About COVID-19: Personal Reflection
Concerning COVID-19 vaccination, I see the main problem lies in the following.
In fact, as experience shows (using the example of two elderly relatives whom I recently lost), vaccination does not save either from contracting the coronavirus or from serving as a carrier and transmitter of coronavirus. In this sense, there is no difference at all between vaccinated and unvaccinated. And everyone (both vaccinated and unvaccinated) is sure that there is, and that the vaccine gives reliable protection against infection. It doesn’t.
Perhaps here I do not presume to judge for sure, vaccination protects against a severe course of the disease (although some vaccinated are seriously ill, again from experience). And it seems that there are fewer deaths – the resuscitation chain, ventilators, the morgue – after vaccination (even ready to agree, which is significant). But everything is presented to us differently: it would be correct to say, get vaccinated to reduce the chances of death in the event of a smooth course of the disease, and we are told, get vaccinated and do not worry about anything else. It seems to me that such propaganda of vaccination is erroneous, irresponsible, and extremely criminal. People believe that they are safe, do not observe any precautionary measures, and are in danger-in mortal danger. And they are in danger like everyone else.
But lockdown, masks, isolation, dramatic improvements in hygiene, glove-wearing, removal, and a fundamental reduction in contact with people — as the inevitable costs of the horrific catastrophe that has happened to all of us —I support until some other life-saving (but reliable) solution is found. If we think we’ve found it in a vaccine, we’re wrong and misleading others. If there is no solution, it must be sought. The story of the “omicron” strain, which nullifies all the arguments of vaccination fanatics, is lenient. Perhaps the panic around “Omicron” is just an excuse to indirectly acknowledge the overestimation of the effect of vaccination. When the idiot Biden called on everyone to get vaccinated, it’s already too much. Such a bastard will not advise anything good.
Likewise, from the very beginning of the epidemic, I noticed in everyone – the people, and the authorities – a hysterical desire to return to pre-Covid times as soon as possible, so that it would become “as before” again. But catastrophes of the scale of Covid, the end of which, by the way, is not yet visible, are not an accident. They have some purpose and some meaning. I interpret this as a sign. Something needs to change. You can’t go back from Covid to the “way it was.” As long as we rush there hysterically, the epidemic will continue and worsen. Do you think, Omicron, this is the last test? I don’t think so. The only way out of an epidemic is change.
When a person becomes terminally ill, he ceases to be the same as he was. In the face of death – their own or loved ones – a person rethinks himself, and few people find their lives completely correct and flawless. People change more often than not. Irreversibly. The coronavirus is an insistence on changing, thinking, rethinking whether humanity is going there. Well, obviously not there… The only thing that can be done out of the pandemic is the future. It is impossible to return to the past. It will never be the way it was. But what will happen after Covid, depends on us. If we can’t imagine a future— another, better one — this nightmare will never end, or some new one will begin.
One last thing: the undoubted heroes in such a situation are doctors. They risk themselves, try to save lives as best they can. They do not know how to prevent and reliably treat this disease, but they have learned something – experimentally, through the example of their experience and sometimes at the cost of their lives. By the way, the system of medical care in Russia is far from the caricature that critics portray. Not everything is perfect, especially in the regions, but in general, the state has got enough of the medicine. But everything would be meaningless if it were not for people. Doctors are people, not functionaries, not employees, not employees. They are first and foremost human. If there were not people, but technical units, they would have fled long ago. And they don’t run away. And again and again, they save people in the red zones and beyond.