IF you are of a certain age—really old—or are into old comic books, then you know exactly what “Bizarro World” refers to. Action Comics #263, published in April 1960, introduced the fictional planet “Htrae” which is “Earth” spelled backwards.
The society of Htrae is ruled by the Bizarro Code which states, “Us do opposite of all Earthly things!” Inhabitants included versions of Superman and others including Batzarro, the “World’s Worst Detective.” You get the idea.
You may have heard of the times that The Simpsons television series predicted the future or at least it seemed that way. Almost two decades before anyone of us were concerned about Ebola, Marge suggested that Bart read a book titled Curious George and the Ebola Virus. An episode 19 years ago predicted that Donald Trump would one day become US president.
Bizarro World was not meant to predict what Earth would become. But if you follow the financial markets, this might be a little scary. In one issue, a stockbroker type does a brisk business selling Bizarro government bonds that are “Guaranteed to lose money for you.”
However, we live in the second decade of the 21st century and by many sensible standards, this is
“Bizarro World.”
For example: We are told continuously by a huge number of experts that the currency—money—that governments provide is “worthless” because the government will not exchange it for something tangible. The only real alternative is gold or cryptos like Bitcoin.
But that ignores the reality that you can exchange that paper for a bottle of fine—or terrible—tequila, a box of chocolates, shoes, a shirt, cookies, a puppy, a house, a haircut, and an evening with a male or female companion. Oh, and you can exchange that worthless “money” for an ounce of gold or some Bitcoins.
American author Mark Twain said it best although the idea had been around for a hundred years. “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” That is particularly true in the Age of Covid. It is extremely unlikely that any fiction writer could have invented a viral pandemic like we are experiencing.
For one thing, illnesses like this are supposed to be most harmful to the young and the old. The 1918 deaths from the “Spanish Flu” were almost identical percentage-wise of those infected in the “Under one-year-old” and the “Over 85-year-old” groups. For Covid-19, the elderly percentage is about the same between the two illnesses. But the “under 15 years” for Covid-19 is almost negligible unlike for the 1918 flu which hit the young hard.
Spain with a population of less than 50 million has the seventh most cases and total deaths, and third worst “deaths per 1 million” of all over-10 million population countries.
Yet a new study published in The Lancet shows that only 5 percent of the total population has the Covid-19 antibodies. Covid-19, we are told, is very contagious yet that was not necessarily true in Spain or in Switzerland where another study was done. The conclusion is that “herd-immunity” then is nearly impossible unless a nation is willing to accept a lot of “collateral damage” deaths.
Further, “Doctors are uncertain whether having antibodies to the coronavirus means someone cannot be infected again. It’s not clear how long or how well antibodies protect people from the virus.” No one would have bought the science-thriller book The Perfect Pandemic. Now we may be living it.
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