Hydroxychloriquine vs. The Mask: a herd divided…

It has taken quite a while, but famous 2nd — or 3rd — iteration Fleetwood Mac lead singer, Stevie Nicks, has finally opined on the coronavirus crisis, and the 72 year old songstress of note imploringly had this to say, in a paraphrase:  If I get this, I’ll never sing again!  This was from a People magazine article appearing on Yahoo! on August 11.  In a direct quote, Nicks says this:  “Put me on a ventilator and I will be hoarse for the rest of my life — I don’t have much time…”
The “crystal vision,” or moral, of the Nicks story is later revealed when the septuagenarian rock singer admonishes her listeners to “…wear a mask and follow the rules.”  Who, or what, “rules”?  Who knows. and who cares:  freaking (-out!) Stevie Nicks could have her singing career cancelled forever by an improbable contact with an unmasked fan, and this is a thing that you, dear reader, should be utmost concerned about!  Indeed, there is no masking this situation;  Stevie Nicks is the latest in a long line of celebrity endorsements of the horrors — both real and imagined — of this novel coronavirus…
Of course, this entire pandemic has the feel of a horror movie script about it.  First, there were reports of a vicious new flu coming from China, Iran, Italy and Spain. However, these are far off places that are Communist, Islamist, and quasi-Socialist, so maybe there’s not too much to worry about if, for example, you’re not an absolute hypochondriac.  So America keeps on partying, and being mildly riveted by an over-hyped impeachment show-trial of the embattled President of “Amity Island” in this developing production of Jaws:  The Virus.  After the entirely predictable exoneration of alleged “Russian asset” Donald Trump, which leaves true-“blue” conspiracy theorists gasping for more airs on both coasts, there is an ominous lull, a disturbing pause…Now it’s February, or “Black History Month,” but instead of “Black History” the term “Coronavirus” quietly appears on my Yahoo! browser.  Still, no cause for alarm:  maybe it’s just a browserly hiccup — although I have noticed that al-Jazeera English has been leading with the coronavirus story for well over a month, as if that were the lead story on the planet…
So March marches in, a lion — or shark — in lamb’s clothing, as we all know now, but things were still pretty hunky-dory back then in the States, as the DNC was busy finalizing its plot to hang a Bernie Sanders campaign once again:  in effigy, perhaps, for its well-publicized failure to remove Donald Donaldovitch from the Oval Office, although this unlikely President more often pretends to rule from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort…But then, sharply, the plot quickens, as Wall St catches a cold, and stocks plummet, threatening the end of financialization as we know it.  What to do, what to do?
Swiftly, a National State of Emergency is called by a slumpy, sulky Trump, and “lockdown” is almost as suddenly the mot du jour from “sea to shining” — flatscreen. We, or the Mass Media, which prefers to see things for us, have shockingly discovered the “foreign” virus amongst us.  We are all forthwith instructed to “flatten the curve,” which in no way refers to eating a healthier diet.  Anthony Fauci emerges from the Infectious Disease shadows to become a national hero, the “good doctor” foil to the hopelessly evil — or at least, banal — President Trump.  No mandatory mask dictates, yet; just “social distancing,” wash your hands more frequently than usual, and “Don’t touch your face!” are the orders of the day, to make the COVID go away…
Then, as horror movie scriptural fate would have it, the virus-denying President suffers an epiphany, and declares hydroxychloriquine a miracle cure for the novel coronavirus, as if some all-powerful French genie of Medicine had spoken to him through a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket like it was a burning bush in Old Testament times.  Lo and behold, but Trump even manages to pronounce the multi-syllabic therapeutic’s name not-too-badly;  Will miracles never cease! Nevertheless, well within camera shot, the tremendously esteemed Dr Fauci, Trump’s expert-antipode, is seen burying his whole face into his whole hand, leaving Fauci fans to ponder:  Was the heroic doctor awkwardly hand-signaling the mask mandate soon to be issued?  Whatever the case, even his legion of cheerleaders, which primarily consists of mainstream media news presenters and late night comic show hosts, had to have a poke of fun at this public gaffe.  Well, folks, Dr Fauci’s a lovably fallible human after all — expert-idiot though he most infallibly is!  “Praise Doc Fauci always, and un-worship Trump; also, no longer speak of Bernie Sanders, and a Health Care free-for-all, which is a load of Commie-bull!”
Such is the state of the COVID-19 horror movie narrative as it stands today, more or less.  As with most horror film franchises, it is difficult to know which part of the series or sequel you’re in; each strained strand seems so very much like all the others.  The virtuous Blue-tocrats are still running a zombie against what any reasonable person still in possession of their sanity had already presumed was a zombie, however bizarre and delinquent from a central casting perspective.  A great White shark has been re-animated off a B-movie set, and smells graying orange-red meat in the water and — spoiler alert! — he’ll be wearing a “Mask”…Indeed, “Where’s the fresh blood?” seems to be the most frequently asked question from both Major Parties — tongues-a-flickering and all-too-eager to continue slurping from the trough of the Public Dime of an increasingly anemic nation — these practically uncontested vampires, and the unelected Corporations their hollow fangs represent.  Which is not to say that the American Public’s been bled dry — at least not yet.  “We the People” are still the host, and a herd to be harvested…
Meanwhile, later on that same pandemic…
Masks suddenly become mandatory, not too long after the House-impeached Trump’s hydroxychloriquine awakening (April 5, 2020; although technically a “recommendation,” most States and localities in America make mask-wearing a public ordinance, despite the invisibly-lit President’s continued intransigence on the subject…).  In all fairness, the American Health Triumvirate of Collins-Redfield-Fauci — a Cerberus if ever there was one, or three — had to react, as cases of COVID-19 skyrocketed across the country, but especially in sacred New York City, which became the World’s most celebrated “hot spot” of the disease for any number of reasons that boggle the mind.  Even CNN’s “Fredo” Cuomo, the Governor’s brother, got it, which in turn caused an epidemic of Cable News Anchors crying on set, sad to report;  things had gone from merely morose to truly lachrymose…
Cuomo recovered, of course, as most COVID-sufferers do.  Nevertheless, the virus — and the viral narrative that Ubers it, so to speak — rages on, despite an epidemic of mask-wearing in America.  Here in St Louis, which is admittedly more “Blue-ish” than most of the rest of a very “Red” state, but obviously nowhere close to NYC, which is probably more “conservative” than it’s made out to be, people have been wearing masks — or “facial coverings” — like crazy all Summer.  Crazy fact:  I see solo-drivers, every day, wearing masks inside their cars, as if you could catch the dreaded COVID from your steering wheel, or just listening to NPR.  And yet, with most Americans — and certainly most people in my populous locale — obeying their “marching-masking” orders, the COVID threat is apparently greater than it’s ever been, with local “authorities” constantly revising restriction guidelines as if they were fiddling with a gizmo they don’t know how to work.  Come to think of it:  that about mirrors the Federal response, or lack thereof.
As a citizen and human being (full disclosure!), trying to figure out this nonsensical policy approach is like reading instructions written by illiterates; unfortunately, the illiterates are in charge…In other words:  Although the local herd has overwhelmingly complied with the masking order, and various other varying restrictions, there has not been a corresponding drop in the perceived threat of the virus; instead, every new case is reported quite breathlessly as if we have all been suddenly thrust to within a single, “socially distanced” inch of our collective grave…
Peering down the precipitous abyss of our “collective grave,” as thus I have been thrust, I will go out on a figurative limb to suggest — and merely suggest, mind you; I’m a scientist, not a religionist:  I leave all that “religionism” up to the “New Atheists” — that hydroxychloriquine, which is a WHO-listed “essential medicine” patented for everyday use if prescribed in 1955, is every bit as COVID-preventive as the once-dismissed but now-mandated facial mask.  Further:  Maybe a reasonably sound immune system is anyone’s best defense against this seemingly ubiquitous coronavirus or, indeed, against any other virus currently circulating? How now:  is this an “ancient Chinese secret?”
As to the looming — like a Sword of Damocles! — 2020 American presidential election:  Who knows, and who cares?  Pick a card, any card…However, I’ve heard some Rumours:  “You can go your own way…”The post Hydroxychloriquine vs. The Mask: a herd divided... first appeared on Dissident Voice.