> It's pretty apparent at this point that COVID was heavily politicized, which would explain its dominating prevalence in media and culture
It seems to me that its "dominating prevalence in media and culture" came as a result of being a once-in-a-generation global plague that killed millions of people, shut down much of the world, and fundamentally altered the way humans live their lives for the better part of two years.
Lockdowns and the mass hysteria began somewhere around March. Everyone believed the virus spread from major points of entry around sometime in January. Yet we now have evidence that this was widespread as early as December 2019 (https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-offe...) and the study is undergoing replication as we speak. So were people just not dying in December?
I am not a denialist. I personally known quite a few people that have caught it. It's a real, terrible illness. But I have always remained skeptical about the true risks, the approach to handling the virus, and the testing numbers. Not helping the case was how much we've been lied to or misinformed by public health officials.
It seems to me that its "dominating prevalence in media and culture" came as a result of being a once-in-a-generation global plague that killed millions of people, shut down much of the world, and fundamentally altered the way humans live their lives for the better part of two years.