We Have An Unhealthy Relationship To Sickness

Intolerance To Infirmity Will Not End Well

One of the biggest changes since 2020 is our relationship to sickness, and not in a good way. Some may argue this, and please do, I love a good argument. And you could very well change my mind on this subject. However, if your argument is to “save the vulnerable” I still maintain that the vulnerable should stay home if they find coughs and sniffles and other symptoms “imminently dangerous.”

Like diving boards, helmets, playground equipment, and all other “safety-fying” aspects of our lives, now sickness has taken a turn for the worst. Getting sick now is a Defcon 1 type situation that requires almost fallout shelter isolation status, hazmat suits, and James Bond levels of espionage to determine contact tracing.

We must do all that we can to avoid infection because infection is death. Like this guy below, who is doing something akin to calling in a fake bomb threat. I mean, both his parents actually went to work after coming in contact with him. There should be a warning at least at the beginning of the movie. Warning: Simulated scenes of sickness and casual treatment of coming in contact with infirm individuals."

Maybe some of you were adults before 2020.

It used to be you would rarely stay home when sick, but go to work, and save the sick days for beautiful weather when you wanted to “play hooky.” You would call into work “sounding sick” although I never understood this.

You don’t have to sound sick to call in nauseous, or have a debilitating headache. There are many ways to call in sick without any “theater” involved. And yet part of the ritual of calling in sick was to “sound sick.” And the thing is, most employers don’t want to know or are not interested in your symptoms. They aren’t some judicial body determining disease deceit. They are probably just wondering if they can find a new cog to fill the job you did…or if they can go “cogless” for a day. Note to others: beware of working at a place where the schedule is written in pencil.

It used to be back in the far distant past before 2020, if you did get sick and felt well enough, you would take some treatments to lessen the symptoms and go about your day. You’d show up to work, and it wouldn’t be considered a health violation to have a box of tissues at your desk or involuntary manslaughter to cough and sneeze at your desk.

You can find commercials for “cold remedies” everywhere. Dayquil, Sudafed, etc. But now, the new "social contract" is "stay home/stay safe," and the supposition is that going to work/about your day is "endangering other people." Look out, grandma! Junior has a cold! Hey Corporate America, Gertrude is your new Patient Zero Employee as she comes to work with a case of the sniffles.

During COVID, there was the Quarantine Carousel. Mileage may vary, but if you timed it right, you could probably be on the Quarantine Carousel for weeks on end. You would hear stories about people “tested positive” or merely were “contact traced” in association with a positive individual. That alone could get you into quarantine. And it was “10 days” in Quarantine. You could stay/home/safe or in some areas of the world, like in Philadelphia, you could be quarantined in a hotel.

https://www.phila.gov/2021-06-15-bounce-back-philly-offers-a-free-safe-place-for-covid-19-isolation-and-quarantine/

Some people would play their Covid card to get away from the kids who were home because teachers were at imminent threat of death from the plague rats children who could have contracted this novel/deadly disease.

Heck, if you hated your job enough, just find another employee who was on the testing bandwagon and hang out with them, a surefire way to become one of the people who could stay home/safe during a false or questionable positive. Although, then you have to deal with their pathological mindset of OCD testing.

Or, you could collect fruit and other manner of produce as it could test positive as well.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tanzania-idUSKBN22G295/

Once you are cleared about 10 days, you would go back to work, and could conceivably again, associate with someone who became positive and get right back on the Quarantine Carousel. There was a reporter who went into quarantine four times in three months due to their association with contagious individuals. I knew two people where one tested positive after going out to a bar after work, and so both were quarantined from work due to the whole quarantine/contact tracing nonsense.

Do not past go, do not collect $200.00.

This has a profound effect on the populace. It is one of my theories as to why some, if not all, industries are suffering.

Second, is this just me or do others feel this?

I almost feel "shame" in buying these over-the-counter treatments because, according to the narrative and consequently those people who believe it, I am putting others in danger merely by being in others' presence. COVID, according to them, is a "novel, deadly disease" so if I pick up these symptom mitigations, am I not by proxy "carrying a concealed weapon?"

I was hospitalized twice in 2021 and 2023 (not Covid related), and can tell you that hospitals are suffering from staffing issues, at least in the few hospitals I have visited. I heard it from a number of nurses. They said that just about any day, you could count on about a third of them being "out." The whole "avoiding infection." Meanwhile, the health care official in charge of meal distribution was there pretty much every day, along with the person who cleaned the room on a daily basis.

Nursing is a high-pressure situation as it is. Nurses are basically the doctors ‘rest of the body.” And it’s become more specialized than that. There are the techs that come in and take vitals, and then there are the nurses…nurses who actually address and interact with you. And many of them were missing. Some to burnout no doubt, but others due to the quarantine carousel.

The whole idea of infection avoidance has had a sad sea-change effect on Americans and any countries that adopted these draconian measures, who at one time were "can-do." If reality presented challenges, they rose up to meet those challenges. This is one of the sad legacies of pathologizing the normal. When normal becomes pathological, then pathological becomes normal.

Can do becomes “can avoid.”

And there is no greater illustration of that than how our relationship to sickness has changed since 2020. I remember (Before 2020) many times I showed up to work still with a residual cold. And it was considered good to do this because chances are, everyone was going to get sick and if you stayed out of work, you were going to let the team down and get behind. And it was decided that the burden or nuisance of a cold at work was far better than lost productivity.

Now under the performative notion of “caring more about your employees health than their role in their job, we have what we have now. And it is performative, and I don’t think it is sustainable.

The problem of the avoidance idea, coupled with a “zero tolerance” methodology of thinking is that it will force an inevitability of people staying home until completely symptom-free. Because, merely with some form of contact tracing, you can eliminate a third of your staff easily. Because of the fear and panic propaganda, merely showing any symptom could spell certain doom if you are selfish enough to show up and inflict your symptoms on another.

But it makes no sense. Because we know exposure does not mean infection.

And infection does not mean bad outcomes.

If a sickness was destructive in the way that the above two things occurred consistently, then I would be for these ridiculous restrictions and policies regarding sickness. But they don’t, and so there needs to be serious pushback.

I would make it clear up front. Being employed at this place of business means there will be people with colds, flus, allergies, and all sorts of inevitable maladies that come as part of interacting with humanity, and if you can’t handle it, seek employment elsewhere. A sick body is not an indicator of overall malaise or chronic condition.

Remember when we made fun of those who added drama in the face of very low drama events in their lives?