Covid is boring

Writing in the New York Times, psychologist Adam Grant called covid the boring apocalypse.

He wrote, "Many people aren’t so afraid of Covid-19 anymore, complicating public health authorities’ efforts to slow Omicron’s spread. We’ve all seen this horror movie before, and when you’ve watched the killer jump out brandishing a weapon 10 times — even when you’ve watched him kill — it just doesn’t freak you out the same way. The same rerun has been playing for 21 months. We’re living through a phenomenon that risk experts might call a boring apocalypse.

"The seemingly constant flow of emergency alerts has dulled many people’s fear response to this pandemic, leading them to let down their guard, relax their restrictions and masking habits or even refuse potentially lifesaving vaccines. Why? We’ve basically all been through one of the best available therapies for extinguishing extreme fear."

He's right, you know.

The constant warnings of danger, Will Robinson, have people tuning the media out.

People are bored by covid because it is a boring subject. As Tucker Carlson said, "If you find yourself living in a place where people are still talking about Covid nonstop two years in, it is time to move. Not just because your neighbors have been brainwashed -- though obviously, they have been -- but because they are boring."

His was a not-so-subtle jab at his competitors and even his colleagues at Fox. In "Rules for Radicals," Saul Alinsky wrote, "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." His next rule was "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag."

Covid now is a bigger drag than RuPaul.

Shawn McCreesh of New York magazine mocked covid alarmism as the Media Variant.

He wrote, "Media scolds, perhaps buzzing off an afternoon hit of Blue Bottle, were starting to freak everyone out. Jake Tapper tweeted a picture of CNN’s Christmas sweater contest, affixed with this nervous parenthetical: 'Everyone is vaccinated and we took masks off for the photos.' An editor hosting a holiday dinner on Saturday messaged me to say 'we will probably cancel/reschedule the party once omicron has culled the weak and only the strong remain.' Pete Wells wrote that one of his top ten restaurants of 2021, Contento, in East Harlem, was closing 'for a couple of days in an abundance of caution.' Marea closed its doors, too. By the next morning, the New Yorker’s Charles Duhigg would send around an email with this subject line: 'CANCELLED: Drinks with Journalists: December 16, Brooklyn.' (Even though it was always meant to take place outdoors.) An afternoon report from the Daily News detailed how a whole bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was in quarantine after a holiday party.

"'Don’t Be Surprised When You Get Omicron,' admonished a new headline in the Atlantic. OK, I thought, I won’t."

People don't want to hear or read about covid because it is a loser issue. No one wins. You put on a mask and get vaccinated, but still you get covid. New York City is on a lockdown that would shame the warden in "The Shawshank Redemption." Covid cases still hit a new record last week.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Governor DeSantis is on a surfing safari, drinking Pina coladas, and having a jolly good time.

Oh sure, some leftist goons still like to mock those dumb anti-science MAGA rubes. But the MAGA crowd is having fun in the sun while the smart set is holed up at home and Toobin on Zoom.

Adam Grant ended his NYT column, "Repeatedly blasting an emergency alert brings its own risks. The last thing needed in a pandemic is a country of people too bored to pay attention and take action."

Actually, the last thing we needed was all this panic and the futile attempts to stop a virus with cloth masks and social distancing.