I think your take is interesting. For one thing, it meshes well with our notions about the psychology of megalomaniacs. The idea that the highest powers of the world are constantly in a race to possess the most insidious weapons doesn't insult our common sense at all. Secondly, the idea that these efforts are always accompanied by mishaps - the Frankenstein's monster archetype - or unforeseen effects is, likewise, probably a long-lived cultural artifact for a reason. I'm thinking of Stephen King's *The Stand* at this moment. Let me put it this way, you and I disagree about the magnitude of the real mortality of this virus, and this causes you and I to categorize it differently, because of all of the logic that falls into place after that first judgement call. If I did not believe what I stated earlier, I'd probably agree with you fully. I'm particularly attracted to the aspect where the powers that be are trying to 'make lemonade from lemons'. What's the phrase? Don't ever let a good crisis go to waste, right? There is even something in my intuitive understanding of the Jew that reconciles all of this with their tendency to capitalize on chaos. Perhaps it was a tremendous fuckup, and the guilty parties tried to optimize a bad situation, while weaknesses in our whole social structure just amplified the irrationality all the way down the ladder. Like I said, if I didn't think what I currently do, I'd think what you think. In other words, your analysis holds a close 2nd place in the running for 'what I think'. I do believe you are underscoring the average morality due to flu, by tens of thousands on average. The CDC gives the wide range of 12,000 - 61,000 annually, probably reflecting that the flu has become less deadly as the years have gone by, and according to whatever the predominant strain was at the time. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I also think the 400,000 deaths figure for Covid is dramatically inflated. Motive? I described that in my last comment, and I stand by the argument that this is at least as believable a dystopian possibility as a century of humanity believing in the Holocaust. If we've been able to fake 6,000,000 deaths for a century pre-internet and pre-corporate-control of the entire media establishment, then parading around the 400k figure on enough televisions is more than enough to fixate society on that number. Lastly, I'll note that a lot of these local hysterias and inefficiencies you've pointed out (like the Church banning in Missouri) are all still expected under my theory. If the belief in this thing is real, people will act as if it is real, especially given the 'Karen effect' you've pointed out, which arises at least in part from the tendency of women to use virtuous behaviors and utterances as a kind of social currency.