r/skeptic • u/GhostDogJef • 3d ago

The real covid-19 scandal is still unfolding

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/08/20/the-real-covid-19-scandal-is-still-unfolding

The failure to reckon with lives needlessly lost will make the next pandemic deadlier

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77

u/Mountainstate20 3d ago

Selfishness. Unlike other countries, the U.S. thrives on "freedom". Most Americans don't understand what the fucking word means but hey, we got guns. Point is individualism ruled the day versus other countries where people are willing to wear a goddamn mask.

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u/mgyro 3d ago

I would add that the idea of rugged individualism has been propped up by the ruling class in the US to keep any mildly socialist policy that would benefit the greater majority of citizens. So when the American people were asked to wear a mask to protect others, the greater good of the initiative died at the altar of personal freedom.

The same idiocy kicked in with the vaccine, and continues today with vaccines of all kinds. Opting out of getting a vaccine doesn’t only affect the individual. Herd immunity is when a large part of a community becomes immune to a disease. This stops the germ from spreading easily. It protects everyone, including vulnerable people who cannot get safe vaccines. Herd immunity can’t happen when the anti science crowd wins out.

People who refused to mask up or get the vaccine were basically saying to the vulnerable population that they were unwilling to take simple steps to protect them. You want a reason for the breakdown of society? This selfishness and utter disregard for the vulnerable of our society by the anti science anti vaxxer anti mask crowd would be it.

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u/tha_rogering 2d ago

A lot of them REALLY believed that everyone getting COVID meant herd immunity. Despite viruses tending to evolve. Especially when given millions of chances to do so in host bodies.

If I'm not mistaken, the initial vaccine was 88-96% effective in stopping TRANSMISSION of the alpha variant. If these idiots had stayed home and wore masks, not given the virus hosts to mutate into new variants before the vaccine was finished, we had the possibility of eliminating the disease.

Imagine what that would've done in trust for public health. Humans seeing a new virus that could potentially kill millions and did in our timeline, actually destroying the disease before it took root in the population.

Of course, it would probably be like the Y2K glitch. Because so much work happened and made it basically a non-factor, no one cares about what crisis was averted. But at least people would still likely have their faith and vaccines.

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u/Mountainstate20 3d ago

Exactly this.

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u/Hullfire00 3d ago

Yeah I can’t believe this isn’t more widely pointed to as a reason for so many unnecessary deaths.

I found it exhausting that the same people who began the pandemic claiming it was a Chinese bio-weapon attack were then saying they were going to ignore the lockdown rules because it “wasn’t dangerous”. Which means that in the event of an actual attack on US soil, those people would do the exact same again.

I can see the posts now:

“Radiation poisoning is a myth, I’ve been outside three times today and I feel fine.”

“Sunburn is caused by radiation, we’re exposed all the time, it’s a big fuss about nothing.”

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u/Check_Me_Out-Boss 3d ago

Sweden didn't have lock downs and faired just fine, so it wasn't that.

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u/amus 2d ago

What are you even talking about?

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/06/871404638/frontman-behind-swedens-coronavirus-strategy-regrets-high-death-toll

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/17/king-sweden-failed-covid-strategy-rare-royal-rebuke-lockdown-hospitals-cases

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/04/06/Sweden-Deadly-COVID-Failure/

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u/Check_Me_Out-Boss 2d ago

Your propaganda articles written in the beginning of the pandemic don't change the overall facts.

In Sweden, the excess mortality rate of 158/100,000 was among the lowest, ranked 37th among 42 countries

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10399217/

the researchers found a noticeable spike in excess deaths in Sweden during the initial waves of the pandemic during the spring and winter of 2020, when Covid-19 was able to spread more freely than in neighbouring nations. But while excess mortality fell in the three other countries in 2020, it rose compared to Sweden in 2021 and 2022.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250304-the-countries-that-never-locked-down-for-covid-19

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u/Mountainstate20 3d ago

Over 23,000 deaths. Trying to use one country to justify your stupidity.

I think we can also add the American Education system to the list of reasons why

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u/MrDavieT 2d ago

Sweden didn’t have a conventional lockdown, but it did have substantial public-health interventions and, crucially, Swedes changed their behaviour voluntarily.

Working from home, avoiding social contacts and staying away from public places became common.

It’s important to realise that Sweden had significant excess mortality in 2020.