"I guess I am still in the process of being red pilled -- losing my trust in the state. I never trusted the government much, but I never before thought it was actively trying to harm or kill me."

Starrynight, I just don't understand your trusting perspective. I remember reading about the Tuskegee experiments when I was in high school, back in the late 70s. I immediately understood that this was not done because the victims were black. It was done because the perpetrators could do it. Of course not everyone in the government was involved in Tuskegee, and not everyone in government is involved in what will be the covid equivalent. But the structure is set up so that psychopaths can do this to other humans, while others look away.