The Covid Car Crash, and how the Government is Actively trying to kill us

Photo: Author: Alexas_Fotos / pixabay.com. Source

Over the last year I’ve heard a lot of arguments over mandates for vaccines or mask wearing. One of the most popular and often used uses car safety as an example. And it’s a great analogy, the rules, guidelines and laws around driving are in place to keep drivers, passengers, other road users and pedestrians safe.

Sure, they can be a little annoying, you have to take a couple of extra steps like wearing a seat belt, taking a test, making sure that your car is safe enough to be on the road, and check your speed. But do you know what? If we look at the numbers before the big push on road safety through the 70s and today we have 19.6% of the deaths that we had in 1970 and the total number of reported injuries is 32.4% of its 1970 value.

“And!?!” Yes, I hear the exasperated cries. What’s the point of all this? Why does it matter? Ethan, have you finally snapped? No. I want to look at what successive governments did to get these numbers down, and why I now consider our current Government to be Mass Murderers. But first, lets look at the numbers:

1970 Deaths by Car – 7,499 (20.6/day)
1970 Injuries by Car – 356,000 (978/day)

2021 Deaths by Covid – 165/day
2021 Infections by Covid – 39,006/day

EIGHT TIMES AS MANY PEOPLE ARE DYING PER DAY OF COVID THAN DIED OF CAR CRASHES IN 1970!!!
AND TEN TIMES AS MANY PEOPLE ARE BEING INFECTED AS SUFFERED INJURIES BACK THEN…

I’m sorry for shouting, but no one else seems to be. The news channels are reporting them as a matter of fact, as if nothing can be done. Sky News do a quick round up of the numbers each day when they’re released and then compare them to the worst day we’ve had in the pandemic so far. Not “this time last year” but the very worst day we had.

Then there’s our new Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, who said that we just have to learn to live with the virus. But as we’re seeing, 165 people per day AREN’T living. Even the publicly funded unofficial Number 10 Press Office (BBC News) are discussing this approach.

But let’s do some comparisons and equate the steps previous governments took to make it possible for us to live with the car with the steps that sensible countries that have some sort of grip on their outbreak. The three main ways for controlling the virus are Hands, Face, Space.

The three main ways to control car safety are cut out Drink Drivers, Wear a Seatbelt, Control Your Speed, which I think equate quite well with the Hands, Face, Space messaging.

(Image by UK Government, Source.)

Imagine if we didn’t have driving tests and licences, then the government found out that it reduced accidents and that the people who take a driving test are more likely to survive an accident. So they bring in the driving licence on a voluntary basis. Learn the rules if you like, take the test if you want, get your government issued piece of paper to prove it. But at the same time they say “You don’t have to worry about your alcohol intake, Seatbelt or speed. That is unless you want to. We’ll leave it up to you.

What’s going to happen to the car accident figures? Exactly.

But this is in effect what our government are saying. Take the vaccine if you want, it’ll make you less likely to get Covid, and even if you do, you’ll be more likely to survive. Social distancing and Mask wearing are optional, we trust you. And that lackadaisical reaction along with the atrocious press coverage lulls the country into a false sense of security. If you consciously decide not to implement public safety measures then you’re murdering your citizens by omission.

Car fatalities and vehicle safety in general only reduce when you implement ALL of the ways to make it safer. The virus is no different. We need to reintroduce Mask Mandates, Social Distancing and have a Mandatory Vaccine if we really want to live with the virus.

Epilogue

I decided that I wanted to see just how far I could push the comparison and even figured out a way to include Lockdowns! (I’m pretty pleased with myself for this…) Pedestrianisation Zones. When pedestrianisation zones come in local businesses see a drop in footfall and revenue (like in Ennis, Ireland, Islington, London and Bogota, Columbia). Large shopping and business areas are more likely to survive, but it’ll hit the small local shops first. Just like Lockdowns!

This Has Been Bugging Me For Weeks

I’ve tried to write this post a few times. As a Twitter post, a Facebook update and as a blog post a few times, but I couldn’t think how to start it. Well, a couple of months ago I succumbed to something I’ve been resisting for years and I think it’s a good place to start. For those of you without a chronic illness this will probably be a “so what?” moment, and for those of you with chronic illness (especially team “My Immune System Hates Me”) this’ll probably be a “yeah, and?” post.

But, as always, this blog is about my experiences living with Ankylosing Spondylitis and since my 5m doggy paddle swimming certificate from infant school doesn’t count, I’m not qualified to give advice. So if anything in here causes you concern – go to your GP and get it checked!

As I’ve probably mentioned before, I’m vain. I’ve avoided walking aids (even though I know I need one sometimes) and instead used a variety of umbrellas to match my outfit. But at the moment I’m in pain. Lots of pain. So I ordered a stick.

I’ve started with a plain black foldaway one as I don’t intend to become reliant on it until I absolutely need to. But still, it’s a definite landmark in my AS journey, and today I thought I’d write about how I got here.

An Open Letter to the Woman that Gave Birth To Me

((( CONTENT WARNING – THIS POST COVERS SUBJECTS SUCH AS PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS AS WELL AS DESCRIPTIONS OF ADVERSE MENTAL HEALTH EXPERIENCES. PLEASE DON’T READ IT IF THIS MAY MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE OR CAUSE AN ADVERSE REACTION. )))

/// To answer the question before it’s put to me. This is an open letter for a few reasons. 1) It lets people on Facebook who I’m not in contact with via other social media know that I’m still alive. 2) It allows me to address one of my abusers directly. 3) I don’t want to create a dialogue, which direct messages encourage. 4) The abuse was hidden at the time. From friends, family, teachers, I was even made to lie to the social worker and Guardian Ad Litem that the court provided. My life experiences have been hidden from the world since then, and even now – in this letter – I’m only touching on the edges. So it’s time to stop lying, stop hiding it, and to make them face what they did.

You’re welcome to disagree with my choice, you might believe that this is something that shouldn’t be public. And you don’t need to read this if that’s the case. It’s written for a very specific audience, but if it helps anyone else to understand what’s happening (or maybe to spot something in themselves that they need to address) then that’s great too. But do you know what? This is my blog, my life, and my decision. ///

Disowned

Happy Pride History Month! (Yes, I know that it’s Black History Month over the other side of the Atlantic, but here in the UK it’s the queers’ turn. Black History Month here is October.)

Anyway, I heard a report that a Republican congressman has been disowned by his family for voting to impeach former White House resident and professional Scam Artist John Barron, sorry, David Dennison. And it made me think. In the queer community we often don’t discuss our familial relationships, or if we do, we gloss over it. Mr Kinzinger has made international news for his disownment, yet there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of LGBTQIA+ folk who have, are, or will experience this every day. Yet we rarely talk about it.

Stigma #ItsASin

CONTENT WARNING – This post covers sexual assault/rape and thoughts of suicide. I’ll put a further warning in the text when the challenging content is coming up, so people can read the background if they want.

I’d like to tell you a story. It’s a true story. But first, let me explain why I’m telling it. I recently found someone on twitter who was writing some great, uplifting, and supportive tweets around the stigma of HIV. And then I saw this response to him.

It reminded me of a story about a guy I knew, we were the same age and had quite similar life experiences. For background, this story took place in 1995 when we were 17. The Age of Consent for gay sex had been reduced to 18 a few months before, so we only had a year left to wait until we could legally drink and have sex (instead of the 4 years it had been until the change).

#ItsASin

I was in two minds over whether to watch It’s A Sin last night. Not because I thought it was going to be a bad show, Russell T Davis has proven himself time and time again. I mean, can you believe that it’s been 21 years since Queer as Folk came out? That’s enough time for Charlie Hunnam to glow up into the sort of guy that would throw Nathan around like a ragdoll, and for Aiden Gillen to plot the deaths of goodness’ knows how many Lords, Ladies and Kings. And no, American readers, I’m not talking about the straight-washed version you folks created – I’m talking about the original!

Freedumb of Speech

So it’s finally happened. The most dangerous man in the US has finally received the very minimum of consequences to his actions. He’s been suspended, blocked and/or banned from a number of high profile social sites. Including his precious twitter account. I’m not going to thank them or congratulate them on this action. Just as his sycophants and enablers are jumping ship “early” (2 weeks before your contract ends isn’t exactly early…) so the social platforms have decided that it would cost them more to keep him on than getting rid of his poison.

And that’s one of the problems with the people shouting about “Freedom of speech”, and complaining about Silencing and Deplatforming him. They’re demanding that the social sites offer the same freedoms of speech that they enjoy under the US government. But those companies don’t have the same protections that the government has. If someone stands in the House of Congress and says “All Gays with Ankylosing Spondylitis are an abomination and should be stoned to death”, the US government won’t be sued for providing the platform. Neither will its income be affected as that comes primarily from taxation. Publicly traded companies however are likely to lose advertisers, stock value, and more.

The “Rule of Six”

You’ll have to excuse me for this one, I’m writing it on my phone so it won’t have pretty pictures. It’s also going to be very plain speaking – there will probably be rude words and I’m not intending to edit it. I want to get the raw emotion across.

I’m sat watching de Pfeffel Johnson waffle and bluster through the new safety rules coming into effect. The new rules will be based on the “Rule of Six” (which – like all his catchphrases – he repeated so many times that I started to feel sick). And I’ve had a reaction that I didn’t expect. I’m literally in tears.

This idea that no more than six people can meet together at once is no protection at all. If I went out with 5 friends and then saw another group of friends who I wanted to catch up with, all I’d need to do is shout across or drop one of them a text to swap places. Off we swap and there we go – we’ve all been exposed to 11 other people. And with this pointless idea from a government that has refused to actually be proactive or firm he’s yet again said to the most vulnerable that he doesn’t give a fuck about us.

And once again he’s proved that he hasn’t learned from the past, this rule is going to be effective from Monday 14 September. Just like his lockdown announcement in February was on a Thursday, meaning that huge groups of people went out for one last bender over the weekend. And yet he follows the same pattern.

People have died from this virus. People are STILL dying from this virus. But the fucknuckle doesn’t care. He’s still pushing the groups with the highest increase in positive testing results back to school, college and soon – University. He’s still telling people to go back to the office. He’s still more worried about getting the economy back quickly than working on eradicating the virus quickly and then the economy will bounce back in a sustainable way.

Everything this wiff-waffing waste of time does is reactive. Everything the last 3 governments have done has been to line their pockets and those of their friends. Many of the current party were in role for the court cases around how they treat disabled people. And they were found to be regularly, flagrantly and knowingly committing human rights abuses.

I’m still in tears. And yes most of them are for me, I’m selfish. But some of them are for all of the vulnerable people out there who (like me) are terrified of being killed by de Pfeffel Johnson and Demonic Cummings.

Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.

TRIGGER WARNING: Mention of suicidal tendencies in the context of counselling/psychotherapy self assessment.

DISCLAIMER: As always, this post is entirely my own opinion and doesn’t represent the views of “The Disabled Community” as a whole. In fact, as I haven’t talked to anyone about this at all, I can’t even be sure if it reflects the views of anyone with a disability (apart from myself).

A lot has been said about Trump’s defense for bragging about his “amazing” score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. I’m afraid that I’m going to be adding my tuppen’th in too. In particular I want to look at it from two angles, the use of assessments in medical practice (with a focus on the AS and Mental Health side of things as these are where I have experience). The second thing I want to look at is accusations of ableism and review the way that I look at it (coming from a background of the Queer Politics movement in the 90s).

Actions vs Words

I’ve been a bit quiet again recently. It’s because I’m standing on the limit of my mental health peninsula. Life is currently a balancing act between coping with my cPTSD, social anxieties, physical health and financial difficulties after being made redundant nearly a year ago and not being eligible for assistance from the government.

My GP has been amazing over the last couple of years (we’re actually at 2 1/2 years now since my cPTSD was triggered). And I’ve tried counselling and CBT – neither of which were able to help. We’ve tried different medications and found a group that are helping to dull the edge of my snake’s fangs. It’s a temporary workaround, an elastoplast over an arterial wound, but it’s been holding me together for a while. I’ve been living on the pretence that I just need it to manage for a little longer, just until I can get the correct treatment for my cPTSD.

Why pretence? Well, after two years and two failed attempts at counselling and CBT, I’d finally been able to get a referral to a psychologist for assessment to get psychotherapy. Of course that was just as Covid-19 started to be treated as a serious issue by Doris and his circus of mediocrity.

Last week I received a letter telling me that my assessment was cancelled due to the lockdown. There was no deferral, no reassurance, no alternative offered. Andy’s been receiving physio by phone and video call. I’ll just say that again, PHYSIOTHERAPY is being delivered remotely. One of the most tactile treatments offered by the NHS can be delivered by phone and video call. But a treatment based around TALKING can’t be?

Doris, Raaaaab, Hancock, et al (well, except Patel, because she couldn’t give a flying fig about the vulnerable) are regularly talking about how they’re aware of the mental health issues the lockdown is causing.

They’re encouraging people to contact the first line support on offer (much of it actually being delivered by charity and voluntary groups), but still haven’t addressed the huge structural failings of the system that their party has caused through a decade of underfunding and studious ignorance.

They’re right though, mental health is a huge issue and people need to be able to talk about it more openly. Thanks to the famous people who’ve stepped forward and told their stories and the groups/organisations working to raise awareness, it’s starting to happen (I’d like to take a second to shout out Aiden Hatfield who is fantastically brave, talking about MH on his YouTube channel, using his Twitter feed to send out messages of reassurance and positivity and even created a clothing range that donates to Mind!)

But awareness and talking about issues with people you can trust can’t help everyone with long term mental health illnesses. And these people are being left behind. Falling through the cracks of the system. Just as there are people like me who fall through the cracks of the benefits system.

Once again the government says one thing and doesn’t complete the actions to ensure it happens. I mean – we knew that was what we were getting with Doris – he’s always been all mouth and no trousers. But seeing it so starkly and living on the sharp end. Well, it’s another thing that doesn’t help someone struggling with their mental health.