RE: Rest of ordinary people in Russia
I did not mean that society requires a pandemic to change--merely that a pandemic is one of many catalysts that spark change. The catalyst is disruption.
As for masks, you are correct that they do not stop Covid-19 from passing through them. This is not the purpose of the mask, however.
When people sneeze and cough, they spew their sputum and phlegm many feet into the air around them. The airborne droplets contain the virus and anyone who walks through these droplets can catch Covid-19.
The only function of wearing a mask is to trap the spray from coughs and sneezes in the mask. This reduces the number of virus laced droplets floating around in public spaces. That function alone is enough to reduce the rate of transmission.
The other issue you raise is herd immunity. Even if everything you say in that regard is correct, there is still a danger if everyone gets sick at the same time.
When many people are sick at the same time, the death rate from Covid-19 rises. This is because there are not enough resources to care for so many people at once. People that would have lived end up dying because there is no nurse to take care of them or enough oxygen supply to give them.
Sadly, there have been regions where the virus has grown out of control to the point where medical staff have to pick and choose which patients can have treatment. The others are left to die because there are not enough resources for them.
Hopefully, this nightmare will soon end.
Additionally, people who become sick with unrelated illnesses have less access to care. Imagine breaking your leg, but there is no one to set the bone because the hospital is over run with sick people. Then, in your weakened state, you catch covid and die.
Sadly, a lot of the people who get sick and die are nurses and doctors. :-(
All of these problems are like falling dominoes. The hospitals become overwhelmed, the police services are sidelined because police are sick, firefighters are unable to respond to all fires because their members are home sick, government services are unavailable because the staff is sick, funeral homes are unable to process the dead in a timely manner, grocery store workers are unable to sell you food, farm workers are unable to grow and harvest the crops..... it is all related and if we are all sick at the same time the consequences can be very serious.
On the subject of masks, you forgot to mention a more important function. This feature is more needed for those who dream of managing the masses of people. It touches me when I see young girls in masks with rhinestones. But it's actually very sad. Yesterday I was walking out of the bathhouse and it was already almost dark. The streets were almost empty. I met a young mother in a mask. The child in her arms was wearing a mask. I have not seen the child in the stroller, but I can assume that, just in case, he was also wearing a mask. Is this justified? It is reasonable? She was afraid to sneeze on someone or maybe someone could sneeze on her?
This is the result of fear that has been artificially created through the media and with the help of the authorities.
Fear also resulted in overcrowding in hospitals. We must not forget about the so-called hospital infections.
Quite healthy people, with a slight increase in temperature, went to hospitals. Fear drove them there. How else to act if a general pandemic is declared? There they either got infected from really large covids, or from hospital infections. This increased overall mortality and morbidity. Statistics attributed everything to covid. Moreover, for the treatment of covid patients, they paid extra money to ambulance personnel and doctors. There have been many cases when an emergency doctor paid a certain amount to a patient in order to diagnose him with a covid diagnosis. Later he himself received more from the authorities. All statistics are false. At the same time, I am not saying that this virus does not exist. I am just describing some of the details. But the devil is always in the details.
At the same time, all people cannot get sick :). These thoughts are specially instilled in order to create fear and increase control over the masses of people. On the other hand, now there is not a single person living among people who has not had contact with this virus. Everyone had contact. But everyone has different immunities. In some, the immune system coped without outside help, they did not even notice that they were infected. Someone needed more vitamins and fresh air. Others needed medical attention. All people are different. Those deprived of immunity died.
By the way, if we take the statistics on influenza (pre-covid period), then mortality from influenza was higher. Remember bird flu, swine flu, remember Ebola ... But then apparently those who are now carrying out the reboot were not yet ready for it. Although nothing prevented the announcement of a swine flu pandemic.
Again, I can be wrong, confuse names, give inaccurate data. But they are all from open sources. I just compare them with each other. When you start comparing, there are many questions to which there are no intelligible and understandable answers. Why do I compare? I just live like this))