personal freedom” to cough all over people without consequence.
Missed opportunity to start a total war on the pangolins (or bats or whatever it was)
I’m joining the war on bats.
On the side of drugs.
A Batman villain in the making!
Owner class don’t care if you, some peasant, dies. It’s their control getting threatened that gets them motivated.
And besides, the air filters at your kids’ private academy are better than the hospitals the poors use, never mind the public schools!
911 = never forget Covid = die for the economy Trump 2nd Term = who cares about the economy anyway?
I think I have whiplash at this piont.
It’s like that with everything. If a catastrophe can be capitalized, it will. 911 was extremely profitable for the MIC, imperialism, etc. Covid was only profitable to big pharma. The state values global violence far more than the health of any population.
Except if other capital interests stand in the way of a new market.
Clean energy is extremely lucrative, but dirty energy still has money.
Plenty of other sectors profited also from covid, an excuse to make everything more expensive and never cheaper when it ends.
Same with that ship that blocked the Suez Canal for a short time.
There’s a vocal subset of people here who like to act as if Covid is still the same threat it was five years ago. The pandemic is over, because Covid is endemic now. It just always is there. Like the common flu was before Covid. And the Covid variants these days are very much on a similar level to the flu. Trying to build some conspiratorial narrative out of that makes you sound insane.
Upvoting you because I agree that some voices need to process the shift to endemic.
But I also agree with the tweet that low cost systematic changes should still be underway to lower overall viral burden, or soften the blow of the next pandemic.
I don’t know if HEPA filters in public institutions is actually effective, so I suppose the argument hinges on that; is there actually low hanging fruit like that?
Oh, I agree with that too! That should just be a normal thing, enabling kids to still learn together with their peers. I was so damn glad when the restrictions were lifted, because I saw the awful effect social segregation was having on my kids. For offices, remote work should be a right for any job where it’s possible and not something out feudal lords have to grant.
Working with preschoolers, there was a point last year where I realized that every single kid I work with was born post-Covid. It was a wild relevation, but since part of my job is teaching social skills, at least these kids won’t skip a beat because of it. I just feel for their older siblings.
Where do you get the information that it’s endemic when the WHO are saying it’s still a pandemic?
And the Covid variants these days are very much on a similar level to the flu.
They’re not. Many of the variants that exist now last for weeks. I don’t know of any flu symptoms that don’t go way basically on their own within a week or so.
Then you never had proper influenza. That shit took me out harder than Covid. It’s a matter of luck and in the beginning Covid was more serious than most influenza strains. But they became more harmless. Which doesn’t mean that you can’t run out of luck and have a severe case of Covid. But over the entire population Covid is on a similar level as influenza.
Not being the same threat is largely due to vaccines which are being restricted, and it being a different threat doesn’t mean it’s no threat.
Also, it is still a pandemic, only the emergency phase ended.
It stopped being a pandemic once it became endemic. Or do you argue that we’re in a flu pandemic because it comes back every year? And sure, the vaccines did help a lot. But the virus that causes Covid also mutated into less severe strains. Just like with the flu, there can always be a more deadly mutation again. But right now the current strains and the fact that almost everybody had it and/or got vaccinated make Covid about as bad as the seasonal flu. And just like the flu it keeps being monitored, vaccines get updated and should it come back in force, we are much better equipped than in 2020.
I look to the WHO who say it’s still a pandemic, where do you get endemic from?
For example the CDC and similar organizations in Europe. There is no clear definition of what a pandemic is or when a disease becomes endemic. Even the WHO alleges that. As we have no vaccine that would allow us to eradicate Sars-Cov-2 and because the infection numbers are somewhat seasonal I am heavily inclined to follow those experts that call it endemic. It’s also important to note that endemic does not equal harmless. Of course we need to research the long-lasting effects and still find ways to deal with them. But I, and apparently most health experts, don’t see a need to keep up the awful restrictions from five years ago.
Wow, I didn’t know the US CDC has declared it endemic. Fair enough. I personally don’t follow the CDC, would not be sure they’re not compromised by the administration. Hard to trust any official line from the US these days.
COVID sure isn’t seasonal though, it’s year round and has many waves. I wish it would settle but so far nope.
I haven’t seen anyone call for the restrictions like in 2020. What I’m seeing are people calling for clean air and masking in health centers, as well as offering remote working and virtual events. All very reasonable, sensible, and doable.
Research into the long term effects is already fairly substantial, showing brain damage, vascular damage, and immune damage.
I see the point but I do want to remind the infrequent fliers that you can bring nail clippers on planes now, and you’ve been able to for a long time.
Family occasionally visits and asks if they can borrow clippers when they arrive and im like “sure, but you can just bring your own.” Like what, are you going to hijack a plane with toe nail clippers!?
If someone can hijack a plane with nail clippers, they can do it without the nail clippers.
Apparently it’s possible to hijack a plane with any liquid over 200 mL.
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Last time I’ve flown with my swiss army knife. They checked the blade length at the metal gates, all ok.
I accidentally brought wire cutters in my carry on before boarding a flight in Florida. They measured the blade length and laughed and let me through, after I immediately told them they could throw them away. Then during my trip I forgot all about them. When I went to board my return flight the person immediately confiscated them.
I have this thing called a Utili-Key which is a little multi-tool and knife that folds up into a key shape that goes on your keyring. I’ve flown with it multiple times without TSA noticing, but I had to get rid of it when I went to see a Philadelphia 76ers game. Nothing could be more TSA than a fucking basketball game being more secure than a flight.
How’d you get rid of it for the game, while still having it now?
Ah, the old “you can’t throw away your cake and eat it too” conundrum.
I bought a replacement Utili-Key, they’re only $5 or so. Actually I bought a bunch since they occasionally come off the keyring and vanish. Make nice little gifts, too.
Do they still yell at you to take your shoes off, unless you have taken your shoes off in which case they yell at you because you took your shoes off, because today on this particular flight right now, they don’t want you to take your shoes off. Tomorrow who knows.
I wouldn’t mind so much but they’re also obnoxious.
At one TSA gate they told me “all electronics out of your bag, yes, it’s the same as it’s been every day”
…“yeah but at the OTHER airport they told me take NOTHING out of your bag.”
I get that they have to repeat it every day and people still don’t comply, but even the compliant people might not remember the rules of a particular airport. It’s got to be a frustrating job.
Don’t forget to remove your shoes before being allowed to the boarding area.
The difference between security measures and medical measures: the lack of the latter kills peasants, the presence of the former suppresses them. Win-win, if you a wealthy ghoul who thinks the poors are filthy takers.
Seems like the shared trait is “what’s good for the ownership class, in the most selfish short term sense?”
3k people died in 9/11 in the USA. 1 million people died of covid in the USA. But what people are outraged about is civil liberties. (“The other COVID reckoning” by Scott Alexander.)
Smooshing events together is normal when you look back at the past, but those of us who witnessed 9/11 as adults know that “Never forget” came later. The immediate response was that if you stay home and hide, the “terrists” win. The big message was, “Act normal, keep shopping!” Same as with COVID. “Don’t let this affect your spending habits” is always the oligarchy’s reassuring response to bad news. Don’t let this little bump in the road hurt profits. They pulled out the “never forget” card later when they decided to turn a terrorist act by a fringe group into an excuse for more military spending.
If only there was a vaccine for terrorism/falseflag/warhawks pick what you like
