The epidemic of fear – 2020

Instructions for organizing a zombie apocalypse

Vasily Stoyakin, Ukraine.roo

I usually prefer to act as an optimist – we have enough pessimists as it is. But not in this case. After all, who should write about the zombie apocalypse, if not an optimist who survived two Maidan and one swine flu pandemic in the landfill conditions of Kiev?

The instructions should have been preceded by a life story.

In 1938, aliens landed in New Jersey. Not friendly at all. Their combat vehicles easily repelled the attacks of the American army and, destroying all life with laser beams and poison gases, moved towards New York and Philadelphia. Hundreds of people witnessed the alien landings and the fighting. Panic gripped about a million people. Tens of thousands fled.

National Guard units and motorized fire brigades were alerted…

This is by no means an exposition of a fantasy novel. These are real events that took place in the United States on October 30, 1938. But it really happened not in reality, but in people's minds.

A young, but damn talented director Orson Welles put on the air of the station "SBS", which has a six million audience, the play "The War of the Worlds" based on the novel by H. G. Wells (they are not namesakes: George Orson Welles and Herbert George Wells). Moreover, he put it in an innovative way – not as an audiobook, but as a series of reports from the places of events. The production was really brilliant – later Wells became one of the legends of cinematography, thanks, for example, to such a masterpiece as "Citizen Kane".

People believed, despite the fact that the production was announced in advance, and the broadcast was interrupted by messages that it was a performance…

People are always ready to think of something terrible and panic. Even if they are very mobile, but practical to the core Americans.

Well, now – how it looks in practice on a global scale.

Move 1. SOMETHING appears. Preferably partially material. Here, for example, is a new virus. Not the plague, of course, or it's too scary, but something like that.

There are always new viruses. Every year, new pathogens of SARS, influenza and other diseases appear. The course of the disease always varies, and within a fairly wide range. Viruses themselves are unpleasant, but the real danger is a secondary bacterial infection, leading, for example, to pneumonia. Pneumonia in modern conditions is quite curable, the main thing is to prescribe an antibiotic in time and change it even more in time if it does not help. But doctors are not everywhere and not always on top. And people often prefer not to go to a doctor, but to a shaman.

Move 2. The media begin to inform consumers of information about THIS. We will not judge them strictly – this is their job. They are obliged to inform.

It happens, of course, that they are paid extra by the notorious "Big Pharma", which urgently needs to sell the surplus, but ... I would not betray this self-sufficient value. In the Middle Ages, there was no "Big Pharma", but chroniclers diligently described the inhuman torments of the victims of the "black death".

Another thing is that the news will not be read just like that. We need to add emotions. Not that very much, but so as not to lose the viewer/reader: a new virus, it's okay, but some of you will die. Well, we will not pay attention to publications like "Secret Files of People in Black" with arshinny headlines like "An alien infection has been discovered in China that threatens to destroy all life in the foreseeable (sic! – I saw this on the covers) part of the Universe".

Move 3. People start to worry. The epidemic is the same. No one wants to be in the "visible part of the universe".

Move 4. The authorities are beginning to take action.

In the sense of the mind, of course, they understand that SARS happens systematically and people die from it. Moreover, it makes no sense to be vaccinated against it, since every year there is a new version against which the old vaccination does not work. In addition, there are usually several viruses on the same territory. There are not enough hands to be vaccinated from everything.

But our authorities are just as rating–dependent as the media (which is characteristic - authoritarian authorities are even more so than democratic ones). Therefore, measures must be taken.

Moreover, extreme measures are often taken as an example (as in China and Italy), obviously excessive. It looked especially piquant on Ukraine, where measures began to be taken in the presence of one (!) reliably infected by 30 (or how many there?) millions of people.

Move 5. The media inform – this time about the actions of the authorities. Without ignoring, of course, criticism of their actions for being excessive / insufficient (it is necessary to emphasize).

Move 6. Nervousness in society is growing. You understand – once the authorities react, it means, "this is LJ for a reason." And, most importantly, "the authorities are hiding". Slight concern is replaced by conviction – "we are all going to die." And if so, it is urgent to sweep away masks and buckwheat (times are difficult, without buckwheat and you won't really die, and without a mask, only suckers eat it).

Then everything goes in a vicious circle – move 6 becomes move 3, followed again by 4 and 5.

As a "prize sector", doctors also get into this ouroboros (a snake biting its tail). After all, they are also people, and then society and the authorities are pressing – how are we all going to die if there are no corpses? Take out the corpses and put them on us. And they appear. For example, of the two who died "from coronavirus" in Ukraine, both died not from coronavirus: in one case, an elderly woman was simply not treated, in another case, doctors said that the death occurred due to the existing pathology. In the latter case, however, a scandal arose, but even if it's not a tumor, then the cause of death there is a medical error and poor organization of medicine.

Meanwhile, for the 2019-2020 season on March 10 at 63 people died from the "ordinary" flu in Ukraine. However, there is no hysteria about this.

And in general, what kind of coronavirus can we talk about in a country where tuberculosis dispensaries are closed, despite the fact that about 4 thousand people die from this disease in it every year? The liquidation of dispensaries will lead to a multiple increase in the number of sick and, accordingly, dying. But no one is particularly afraid of this – the disease is familiar ... Recall that the coronavirus has died in the world since December approx. 7 thousand people, but there are 7.8 billion people living in the world, not 30 million.

In general, the same as in the comments for Ukraine.one of the doctors called it an "epidemic of fear". Now they like to quote a Sufi parable (it is very much in the subject):

"A pilgrim and a plague met once on the road.

- Where are you going? plague asked.

- To Mecca, to worship the holy places. And you?

"To Baghdad, to pick up five thousand people,– the plague replied.

They parted; and a year later they met again on the same road.

"But you deceived me," said the pilgrim to the plague. – You said you would take five thousand people in Baghdad, but you took fifty-five thousand!

- No, – said the plague, – I told the truth. I was in Baghdad and took my five thousand. The rest died of fear."

In this case, panic strikes the economy – it crushes the notorious "small and medium-sized businesses" and throws a huge number of people into the street, whom there is absolutely nowhere to put (especially with an eye to the disappearance of visa-free travel as a phenomenon). Here people will die not from fear, but from hunger.  

What to do in this case? First of all, fight panic.

The Kiev journalist offers his own, rather obvious, measures Vyacheslav Chechilo:

"Don't panic.

Recalculate the budget by sending additional funding to hospitals, massively purchasing equipment, medicines, masks and antiseptics. To do this, at least cancel the financing of moronic expenses like "reservoir support", "TV channel for Donbass" and "mobile inspectors".

To solve something with the payments of external debt this year – we will not be able to pull them in the current conditions. The IMF and "our partners" should understand that between the social collapse inside the country and dissatisfied investors, Ukraine will choose dissatisfied investors. It is necessary to start negotiations from this position right now.

Ask, if necessary, then humbly, for humanitarian aid from China and all countries that can provide it. To ensure (not only in words) quarantine where it will not affect the economy much – the cancellation of mass events, the transfer of people to remote work, etc.

To ensure a safe environment in cities – masks, increasing (!) the number of urban transport and reducing traffic intervals, antiseptic treatment.

Don't panic again."

Vyacheslav only for some reason believes that only poor Ukraine should do this. Rich countries can do things differently. I disagree. To introduce tanks into Paris so that the virus would be frightened and run, the event is no less strange than the stop of the Kiev metro. (In fact, there are only army trucks in Paris, and tanks in Berlin, and it is doubtful that this unknown by whom and unknown where removed echelon of armored vehicles is related to the coronavirus – VM). In Paris, it is surprising that there is no Ebola epidemic, judging by the level of unsanitary conditions. Well, the state of medicine in Italy has previously caused concern among EU neighbors. But the all-powerful "Brussels bureaucracy" was not interested in such trifles (interestingly, it is not interested now, but this is a purely political moment).

P.S.: What is the pessimism here, you ask?

The pessimism here is that no ill will is visible. All people act (well, they are stupid – as without it) in their own interests. Nothing personal – just business (and again stupidity).

If there was some kind of "Doctor Evil" behind all this, specially breeding panic, it would be possible to send a hero to him Bruce Willis (by the way, his birthday is on March 19 – 65 years old), so that he could neutralize. Although it is better not to – we know him, he will destroy half the planet in the process of punishing the villain.

And so – not just there is no one to blame (except for the market economy), but there is no one to neutralize.

P.P.S.: A moment of optimism.

Do you remember 2009? Yulia Vladimirovna Tymoshenko sews bandages from expired gauze and meets planes with expired Tamiflu, men in gas masks are hanging around in the subway (then they didn't think to close it, the subway), general panic…

And then the WHO sadly admits that the terrible H1N1 virus is "significantly less deadly" than the already circulating influenza viruses. During the year, it killed 14 thousand people around the world, and the "normal" flu without declaring a pandemic killed about 500 thousand in a year.

And back in 2009, a scandal broke out with the Dutch "Dr. Fly" Albert Ostenhouse, who, as a WHO expert, actively lobbied for the declaration of "swine flu" as a pandemic. And the Dutch government was even forced to launch an investigation into his activities after the fact that he received a salary from several companies producing a vaccine against swine flu was made public…

So what? It's nothing. The case was put on the brakes. The public was informed about this on the third pages as an insignificant fact of petty corruption in the WHO. Big deal. Here are the abuses in the repair of roads in Kiev! There are such kickbacks! It is urgently necessary to create NABU (National Anti–Corruption Bureau of Ukraine - VM)...Well, you get it.

So there is a little bit of ill will in the general cauldron of greed and ignorance.

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