With an additional twelve months, what do we now know?

As we approach the end of the year it is natural to do some cognitive housekeeping.  What mysteries or issues did we consider at the beginning of the year which might have been answered?  Which mysteries of issues do we exit the year with unresolved?

I missed this summary from the beginning of the year, neatly wrapping up many of the issues attached to our disastrous public health and governmental response to Covid-19.  From America's COVID Response Was Based on Lies by Scott W. Atlas.

Here are the 10 biggest falsehoods—known for years to be false, not recently learned or proven to be so—promoted by America's public health leaders, elected and unelected officials, and now-discredited academics:

1. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has a far higher fatality rate than the flu by several orders of magnitude.

2. Everyone is at significant risk to die from this virus.

3. No one has any immunological protection, because this virus is completely new.

4. Asymptomatic people are major drivers of the spread.

5. Locking down—closing schools and businesses, confining people to their homes, stopping non-COVID medical care, and eliminating travel—will stop or eliminate the virus.

6. Masks will protect everyone and stop the spread.

7. The virus is known to be naturally occurring, and claiming it originated in a lab is a conspiracy theory.

8. Teachers are at especially high risk.

9. COVID vaccines stop the spread of the infection.

10. Immune protection only comes from a vaccine.

Let's switch to the positive perspective.  We now know with some certainty:

1. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has a low to moderate fatality rate.

2. The very elderly and those with multiple comoborbidities are the population with any material risk exposure.  The young and healthy had effectively zero risk.  

3. Natural immunity exists and is effective.  

4. Those without symptoms are not a significant driver of the spread.

5. Locking down schools and businesses, confining people to their homes, stopping non-COVID medical care, and eliminating travel does not stop or eliminate the virus.

6. Masks are ineffective at stopping the spread.

7. The virus is now believed to be manmade and likely an inadvertent leak from a research lab.

8. Teachers are at no greater risk than the general population.

9. COVID vaccines did not stop the spread of the virus and it is unclear the extent to which it might have reduced mortality rates or mitigated illnesses.  

10. Natural immunity can be safely cultivated without vaccines.

Those ten principles tend to be true across most communicable diseases and were truths known in advance of Covid-19.  Many known facts and general principles of public health were discarded or ignored for unknown reasons.  And with no material benefit.  

Additional things which 2023 has revealed about the Covid-19 response with greater certainty or probability include:

The importance of a public health response which addresses palliative treatment as well as a possible vaccine prevention. 

Increased certainty that the virus was man made.

The increased probability that it was an accidental release from the Wuhan Virus Institute.

The increased clarity on the education loss owing to school closures (and its concentration among the poorest households).

Increased awareness of the magnitude of the negative health consequences owing to lockdowns including obesity rates, inflated death rates, suicide rates, overdose rates, anxiety medication prescriptions, etc.  

Improved clarity about the economic cost and the logistical and supply chain disruptions arising from the lockdowns.

Emerging awareness of unintended side effects such as myocardial infarctions among young men.

Emerging awareness of unintended deaths from ventilator treatments.

Emerging awareness of the elevated death rates arising from interrupted or postponed medical treatments during the pandemic.   

Increased danger arising from coercive governmental actions abridging or transgressing constitutional rights.

Much of the government generated panic and misinformation is crumbling in the face of sustained truth-seeking.  What remains unknown is some sort of explanation for why so many government agencies and "experts" so persistently ignored well-established public health knowledge and protocols.  

What also remains unfinished is holding individuals (corporate and governmental) accountable for crimes and dereliction of duties.  We don't need a witch hunt but accountability has to be seen as real by the voting public in order for any degree of trust to be regained.