We are two years into the pandemic and there seems to be a new variant every few months. Should we be scared of these new variants? And what can we do if the government tries to use these new strains to lock us down again?

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Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Emma: Hi, Brittany.

Brittany: Hi, Emma.

Emma: Today I wanna talk about something that has been all over the news lately, drumming up a lot of fear, and a lot of people are worried and freaked out about it. So I thought it’d be a good thing for us to talk about here on the way the world works. And that is the omicron variant. Am I saying that correctly?

Brittany: I dunno. It sounds like a transformer either way to me. It does. I feel like it’s, it’s like a auto bot.

Emma: Auto bot. Yeah.

Brittany: Autobot.

Emma: I loved Transformers growing up. But the Omicron variant is the supposedly latest and deadliest and scariest, variant of COVID-19, which as we know, we’ve had a few different variants. Yes. And we’re just now, as we’re recording this, starting to see new cases of this pop up around the country. We’ve had a few people test positive for it. I believe it’s supposedly coming from South Africa. That’s kind of like the epicenter. But I thought that we could break this down a little bit and talk about whether we should be really worried about these variants and maybe get into a little bit of, the fear that surrounds each one of these new things that comes out and how it may even be used to control us and keep us scared and keep us compliant. So, I’m gonna read just a few headlines that I have seen in the last few days about the Omicron. I’m just going to assume that it’s Omicron. We’ll see.

Brittany: Is it Omo? You know what? There’s another homework assignment. I know Connor and I always do this when we can’t figure out how to pronounce words. Like, all right, listeners.

Emma: Go correct us.

Brittany: Go find out for us. Correct us.

Emma: Yeah. And if you know Greek letters, then you’re gonna get annoyed of hearing me probably say the wrong way. So, first Omicron variant was reported in New York City, and then we have White House says domestic travel vaccine requirements on the table due to Omicron variant. That’s, scary, actually.

Brittany: That’s pretty scary. Yeah.

Emma: We’re talking about requiring vaccines for people to fly and move around within the United States. Here we go. Colorado confirms Omicron variant of COVID-19 in women who recently returned from Southern Africa. So there’s the South Africa thing, and there are so many more headlines, guys. I’m not even gonna read ’em all because it’s all that the news has been talking about for the last few days. But the reason why I wanted to bring this up is because it’s interesting when these variants come out and it, to me, it almost is like the meme. It’s like, oh, new variant just dropped. It’s like such a joke now because so many people have been exposed to COVID already. So many people have had the opportunity to be vaccinated if they want to. And the government is still trying to use in the media too, trying to use this as a way to keep people scared. And this is something that we even saw last year with the Delta variant. And everyone was talking, oh, this deadly scary Delta variant. And I don’t know Brittany, if you remember the timing, but it was right after a lot of states had finally lifted Lockdowns. The CDC had started.

Brittany: Yes. Literally right after.

Emma: Yeah. The CDC had said, all right, you’re fine to be in large groups and you don’t have to wear a mask, whatever.

Brittany: It was great. DC had finally opened, cuz I like going to concerts and stuff and they’d finally opened clubs again. It was wonderful. Already was so excited. And then Delta.

Emma: Yeah. Well, do you wanna, do you wanna explain kind of like how Delta basically made that happen? Or, what at least you heard in DC.

Brittany: And it’s funny, I don’t even remember how at this point because it’s all becoming so comical to me. Not to say that there’s not some serious cases of COVID. I know, you know, people, have dealt with things, but it’s become so silly what has been happening in the media. And all of a sudden, I don’t even remember where Delta came from. I just know all of a sudden it was like, we’re out of the woods. Like we’ve got it contained. Oh, wait, no we don’t. And this was right after like, everybody was getting vaccinated and it was like, we thought it was over. Yeah. And I’ll be honest, I say we liberally cuz I didn’t ever trust that it was gonna be over. Cuz my trust for government is at an all time low. It has been for the last 15 years. Yeah. 20 years. One was 911, 20 years. so all of a sudden Delta comes and it’s like, oh no. Now we have to be careful because this one’s even worse. This one’s gonna be even worse. Oh wait, it’s actually less deadly, but it’s gonna be even worse. And it’s just this constant fear tactics. And, you know, the flu is around every year for, children specifically, the flu is five times more deadly. it’s actually, so the flu is actually more deadly than COVID. Here’s the difference. COVID is more transmissible, I’m gonna say that wrong. So like you, it’s easier to get COVID, but it’s easier to die from the flu. And obviously, because it’s easy to get it if older people are people with comorbidities I think is what they call them. So people who are already have health risks or maybe they’re not very healthy, get it then Yeah. It can definitely be scary. But if they keep us in fear like this, the flu has different versions, different strains, just like the different, variants of COVID that come every year. Can you imagine Emma, if every time there’s a new version of the flu or the cold, everything had shut down? Yeah, Like. Yeah. It’s crazy to me. I think we’re to a point where we have to kind of start realizing that it’s an endemic now, not a pandemic. And an endemic means that this is here to stay. Yeah. COVID is not going anywhere. There’s not going to be a magic cure to the pan or to, you know, this pandemic. It’s here to stay and we need to learn to deal with it.

Emma: Yeah. I mean it’s true. And that’s why it’s so important that we all read the actual facts for ourselves when it comes to these things because it’s no secret that the media really relies on people being scared to get them to keep watching. So of course, every time, you know, Fauci comes in and says, oh, we have this new variant, it’s really transmissible and it’s really contagious. That’s like the be the media’s dream because they’re like, oh, perfect. We have a new scary thing that we can tell people about and everyone will keep watching cuz they’re all worried. And again, that’s not to downplay how deadly COVID is for certain people. This is certainly a serious thing. And I don’t wanna sound like we’re just laughing about it.

Brittany: Yes, but cause people have died, you know? Yeah. And it’s every time humans, you know, human life is lost. That’s terrible. When it happens from the cold or cold, it happens from a flu. Right. So it can be serious, but that doesn’t mean, you know, war on terror was serious, but Exactly. Or not the war on terror, excuse me, terrorism and the people who died as a result of that is very serious. But that doesn’t mean the TSA and all these other silly seemingly you know, absurd things that have happened in the aftermath. You know, we need to be honest and truthful about what’s happening also.

Emma: Exactly. And that’s why it’s so important that people really read into, you know, the difference between how contagious COVID is versus how deadly it is. Because the fact is 99.9% or 99.3 or something like that, 99 point something survives COVID with no problem. And they’re totally fine. And I know Brittany and I have both had it and yes, you know, it’s not fun. Not fun to have COVID.

Brittany: Neither is a cult.

Emma: It is a virus and it’s not fun to have. But at the same time, it’s not the end of the world that there’s this virus going around and we don’t need to end our world in fear of the virus. And that’s what it sort of seems to me like that’s what’s happening where we’re almost in this state of paralysis, which is where you can’t move, you’re paralyzed because the world has kind of come to a stop and there are so many people who are still working from home, there’s still not going into work or they still feel too scared to go out and do normal things that you would do day-to-day in your life. And it’s honestly, it’s very sad to me because there are a lot of people who are missing out on very valuable years of their lives, missing out on times with their loved ones. And I mean.

Brittany: They’re not living, we’re so scared of dying. We’re not living.

Emma: Exactly. You just, you nailed it. Yeah. We’re so scared of dying that we’re not actually living. And that’s what I think the danger is with these variants is, you know, people don’t actually read into the fine print and see that, hey, maybe this variant is more contagious, but it’s actually way less deadly. It, if we don’t bother to actually take the time and read those things and learn the actual facts about, you know, viruses and illnesses. Cuz again, it’s not just COVID, this could happen with any sort of virus. But when we give the government the power to shut our lives down, every time there’s some sort of new scary thing on the horizon, you know, I’ve got news for you. We’re never gonna go back to normal. And I think that’s one of the big reasons why people keep saying the phrase new normal.

Brittany: New normal or the great way set.

Emma: Yeah. This, the whole new normal thing just like really grosses me out because the way that a lot of people are living right now is not normal. It’s not normal to live in fear of this virus that most people are gonna be totally fine even if they catch it. And it’s not normal to isolate yourself for years at a time staying in your house, not going outside. It’s not normal for the government to shut down the economy and try to console people through giving these stimulus payments that barely cover anything. And it’s, none of this is normal. And the fact that people are trying to say that it is, I think is another like, marketing branding thing that’s just absurd. So that’s sort of when I, where I see one of these new variants pop up or some new announcement and that’s meant to scare us, I just think, well, is this just another way of trying to keep us from going back to our normal lives or relying on the government more? It’s, very frustrating.

Brittany: I think it’s, you kind of alluded to this or hinted towards this, is that it is, we saw how quickly people gave up their liberty. And I think that’s what scares me the most about COVID is it took like two seconds, you know, for the world to shut down. I remember I was packing to go to a music festival in March, on March 9th and March 12th. Or the festival was March 18th that I was like getting ready for, you know, on March 12th, the world shut down. It happened so quickly. It’s still hard for me to grasp because one, I cannot believe it’s been two years. Yeah. And two, it’s just, baffled me how quickly people gave up their freedom. This is something America was built to not do that. And we were so scared of what could happen. And to be fair, we didn’t know a lot in the beginning. Right. We didn’t know a lot. Yeah, but It’s, we over, you know, we over-corrected, we overreacted, and that scares me because I think you’re right. I don’t think we’re gonna get it back. And I don’t think the government ever intended to give it back. You know, there’s something called separation of powers where nobody’s allowed to be more powerful together. Whether it’s, you know, judges, legislators, or governors or presidents. So what happened during COVID is governors and presidents, they’re the executive. They decided to make, you know, lock shutdown orders or to make all these laws. And they told people like, oh, we’re gonna just give us, we’re going to get this power indefinitely, meaning there’s no end to it. And when we think things are safe again, we’ll give up our power. Well, guess what, Emma, that didn’t happen. Even now, it’s still not happening. And so I think that when we give government power, they don’t really intend to give it back. They don’t wanna give it back.

Emma: Yeah. Oh no. I think the plan was always to keep the power and it’s, you know, not to sound too crazy here, but the government loves being in control of us and they love being able to manipulate us and make us all follow the rules because it gives the people running the government more power and it makes them more important. And they have a lot more sway over what happens in the world when all of us are locked inside our and unable to leave and relying on their every word as our only source of information. So I think this pandemic has kind of split people two ways. A lot of people are way more skeptical of the government than they were in the beginning of all of this. Yes. And they’re totally awakened. They’re realizing, Hey, these people do not have my best interest in mind. They’re looking out for themselves in their own power. And that’s really great. And that gives me some hope. But then on the other hand, there are some people who just seem to have become so ingrained in this blind faith to the government where, you know, one day Fauci can be saying, you don’t need to wear a mask. And these people are all over Twitter going, stop buying up the masks. You’re so selfish. And then the next day Fauci says, actually everyone needs to wear a mask. And then all of them are posting their mask selfies. And like, it’s just this weird, it’s a virtue. So weird, signaling. It’s very strange. And we’ve talked about COVID theater and how, you know, people do all these performative things and pretend cleaning and wearing all these masks and stuff and y you know, regardless of what the science actually says, just to make us feel safer. And I think that’s what it really comes down to is feelings and wanting to feel safe and feel secure. And as long as people are more willing to trust the government for that, we’re gonna keep getting this kind of stuff happening here. So my caution would be to all of you, stay woke. Keep an eye on that government and, don’t let them push it around.

Brittany: A good kinda woke

Emma: The good woke. Yeah. I say that kind of as a joke. Woke.

Brittany: Okay. I’m like, wait a second. Wait a second.

Emma: Yeah. We joke about woke but I promise you we’re not woke, people. So I’ll leave it at that. Thank you for listening guys, and we will talk to you all again soon.

Brittany: Talk to you soon.