No kidding.
I don't know how anyone could make a reductive statement that COVID restrictions and forced vaccinations saved lives when the realities are so much more complex.
-increased "deaths of despair" such as suicide, drug overdoses, and death by alcoholism immediately and directly due to lockdowns
-increased deaths due to abuse not being intervened because abused were legally stuck in the house with their abusers
-economic stress leading to long term effects due to poverty (and for idiot boomers who think the economy is going well because their 401(k)s are going up, most people don't have significant retirement savings or investments -- millions are putting stress on food banks because people who never had to use them before are going now, and there's tent cities in many cities that never had them before because so many people are being bumped out of permanent housing)
-Gen Z kids in high school and college have major problems due to subpar education. Reading, writing, and math competency levels are massively affected particularly among vulnerable communities which will have knock-on effects for generations we won't even know.
-Gen Alpha kids born immediately before or during the pandemic are developmentally delayed due to massively reduced exposure to critical stimuli early on in life which will have knock-on effects for generations we won't even know.
-Gen Alpha kids born earlier and so in kindergarten are facing early developmental setbacks such as poor socialization which will have knock-on effects for generations we won't even know.
-Donald Trump's project warpspeed by definition sped up development of COVID vaccines by speeding up basic testing, and by giving drug companies liability waivers so they could toss their Latest R&D out there without regard for long-term efficacy or long-term side-effects. Trump-haters correctly pointed out that it takes decades to properly test a vaccine, but magically forgot that fact when their political leaders took on vaccination as their authoritarian cause du jour. "Oh, a bunch of people didn't immediately die when they took the vaccine" you might counter, to which I'd point to many things that have long term effects such as cigarette smoking, asbestos, DDT, lead paint, or radioactive substances. To give it an immediate and obvious example of how long-term testing wasn't done and nobody really knew, it was originally stated that getting vaccinated was enough, but for people following along at home they'd be on like their 8th booster at this point.
-some might argue "oh none of this was the doctors fault, it was caused by the virus", but we have a growing body of evidence from official sources suggesting that the NIH was illegally funding coronavirus gain of function research in Wuhan and so there's a direct csusal link between fauci and the novel coronavirus.
-some might argue "the vaccine saves lives among the vulnerable such as cancer patients or the elderly", which I would potentially accept, except it wasn't just rolled out to people who were vulnerable and people who were worried and wanted additional protection, it was mandated to many people who were healthy and could have withstood the virus without taking experimental drugs and didn't want to take it but had to or lose their jobs or freedom to travel. Some countries following Americas lead forced everyone to get vaccinated period, and it was common for politicians to make certain levels of vaccination in the population conditions of easing restrictions, an authoritarian measure that took everyone's freedom hostage.
-it is now proven beyond any doubt that the federal government directly interfered with science, using levers behind the scenes to reward certain viewpoints and totally silence others. Besides the immediate harm from causing potentially false science to be published about the pandemic, the damage to science as an institution will have long lasting knock-on effects we can't predict and likely won't be able to measure given the dataset we have.
-the lockdowns and other measures such as mail-in voting can be seen as having a direct causal link to both left wing and right wing riots which even if you justify your own side's riots can at least be seen as harmful due to the other side's riots. These events have long tail effects I doubt we can easily measure, but increased political instability can have larger effects than even the most charitable COVID death tolls.
-the weakening of the west due to COVID measures could be seen as having a direct causal link to Putin's decision to invade Ukraine, seeing a moment of weakness as a good time to strike. Of course it is a complex issue and perhaps he would have done it anyway, but if he wouldn't have but for the intense weakening of the west due to the self-imposed measures due to a potentially self-inflicted virus, then a lot of peoples miserable deaths may be attributed to it.
-there are a number of deadly regional conflicts which can be shown to have been causally linked to COVID restrictions. As just one example, Sri Lanka was doing very well before the pandemic, but due to travel restrictions lost a key revenue stream ultimately leading to mass starvation and political revolution.
So to summarize: there are broad and far-reaching effects of everything that was done during the covid-19 pandemic such as lockdowns and forced vaccinations, and the pandemic itself may have been caused by the Fauci-led NIH, and the overbroad nature of pandemic measures increased the harm done. It's really difficult to legitimately say Fauci saved lives in the long term with any level of certainty.
Certainly, the point that I'm making is not necessarily that the response was wrong on its face, but rather that stating unequivocally that they saved lives is extremely naive and imprecise. Even the stuff that looks really bad like the gain of function research or the censoring of academics may have been done with the absolute best of intentions, but good intentions don't prevent policies from having unintended consequences.
I don't know how anyone could make a reductive statement that COVID restrictions and forced vaccinations saved lives when the realities are so much more complex.
-increased "deaths of despair" such as suicide, drug overdoses, and death by alcoholism immediately and directly due to lockdowns
-increased deaths due to abuse not being intervened because abused were legally stuck in the house with their abusers
-economic stress leading to long term effects due to poverty (and for idiot boomers who think the economy is going well because their 401(k)s are going up, most people don't have significant retirement savings or investments -- millions are putting stress on food banks because people who never had to use them before are going now, and there's tent cities in many cities that never had them before because so many people are being bumped out of permanent housing)
-Gen Z kids in high school and college have major problems due to subpar education. Reading, writing, and math competency levels are massively affected particularly among vulnerable communities which will have knock-on effects for generations we won't even know.
-Gen Alpha kids born immediately before or during the pandemic are developmentally delayed due to massively reduced exposure to critical stimuli early on in life which will have knock-on effects for generations we won't even know.
-Gen Alpha kids born earlier and so in kindergarten are facing early developmental setbacks such as poor socialization which will have knock-on effects for generations we won't even know.
-Donald Trump's project warpspeed by definition sped up development of COVID vaccines by speeding up basic testing, and by giving drug companies liability waivers so they could toss their Latest R&D out there without regard for long-term efficacy or long-term side-effects. Trump-haters correctly pointed out that it takes decades to properly test a vaccine, but magically forgot that fact when their political leaders took on vaccination as their authoritarian cause du jour. "Oh, a bunch of people didn't immediately die when they took the vaccine" you might counter, to which I'd point to many things that have long term effects such as cigarette smoking, asbestos, DDT, lead paint, or radioactive substances. To give it an immediate and obvious example of how long-term testing wasn't done and nobody really knew, it was originally stated that getting vaccinated was enough, but for people following along at home they'd be on like their 8th booster at this point.
-some might argue "oh none of this was the doctors fault, it was caused by the virus", but we have a growing body of evidence from official sources suggesting that the NIH was illegally funding coronavirus gain of function research in Wuhan and so there's a direct csusal link between fauci and the novel coronavirus.
-some might argue "the vaccine saves lives among the vulnerable such as cancer patients or the elderly", which I would potentially accept, except it wasn't just rolled out to people who were vulnerable and people who were worried and wanted additional protection, it was mandated to many people who were healthy and could have withstood the virus without taking experimental drugs and didn't want to take it but had to or lose their jobs or freedom to travel. Some countries following Americas lead forced everyone to get vaccinated period, and it was common for politicians to make certain levels of vaccination in the population conditions of easing restrictions, an authoritarian measure that took everyone's freedom hostage.
-it is now proven beyond any doubt that the federal government directly interfered with science, using levers behind the scenes to reward certain viewpoints and totally silence others. Besides the immediate harm from causing potentially false science to be published about the pandemic, the damage to science as an institution will have long lasting knock-on effects we can't predict and likely won't be able to measure given the dataset we have.
-the lockdowns and other measures such as mail-in voting can be seen as having a direct causal link to both left wing and right wing riots which even if you justify your own side's riots can at least be seen as harmful due to the other side's riots. These events have long tail effects I doubt we can easily measure, but increased political instability can have larger effects than even the most charitable COVID death tolls.
-the weakening of the west due to COVID measures could be seen as having a direct causal link to Putin's decision to invade Ukraine, seeing a moment of weakness as a good time to strike. Of course it is a complex issue and perhaps he would have done it anyway, but if he wouldn't have but for the intense weakening of the west due to the self-imposed measures due to a potentially self-inflicted virus, then a lot of peoples miserable deaths may be attributed to it.
-there are a number of deadly regional conflicts which can be shown to have been causally linked to COVID restrictions. As just one example, Sri Lanka was doing very well before the pandemic, but due to travel restrictions lost a key revenue stream ultimately leading to mass starvation and political revolution.
So to summarize: there are broad and far-reaching effects of everything that was done during the covid-19 pandemic such as lockdowns and forced vaccinations, and the pandemic itself may have been caused by the Fauci-led NIH, and the overbroad nature of pandemic measures increased the harm done. It's really difficult to legitimately say Fauci saved lives in the long term with any level of certainty.
Certainly, the point that I'm making is not necessarily that the response was wrong on its face, but rather that stating unequivocally that they saved lives is extremely naive and imprecise. Even the stuff that looks really bad like the gain of function research or the censoring of academics may have been done with the absolute best of intentions, but good intentions don't prevent policies from having unintended consequences.
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