"The Pandemic is Over"

Meh. As someone mentioned up thread, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has been ongoing for 40 years. COVID will probably remain a technical pandemic for just as long.

There will likely never be a time in our lives, or our kids' lives, or their kids' lives, where there isn't some kind of ongoing pandemic, and probably multiple pandemics, even if none of them are particularly concerning to the vast majority of the population.

Are we to have politicians say that we're just in a perpetual pandemic? What good does that do?

To ordinary people, "the" pandemic means the public health emergency caused by COVID, which is now over. The disease has been largely defanged by vaccines and evolution and life is pretty much 100% back to normal, pending the residual impacts of supply chain disruptions.

So yeah, "the" pandemic is over, even if COVID is still "a" pandemic in an academic sense. Maybe Biden should have made that clarification, but I don't really care that he didn't.

 

I think some people need to hear this. Its amazing to me how many people are still wearing masks or altering their behavior in other ways due to covid. I get that some people are immunocompromised but clearly many others who are not are still too. What levels need to be reached before they will stop changing their behavior due to the virus? Or is this just permanent for some folks now?

 

I for one am glad not to be wearing a mask anymore. I did wear it recently though. I tried to get a take home Covid test in the drive-through, and the pharmacy said I needed to go inside the store even after I told them I was not feeling well and didn't want to risk infecting anyone. (I tested positive). I'm not sure the masks do much to prevent the person wearing it from getting infected, but it seems logical to me that it might do a little to protect others. Once I figured out I was positive, I pretty much avoided people until I felt better and even then only went around people outdoors for a few more days.

It wouldn't surprise me if doctors' office continue to ask people to wear them as a matter of course.

 

they are waiting for word on high, ie fauci declaration.

 

Yeah I think he could have worded it better. And it could definitely bite him in the ass if things ramp back up.

 

He meant then psi-ops operational part of it... The media and the airlines will still demand your compliance.

 

And we still don’t let people from other countries come here unless they take the shot. Legally that is…

 

Masks are a joke. There is a reason they were not recommend before this pandemic and at the start of this pandemic. They were nothing more than a virtue signal and people wanting to feel like they were doing something (they became a control piece for some as well).

 

In the early months of the lockdowns I periodically watched the NC Governor’s daily briefings. Never once did I hear a reporter questioning the wisdom of lockdowns. To the contrary, they acted like snitches. Ex: “Why aren’t [insert business] shut down ?”

 

I guess we were always hoping that if vaccines didn’t stop it an election would ?

 

A very poor choice of words on his part although the situation has completely changed since the virus was first identified and during the early stages of the pandemic. The virus has mutated to the point where the current dominant variant (Omicron) although much more transmissible is also much less lethal and much less likely to result in an infection serious enough to require hospitalization. Anyone remember when ICUs were near capacity and hospitals had to resort to refrigerated trucks to store human remains because their morgues had reached capacity? Additionally, between vaccinations and prior infections we are are very close to herd immunity and while that doesn't mean absolute immunity from a Covid infection it does mean that the contracting a serious infection is much less likely. Using an analogy the Covid pandemic is not unlike the 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic. The virus never completely disappeared and, in fact, is still around, it has become much less lethal. Once influenza deaths became very rare (they still happen by the way), the pandemic was considered over. Same for Covid. Although the term is virtually never used perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that the pandemic for serious infections from the SARS-CoV-2 is over.

 

Although they haven't stopped it, vaccines have come close to eliminating the possibility of serious infections that require hospitalization and/or could result in death.

 

Of course you’re talking to a guy who regards vaccines as exorcism rituals. But even people who believe in viruses (and vaccines ordinarily) dispute the notion of a correlation between vaccine rollout and reduction of disease. In fact, quite the opposite. If there is any reduction in disease of late it probably has to do with Corona-fatigue and moving on and finally realizing that people get sick for other reasons. Hell, they’re even talking about the flu again.

 

Never said that the vax eliminated the possibility of any infection from Covid; it's benefit now is a significant reduction in the possibility of a severe life threatening infection. Extremely anecdotal, a friend of mine contracted Covid-19 a couple of months ago although he was fully vaxxed and double-boosted. He described his symptoms as similar to those of a common cold. He has multiple risk factors (age (73), weight and a history of cardiac problems among them). Were he not vaxxed the chances that the infection would have been far worse.

 

And what I’m saying is that sources that believe in viruses dispute that much and argue quite the opposite. The world has never been more vaccinated yet excess deaths remain stubbornly high across the world. I myself attribute this to the effects of lockdowns and vaccines.

 

Sometimes it seems you bend over backwards to tangle with Tilly. This is one of those times.

 

The pandemic will not be over until Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa team up to declare it over on their Instagrams.

 

I don't know enough about the science or data to argue either way and do agree that the messaging was confusing at best. I don't think I agree entirely about virtue signaling, although there is some of that in anything we do. If the mask reduced my chance of getting someone else sick by even 10%, I was willing to do it given that it's not a hard thing to do - particularly during those limited times when someone is feeling sick. Nobody recognized me wearing the mask, and I didn't get any social benefit or praise for it. But I guess it was more for my peace of mind as opposed to any proof that the mask would protect others. I think with the numbers now, I just don't feel like it's necessarily to mask if someone is feeling well. If I went into a nursing home, for example, I would be happy to do it if asked. There are always trade-offs we have to make.