Decades in a Day

History has cracked open, and the War on Terror has become the War on Death. But only some of the chosen deaths.

“The lockdown ends on April 16th - but I didn’t say which year!”

The War on Death is the new War on Terror.

Wuhan is 9/11.

A mysterious event occurs. An enemy is identified. Accurately, yes.

The government then responds with popular support. Eventually people are almost happy when they hear of terrorist attacks as it justifies the panic - just as people, if they are honest, wait to watch the virus stats and see deaths reach milestones.

But soon enough people start wondering why more people die in the response than the problem. Because there is no way to measure success or victory, the war continues indefinitely.

We were told to make a sacrifice to flatten the curve to get things ready for the inevitable rise in infections. The curve never even happened in South Africa. Barely anybody has been hospitalised. Data have shown the disease is not dangerous for the young, middle-aged and healthy.

Now we are told lockdowns will only be reduced if transmission rates decrease. This was not the deal. We were told the lockdown was to buy time to stock up. Now we are being told there is no return to normal.

The world managed to return to normal after the Spanish Flu. The period straight after was called the Roaring 20s.

Today we moved to ‘Level 4’ - which means curfews and compulsory masks - not a return to any kind of freedom. Elon Musk has described the social conditions as fascism.

We are witnessing the biggest breach of trust in political history. At the press briefings the president and the ministers laugh and joke around.

Fatality rates have been lowered around the world as we realise many more have contracted the virus than we thought. Even TB and HIV do not seem to cause vulnerability. India and SA barely have a curve yet we are poor nations with crowded slums and bad healthcare systems.

Yet the sacrifice continues. Millions are out of work. Starvation stalks the townships. And the government barely loses support. Twitter seems to show growing support. Dare question Ramaphosa and you are a traitor.

Dare question scientists and you are an idiot.

How many of the public know about the replication crisis in modern science? It turns out that the majority of scientific studies and modelling - especially in health - cannot be replicated. Give it a quick Google.

The chief modeler who influenced global response to the pandemic is Neil Ferguson of Imperial College. This is a man who predicted bird flu in 2005 would kill 200 million. He made similar errors on Mad Cow Disease (remember that panic) and swine flu. The computer code he uses in his modeling is not open to peer review. He is not a doctor.

Yet we bow to these modelers. I for one am never going to trust a climate change model ever again in my life. I can see litter and pollution, and I want that cleaned up, but don’t dazzle me with abstractions from the UN and the WHO ever again.

History has cracked open for us. We are living decades in a day. Keep calm and carry on they said when London was being bombed. But that was to serve the government.

Will we remain paralysed in fear - or will we find the faith to understand life is not worth living in fear?

This Easter, I believe in death, yes, but I choose resurrection.