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Is it possible that COVID-19 is an example of mass delusion (or mass panic) with irrational fears creating imaginary illnesses?
original to FR | August 1, 2020 | Peter O'Donnell

Posted on 08/01/2020 1:30:39 PM PDT by Peter ODonnell

I wonder how many people might agree that some aspects of the global pandemic resemble historical cases of mass delusion or panic, where hundreds or thousands of people imagine that they have an illness or medical condition largely on the basis of frequent mention of it in the people around them.

There are historical examples of airliners full of healthy people where the notion of a fast-spreading illness led a significant number of passengers to imagine that they too were ill (some may have been), and then when taken to hospital after landing, it became apparent that most were not ill at all.

The parallel would be "asymptomatic positives" combined with some actually ill people who imagined they had the coronavirus when in fact they had some other condition entirely, but then with the apparently large spread of the asymptomatic COVID19, they tested positive and were counted as cases, when in reality, what brought them to medical care was an entirely unrelated illness.

I have the suspicion that mass delusion is playing a significant role in this event. An identifiable class of people can see benefits from the spread of the virus, in terms of political outcomes they favor, or inductive reasoning gains related to unrelated outcomes (e.g., fighting climate change).

As I walk around my home town (unmasked like 90% of the population) what I see of the masked individuals is that they all look very frightened, as if any passing stranger might end their lives. In that mental state, it would be easy to imagine that (for example) an allergy attack or a common cold was the onset of dreaded COVID19. Then a test might reveal the presence of the virus (despite not being the illness presenting). The large number of alternating positive/negative tests and the wide range of outcomes further confuses the situation.

Perhaps the best thing to do now would be to declare an end to this madness, identify the most vulnerable people still left alive and isolate them, otherwise, let this perhaps mild to non-effectual virus run its course and develop herd immunity.

The alternative approach of rolling the dice with the future of the economy and personal liberty seems far too strong a response to the actual threat. And that too is a sign of mass delusion, an over-reaction to a real but minor threat (an example would be, one person goes nuts and shoots up a Walmart, therefore a hundred million armed Americans could pose a huge risk to public safety; or, a few days turn out rather warm, therefore the weather/climate machine is broken and we need to take drastic action to fix it).

The auto-suggestion involved in climate change is fairly obvious to the political right but not to the mainstream or the left who blunder on into ever more bizarre responses. Carefully crafted media images (the setting sun over the ice pack, the heat waves distorting the image of the oil refinery) accelerate a sense of mass panic and lead to compliance from voters who have no real vested interest in the political madness being offered up to them.

I wonder then, how much is this also true of the COVID-19 phenomenon, a mix of actual illness and death with a wider sense of panic, mixed with resignation (this is now our destiny, things will never be the same, etc etc).

Check out other examples of mass delusions. This is far from being the first one. And a considerable number of them have a spiritual dimension (involving outbreaks of demonic possession).


TOPICS: Government; Health/Medicine; History; Society
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1 posted on 08/01/2020 1:30:39 PM PDT by Peter ODonnell
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To: Peter ODonnell

It’s possible that a psychotic globalist corporate cabal is colluding to destroy the United States of America as a prelude to depopulating the Earth of humans so they can have their trans-humanist utopia.


2 posted on 08/01/2020 1:33:23 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (You are in far greater danger from authoritarian government than you are from a seasonal virus.)
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To: Peter ODonnell

I just had it this past week. Very weak, not worth the hysteria. The only thing that truly sucks is the loss of smell and taste. I had a fever of about 99.3 for two days and a bit of intestinal issues, but it was very minor. Caught it from a friend’s 7 yr old.


3 posted on 08/01/2020 1:33:50 PM PDT by ThunderStruck94
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To: Peter ODonnell

I meant to add, part of the syndrome would be a tendency for public health officials to over-count real cases and assign COVID-19 as cause of death when in reality some unrelated cause was self-evident. I am not trying to say nobody caught the actual virus or died from that. But with the clusters in some settings, that also makes me wonder how much of that is auto-suggestion at work.


4 posted on 08/01/2020 1:34:12 PM PDT by Peter ODonnell (Pray for health, economic recovery, and justice.)
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To: Peter ODonnell

Thus its been since that fateful day in The Garden of Eden (literally, The Garden of Delight). Serpents have been instilling irrational fears into the hearts of men ever since.


5 posted on 08/01/2020 1:34:47 PM PDT by Texas Eagle
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To: ThunderStruck94

Good to hear that you’ve recovered. Stay well, TS!


6 posted on 08/01/2020 1:36:57 PM PDT by glennaro (Preger: "The Left destroys everything it touches ... the Left creates nothing; it only destroys.")
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To: Peter ODonnell

Chicom cooties is real. The political and societal reaction isn’t. See my tagline.


7 posted on 08/01/2020 1:37:10 PM PDT by MuttTheHoople (What if the Lord sent COVID-19 to immunize the world from something more deadly?)
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To: Peter ODonnell

I don’t know why all those PCR test kits fall for this hysterical nonsense.


8 posted on 08/01/2020 1:38:00 PM PDT by semimojo
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To: ThunderStruck94

were you tested or is this a personal diagnosis


9 posted on 08/01/2020 1:38:22 PM PDT by CGASMIA68
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To: Peter ODonnell

Nonsense.


10 posted on 08/01/2020 1:39:29 PM PDT by be-baw
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To: Peter ODonnell

Forensically speaking-— this is quite possible as co-morbidity states of what are concomitant “confounders” of people recovering from a covid infection. The heightened levels of natural (as in neuro-hormonal effects) catecholamines (adrenalin, adrenal cortex affecting natural opiods— that are described in a “runner’s high”— these can also numb the person to pain and symptoms of infection they would notice if they were not “hyped up” with fear).

The “monday morning” heart attack is a well documented catecholamine heightened (stress hormones) activity leading to anoxia, vascular (BP) increases and restricted blood flow. The “fight or flight” response diverts blood and oxygen to the limbs and not to the heart with its vulnerable coronary lesions being affected by the lowered P02. It is a real thing.

Would be good concomitant study to be done on those older patients who have compromised both immune systems, and lowered cardiovascular functionality-— give em lots of daily “trained” fear... and bam..... infections city.


11 posted on 08/01/2020 1:39:42 PM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Lol..


12 posted on 08/01/2020 1:40:32 PM PDT by TomServo
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To: Peter ODonnell

It is frightening how many people are behaving with fright/fear in control.

An example is a single person driving a car, all alone, and wearing mask. There is no “social” contact possible, and the virus is not even going to blow into the car window if its open. So the “purpose” of the mask? Fear; either irrational fear of the virus or fear of the authorities for being out without a mask. There are dozens of equally single-person masking examples that have no cause other than fear. And I see these people all over around where I live.

They represent a frightening segment of society.


13 posted on 08/01/2020 1:41:29 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: Peter ODonnell

No, it’s real. Will get past though. The hysteria is real as well.


14 posted on 08/01/2020 1:41:38 PM PDT by arkfreepdom
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To: Peter ODonnell
Those with chronic fatigue syndrome and/or Morgellons disease are especially vulnerable.
15 posted on 08/01/2020 1:43:10 PM PDT by coaster123 (Suspect Everyone)
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To: Peter ODonnell

I doubt it very seriously.


16 posted on 08/01/2020 1:43:34 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Peter ODonnell

I wish your hypothesis were true, it would be comforting. But...virtually every nation in the world reacted pretty much the same way when the news of the Wuhan virus started coming out. They shut down their economies and locked themselves down much tighter than most American states.

Remember when we flew out the Americans from Wuhan? The ‘flight attendants’ all were wearing moon suits with their own air supply. People with symptoms were isolated in separate self-contained units. They were all put on quarantine when they landed on U.S. soil.

All of this told me that the world leaders were told that something very dreadful was on its way to us. None has chosen disclose what he or she was told, but most took actions that pretty much crippled their economies.

I think the Wuhan is real, it is very dangerous, and it may, with time just sort of fade away as plagues have in the past. Also medicine today is much more capable of dealing with diseases than ever before thanks to ‘eurocentric’ science and technology.


17 posted on 08/01/2020 1:43:36 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: CGASMIA68

I was tested with nose swab on Monday, results Thursday. I picked it up last week around Wednesday. I flew to WI and stayed in my friend’s, kid’s bedroom. I woke up the next day and the kid was coughing all over the place. I was like “I guess I’ll be getting sick”.


18 posted on 08/01/2020 1:44:01 PM PDT by ThunderStruck94
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To: Peter ODonnell

Yeah, but it is real and does cause an acute respiratory syndrome in susceptible people who are infected.


19 posted on 08/01/2020 1:45:40 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Peter ODonnell

I’d be interested in Herman Cain’s comments.

Yes, it’s overblown for political purposes but it really does exist and people really die from it.


20 posted on 08/01/2020 1:48:08 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Face masks are simply mouth diapers for liberals.)
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