Are you seeking social connection in these post-lockdown times of fragmentation, disorientation, sadness, economic loss, and ill-health?
You’re not alone. It’s a problem all over the world. Three years ago, our social, economic, political, and cultural institutions were shattered by a central decree. The key edict came from the World Health Organization (WHO). The date was Jan. 30, 2020. The WHO was thrilled with how China was responding to the virus by shattering the lives of its citizens. It told the entire world of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) miracle cure!
The entire world, the WHO wrote, should embrace a “spirit of support and appreciation for China, its people, and the actions China has taken on the front lines of this outbreak, with transparency, and, it is to be hoped, with success.” Cheers to China, said the WHO, because it’s “setting a new standard.”
And so, the CCP welded doors of apartments shut and an entire city was turned into a prison in the name of virus control. Suicides and despair followed, along with population-wide terror. A month later, the government proclaimed that it had beaten the virus.
“At the individual level, the Chinese people have reacted to this outbreak with courage and conviction. They have accepted and adhered to the starkest of containment measures—whether the suspension of public gatherings, the month-long ‘stay at home’ advisories or prohibitions on travel,” the WHO said.
This one report should have been enough to discredit the WHO forever and prompt its instant abolition. Instead, the report, issued on Feb. 24, 2020, became an instruction manual for the entire world, including the United States. Three days later, The New York Times was calling for nationwide lockdowns. Two weeks later, the Trump administration ordered that “public and private venues where people gather should be closed.”
We know the rest of the tragedy. Businesses, schools, churches, families, and communities were wrecked, and not just for two weeks, but for a year or two or more. Looking back, the goal was always to buy time to get the entire population pumped with mRNA shots delivered through lipid nanoparticles. Governments around the world used all their power to make it so.
And the effect? I’m sure you have your own stories. The sadness, demoralization, ill-health, mental illness, learning loss, and psychological sense of damage are everywhere in evidence.
Every report reveals this. It proves impossible to exaggerate the carnage. You think kids lost one year of education. Maybe two? It’s getting worse. How bad is it overall, and when has it been this way? The figures on reading and math show that the United States is set back at least two decades in progress on educational outcomes.
It’s impossible to name the worst of it since it’s all awful. But loneliness certainly ranks high. Friend groups were wrecked. Not being allowed to meet for many months dissolved them. When they tried to reconstitute, they split over masking. When they tried again, they broke up over vaccines. Top health officials were urging people to exclude family members from gatherings if they were unvaccinated.
Daily, I hear from people with deeply tragic stories. I spent one day recently in the beautiful and mysterious town of Tepoztlán, Mexico, meeting with a group of people who found refuge here from lockdowns. Mexico was open in those days. Even this town had its own lockdowns, but they were brief. The many thousands of people who moved here include people from all over Europe, the UK, Israel, and the United States. Each has an amazing story of tragedy and triumph, and everyone is working to rebuild a life.
It’s true in your town, too, as you well know. Everyone of all ages is trying to find a new path.
It’s with this backdrop that I just learned of a new initiative from the WHO. And this one, you simply won’t believe. It’s seeking new powers, new funding, and a new mandate to cure your loneliness. It’s just not possible to make this stuff up.
- Vivek Murthy (co-chair), surgeon general, United States
- Chido Mpemba (co-chair), youth envoy, African Union Commission
- Ayuko Kato, minister in charge of measures for loneliness and isolation, Japan
- Khalid Ait Taleb, minister of health and social protection, Morocco
- Jakob Forssmed, minister for health and social affairs, Sweden
- Ximena Aguilera Sanhueza, minister of health, Chile
- Cleopa Mailu, permanent representative to the United Nations, Kenya
- Ralph Regenvanu, minister of climate change, Vanuatu
- Haben Girma, deaf-blind advocate and activist, United States
- Hina Jilani, elder and human rights lawyer, Pakistan
- Karen DeSalvo, chief health officer, Google, United States
It’s intriguing that only one member of the commission is associated with a privately owned business, and that business happens to be Google. Google has been carrying water for the WHO now for at least four years. Its own YouTube platform has specifically said that it will delete any video that offers health policy commentary that contradicts the WHO. That’s essentially an announcement that the company has fully integrated itself with global government.
It’s so brazen now that they don’t think they need to hide it anymore.
So what will the WHO do about our loneliness? The statement says: “The Commission on Social Connection, supported by a Secretariat based at WHO, will hold its first leadership-level meeting from 6 to 8 December 2023. The first major output will be a flagship report released by the mid-point of the three-year initiative.”
Wonderful! So the commission will meet in a few weeks. It will surely be a wonderful occasion, socially lubricated by chartered flights, champagne, caviar, and plenty of extremely charming small talk. Then in a year and a half, and after many emails and Zoom follow-ups, it will issue its first report.
Its final report is due in 2026, wherein it will make some recommendations.
If you’re lonely, rest assured that in three years, the WHO will issue a report. The experts will have spoken! The very people who wrecked the world will be charged with fixing the problem.
The absurdity of this entire cartoon-like scenario is so preposterous that not even the promoters and participants can really take it seriously. They are just trolling us now, underscoring to anyone who’s paying attention that they have no regrets and only intend more of the same.
The lockdowns will continue until morale improves.
