Four indisputable facts about COVID-19

Published: Wed, 03/18/20

Last year I did quite a lot of gardening work for an elderly lady named Sylvia. She was proud of her garden but was getting a bit elderly to look after it properly. So, I spent a pleasant couple of hours each week for several months weeding and doing similar jobs for her. She was a very nice person and we had some very enjoyable conversations over coffee while I was working for her. I heard this week that she won’t be getting in touch for more gardening this spring because she has died. Of a stroke in December last year. About the same time my mother was dying of her stroke. Old people do die, it is part of the natural order of things. Younger people die too sometimes and that is often more tragic since we have some expectation of a full and long life, but early deaths have always occurred too.

I am starting on this slightly downbeat note because I feel I should write something about covid19 which seems to be creating a bit of a fuss at the moment. Of course I am not a doctor/scientist/politician/civil servant/public health expert or any of those people who we are constantly hearing on the news telling us the world is about to end. So, can I say anything useful about this ‘crisis’?

Lets try some statements of fact.

1. Everyone who is reported to have contracted the virus refered to as covid-19 is going to die.

2. Everyone who avoids contracting covid-19 is going to die.

3. Everyone who contracts covid-19 and makes a full recovery is still going to die.

4. Even if covid-19 had not occurred/been identified or even just been ignored as just another common or garden flu, everyone is still going to die one day.

On the other hand, every report I have heard or read about basically healthy people who have apparently been infected by covid-19 is that it is a very mild form of flu which you get over quickly and easily. Yes, there are deaths of older people with poor health, the people who are going to die relatively soon anyway.

Final point, a basic philosophical maxim is that ‘effect does not prove cause’. Yes, there is massive disruption in the world and covid-19 is being blamed. The actual reason for panic, closures and restrictions is the authorities in different countries are competing with each other to each be the toughest in ‘tackling the crisis’. Also, about 5,000 people die of flu in the UK each year anyway (int the USA it is between 20 and 60k each year). Are all flu deaths this year going to be blamed on covid-19? Will deaths that were inevitable anyway prove that there was a terrible epidemic in 2020? Last year (remember 2019?) there were some really unpleasant bugs going round but I can’t recall any particular concern about it.

There is a world wide narrative management exercise going on. I don’t know why, or what the agenda is, but we just need to ask ourselves why flu is suddenly such a big deal right now? The only facts I can share are listed 1 to 4 above plus remember that effect does not prove effect. Then make a choice, just go along with whatever we are being told, or think hard about what is going on and decide for yourself what makes sense. You may never know the reality about the ‘covid-19 epidemic of 2020’ but at least you will be thinking and asking questions. Don’t underestimate how powerful thinking and questioning is.

Anyway, best I can do for today.

regards

Graham

PS Since President Trump introduced a travel ban from the UK to the USA we have canceled the seminar we were going to hold in Illinois in May.

Unless they start introducing roadblocks to prevent travel around the UK I will be in Somerset for the 4th of April for Stav training, come and join us if you are brave enough, full details here https://www.iceandfire.org.uk/somersetstav04042020.html

PPS By mid-summer I would hope things are coming back to normal and there will probably be some pretty good deals on international flights as the airlines try and get people back into flying again. So why not join us for the Mid-summer Rune Retreat on the 19th to 22nd of June in Norfolk? I gather that Norfolk was the last county in the UK to get a case of covid-19, nothing to be proud of, Norfolk is always behind the times. But it is still a lovely place and a great location for the Rune Retreat, details here http://rr.stavcamp.org/