Ford should be pilloried for eliminating wastewater surveillance. But the notion we aren’t post-pandemic in a meaningful way is nonsense. The very fact that viral counts are as high but excess deaths have dropped almost to zero is a *good* thing. Vaccines work. Flattening the curve worked.
I’m not denying long Covid but many viruses can have long term effects and countless people suffered from them before and after Covid. We need better air quality and surveillance but pretending nothing has improved is counterproductive.
People are getting covid multiple times a year, where other viruses with long term impacts like flu are like once a decade. There is still tremendous burden and sickness from covid well beyond just the death chart.
The better analogy is probably a cold—a coronavirus. I’m sure at various points the virus that became the common cold was a deadly pathogen. It’s almost miraculous how quickly vaccines accomplished that here.
It's actually too soon to say here! We really don't know what long-term immunity following multiple infections is going to look like. I think most kids who have had multiple COVID infections with few severe symptoms and may have antibodies that make it just a cold for them! Or not
Not discounting vaccination here, BTW, it's clear that they're an amazing breakthrough that–especially for the people who are getting multiple doses–that has perhaps really accelerated this process
It is exceedingly difficult to eradicate diseases that have other animals as vectors. Smallpox only infected humans so it was (relatively) easy to eradicate: just vaccinate all humans. Since the flu and coronaviruses infect other mammals and birds, vaccine escaping variants can be created
Even without animal vectors it sounds like it'd be impossible to eradicate. At least one major variant appears to have evolved almost entirely in the body of a single immunocompromised person. We detect countless "cryptic" variants in wastewater surveys. It's with us forever now.
That is a very foolish take… all of the deaths from the heart disease, strokes, cancers etc etc that covid continues to contribute to should be counted but aren’t. The data is biased to make you think it’s all good.
Acute severity does not equal overall risk, which is why it is still listed as a Risk Group 3 pathogen along with things like HIV, plague, and anthrax.
This is a truly foolish take that flies in the face of the ramifications of continuing and multiple infections people are getting. This isn't over by a long shot.
