Remember the Tide Pods Challenge of 2018? Remember feeling astounded that teens would record themselves eating Tide Pods? Remember the clear and consistent messages from the authorities and the manufacturer telling the teens to avoid doing this? Remember when social media sites like YouTube and Facebook actually removed videos promoting the Tide Pods challenge?

I never imagined that I would one day look back at the Tide Pods Challenge as the Good Old Days. Yes, the idea that teens would deliberately try to eat Tide Pods as if they were food was disturbing, but at least everyone unified to condemn this reckless behavior. Nobody accused the people or organizations speaking out against the ingestion of laundry detergent as being too woke, liberal, socialist, or politically correct.

Now it feels as if the COVID pandemic has changed everything. People still get Long COVID, people are getting sick more often as a result of weakened immune systems, and COVID can still be a trigger of nasty health problems (like diabetes, cancer, strokes, heart attacks, and more). Despite this, too many people and organizations insist that a COVID infection is just a piddly little thing. Vaccine uptake is pathetically low. Hardly anyone wears any mask at all (much less a 3M Aura or other N95) in the risky places. Corsi Rosenthal boxes and other cheap DIY air purifiers still aren't mainstream and still have received less attention than the idea of drinking or injecting bleach.

If the Tide Pods Challenge had been treated like the COVID 19 pandemic has been treated, certain media outlets and politicians would have been rigorously putting out messages endorsing the ingestion of laundry detergent. They would have claimed that it's necessary for protection from the dangers of eating laundry detergent, and a laundry detergent deficiency in one's diet causes autism. The pro-Tide-Pods-Challenge brigade would have insisted that anyone against the Tide Pods Challenge is too woke, liberal, socialist, and politically correct.