Lessons Learned from the Grand Circus of the Public Response to COVID

The Fifth Doctor weighs into the Fifth Anniversary of the Start of Covid

What scintillating lessons have we gleaned from the grand circus of the public health’s response to COVID, the beginning of which is being commemorated on this the fifth anniversary of the start of Covid. I’m writing from the Canadian context but at the moment there is a global rewriting of history happening in the world’s mainstream media that is both nauseating and self congratulatory. In the interests of reminding my readers how badly our societies were fucked around by well-meaning but clueless public health activities, I made my own list of “lessons learned.” of what we should think about next time.

1. Cease the Pompous Proclamation of Universal Peril: The powers that be must desist from sponsoring egregious fearmongering misinformation, trumpeting from the rooftops that any new virus coming along is a scythe poised to cut us to shreds. Masks and vaccines, we were told, were the sacred vestments of survival, while draconian public health measures were foisted upon us like a bad plot twist in a dystopian novel. The reality? A more nuanced tale of risk was drowned out by the cacophony of fearmongering. Let’s retire the megaphone of hyperbole,

   shall we?

   

2. Unshackle the Healers’ Voices and Choices: Healthcare workers, those valiant souls on the front lines, deserve the liberty to speak their truths and wield their expertise without the gag of bureaucratic dogma. Patients, too, must retain the sovereign right to utter a resounding “no” to treatments thrust upon them. Bodily sovereignty is a line we should never allow someone to cross, especially if that person is coming at you with a promising syringe full of “Safe-and-Effective”. Conscience, not coercion, should guide the stethoscope—a radical notion, I know, in an age of dictated obedience.

   

3. Banish the Banality of Bland Assurances: Oh, the tiresome refrain of “safe and effective” parroted ad nauseam about those shiny, novel vaccines—high-tech marvels that, in a twist worthy of a Greek tragedy, have left a trail of hundreds of thousands wounded in their wake. Excess mortality around the globe, post-vaccine should have alerted all of us that all is not what it seems. Let’s purge our lexicon of such hollow bromides and embrace a discourse that respects the messy, inconvenient truth over sanitized platitudes.

   

4. Cease Patronizing the Plebeians: The public, bless their resilient hearts, are not a herd of dim-witted sheep to be prodded into compliance with the stick of a contrived “narrative.” Treating them as such—coercing, shaming, and browbeating them into submission—is an insult to their collective wit. Perhaps it’s time to trust that they can handle complexity without a nanny state spoon-feeding them directives.

   

5. Abandon the Quixotic Quest to Outrun the Inevitable: Pouring obscene fortunes into barricading ourselves from a virus destined to waltz through every doorstep was a fool’s errand. We all caught it, coughed through it, and carried on—yet the economic fallout from these extravagant measures has cast a far darker shadow than the pathogen itself. Poverty, homelessness, and destitution sprouted not from viral spores but from the hubris of overzealous policy. Next time, let’s not bankrupt the world to dodge the unavoidable.

In sum, the COVID saga has taught us that fear-driven fiction, silenced dissent, linguistic laziness, condescension, and fiscal folly are a recipe for chaos.

Shall we endeavor to be wiser, wittier, and less wasteful when the next microbial misadventure knocks? One can only hope.