Coronapanic now, coronapanic tomorrow, coronapanic forever?

With apologies to George Wallace (“segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”)…

“‘We have a new pandemic’: Angela Merkel sounds dire warning over dominant UK Covid variant in Germany as she orders Easter lockdown” (Evening Standard):

Mrs Merkel sounded the alarm on Tuesday after announcing tough new restrictions including a lockdown over the Easter holiday.

“We basically have a new pandemic,” Mrs Merkel told reporters in Berlin in the early hours.

“Essentially we have a new virus, obviously of the same type but with completely different characteristics,” she added.

Unless the coronavirus gets the memo about evolution being only a theory, Coronapanic now, coronapanic tomorrow, coronapanic forever?

(Note that Angela Merkel has a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry, but the misogynists at the Evening Standard call her “Mrs.” and not “Dr.” as would befit a colleague of Dr. Jill Biden, M.D., Ed.D.)

A late-1990s photo from Munich. Note the cultural appropriation (“Chinesischer Turm”) and the sitting ducks for a respiratory virus.

From the same trip (visit to Siemens, a major adopter of our ArsDigita Community System software), tourists try to cram themselves into Neuschwanstein.

Looking at these photos how humans used to behave, what is most shocking is that viruses didn’t drive us into our bunkers centuries ago.

10 thoughts on “Coronapanic now, coronapanic tomorrow, coronapanic forever?

  1. This “evolution being only a theory” reference is too sketchy. Did coronavirus start believing in evolution at the end of 2019 ce? Before it was a creationist? Maybe we should let vaccines to evolve too? How come after starting to believe in evolution coronavirus has not grown spine yet? I think that reference to evolution is misplaced but I am open to evolutionary arguments.

  2. Back when coronaplague lock-downs were young evolutionary microbiologists used to tell us that viral evolution and fight to survive will lead coronavirus to evolve inflicting milder affects on human hosts to ease virus spread and reduce opposition. According to Merkel it is not what is happening. Evolutionary microbiology is akin to psycho-analysis, it does not predict it soothes.

  3. Personally, I like to remember the Keel Haul. This was unusual punishment in the Dutch navy at one time, but it wasn’t thought of as particularly cruel. They thought it was a legitimate and necessary punishment under some circumstances.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keelhauling

    “Keel-Hauling, a punishment inflicted for various offences in the Dutch Navy. It is performed by plunging the delinquent repeatedly under the ship’s bottom on one side, and hoisting him up on the other, after having passed under the keel. The blocks, or pullies, by which he is suspended, are fastened to the opposite extremities of the main-yard, and a weight of lead or iron is hung upon his legs to sink him to a competent depth. By this apparatus he is drawn close up to the yard-arm, and thence let fall suddenly into the sea, where, passing under the ship’s bottom, he is hoisted up on the opposite side of the vessel. As this extraordinary sentence is executed with a serenity of temper peculiar to the Dutch, the culprit is allowed sufficient intervals to recover the sense of pain, of which indeed he is frequently deprived during the operation. In truth, a temporary insensibility to his sufferings ought by no means to be construed into a disrespect of his judges, when we consider that this punishment is supposed to have peculiar propriety in the depth of winter, whilst the flakes of ice are floating on the stream; and that it is continued till the culprit is almost suffocated for want of air, benumbed with the cold of water, or stunned with the blows his head received by striking the ship’s bottom.”

  4. I’m excited for when it has evolved enough to change the name from COVID-19 to COVID-21. We can keep all the same signs, just need to sticker over 19 with 21.

    Or maybe to handle a virus that can evolve in less than a year we can adopt a scheme along the lines of PEP440 and can start discussing COVID-21.3.post1 .

    • On the topic of the George Wallace quote that you referenced – that particular speech was written by his speech writer Asa Carter. Once he realized segregation was a lost cause, Asa disappeared for a few years and then pulled a Rachel Dolezal and started identifying as a Native American. He then became a NYT best-selling children’s author! A story too wild to believe yet true.

    • RS: That is a beautiful story! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Education_of_Little_Tree “it was initially promoted as an authentic autobiography recounting Forrest Carter’s youth experiences with his Cherokee grandparents in the Appalachian mountains. However, the book was quickly proven to be a literary hoax orchestrated by Asa Earl Carter, a KKK member from Alabama heavily involved in segregationist causes before he launched his career as a novelist.”

      We can look forward to an authentic work in this same genre from Elizabeth Warren?

    • Philip,
      Since Elizabeth Warren is a fake Cherokee then doubtful. Real Cherokees did support the Confederacy. “The Cherokee partnered with the Confederacy in order to get funds, as well as ultimately full recognition as a sovereign, independent state.[2]” “During the Civil War, the Cherokee Nation had approximately 21,000 members with 3,000 of them serving in the Confederacy as soldiers.[7]” I read Civil War history books and there Native American tribes attack on Union forces was only stopped with rapid-firing of overwhelming Union artillery in one iof Western battles. For slanted Wikipedia, because tree search says so https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_in_the_American_Civil_War

    • LSI: I hope that you’re not denying Elizabeth Warren’s lived experience as a Cherokee!

    • You raise a good point! If they had had DNA testing back in the 70s so Asa Carter could prove a trace of Cherokee ancestry, no one would be talking about this being a hoax.

  5. Based on actual case counts and deaths, (versus models and fears) this corona virus is behaving like every other flu and cold virus ever

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