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  Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝richpuchalsky@mastodon.social

  Oct 16, 2026, 9:49 PM

  Social fact 2: in the US, and really in most or all of the world including eventually China, initial measures against the pandemic were lessened and often eventually given up in favor of "getting people back to work" and similar concerns. The end of these measures against the pandemic is what people talk about as "the pandemic lasted from 2020-2021".

  This is horrible, and it's also a social fact.

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  Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝richpuchalsky@mastodon.social

  Oct 16, 2026, 9:51 PM

  There is a sense in which people are right to say that the pandemic is not over: this is true by physical facts and social fact 1.

  There is a sense in which people are right to say that the pandemic lasted from 2020-2021. This is the sense in which if society says that special measures are over and now it's time for people to die, then special measures are over and it's time for people to die. This is real and important.

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  Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝richpuchalsky@mastodon.social

  Oct 16, 2026, 9:54 PM

  I understand the rhetorical purposes being used in this. But social facts embedded in history get more and more difficult to change with rhetoric.

  /fin

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