The COVID-19 Narrative Shifts Again, as the Grifters Look for Their Next Score

Bonchie reporting for RedState

The emergence of the Omicron variant has represented a unique challenge for the world’s COVID-19 grifters. On the one hand, the astronomical rise in cases due to the increased transmissibility has represented a boon for those who seek to fear-monger. Constant updates on coronavirus infection rates, usually represented in scary-looking percentage increases, litter social media.

On the other hand, because Omicron is so much milder than any prior variant, the severe outcomes (i.e. deaths and ICU stays) that these hysterics depend on to make their case are lagging well behind the levels of prior spikes. That’s not to say no one is dying, but the seven-day average of deaths is less than half of what it was during the 2020-2021 winter wave despite cases being far higher. Hospitalizations are also down in comparison.

Thus, the narrative must change, otherwise, people might actually go back to living their lives instead of listening to way-too-online crackpots with “Dr.” next to their name. With that in mind, I made a prediction a little over a week ago that we’d see a shift to pushing the threat of “long COVID” in light of the reality of Omicron’s lack of virulence.

And sure enough, Eric Feigl-Ding, one of the top COVID grifters out there, has made the move to predicting the end of society due to “brain damage” from “long COVID.” These people are as predictable as the sun rising.

What exactly is “long COVID”? Good luck finding a solid, evidence-based answer to that. It’s typically described as a set of symptoms that could possibly be caused by the lingering effects of previously having the coronavirus. The problem? The symptoms in question (brain fog, low energy, etc.) are so generic that they could literally be caused by dozens of other ailments, or they could actually be nothing at all.

For example, as RedState reported months ago, a study out of the UK examined “long COVID” in children. Incredibly, the results showed that kids in the control group (i.e. those who never even had COVID) had a higher prevalence of “long COVID” symptoms than those who had actually been infected at the four-week and 12-week intervals of the study.

What does that tell you? Well, it seems to suggest that “long COVID” could very often just be people being human. Humans tend to get sick, have headaches, feel spaced out, etc. from time to time. To assign every preceding ill a person endures to a past COVID infection is highly dubious.

And that’s what makes it the absolute perfect scam for clowns like Feigl-Ding. He doesn’t have to actually prove that “long COVID” is highly prevalent and a serious issue. There are no case numbers or evidentiary statistics to worry about. Rather, he can simply assert an entire basket of common ailments — that likely have nothing to do with the coronavirus — are a result of “long COVID” and then demand you prove a negative. That’s quite the setup, isn’t it?

These people are never going to let go of the pandemic, even as Omicron looks to possibly be the end of it. COVID hysteria provides too much power and notoriety to individuals who otherwise would have none. That means the grift will go on — unless you say enough is enough.