We must accept COVID-19 as an endemic disease

[Fishrrman]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/we-must-accept-covid-19-as-an-endemic-disease

We must accept COVID-19 as an endemic disease
January 3, 2022
Dan Hannan

Never mind how virulent the coronavirus is. The key point is that it is now endemic.

Perhaps it will become milder over time, perhaps it won’t. Obviously, we must hope that it does, that it follows the same trajectory as other viruses, becoming less lethal but more transmissible until it joins that sprawling family of rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, and, indeed, coronaviruses that we collectively call “colds.”…

… What if COVID-19 is as ineradicable and endemic as influenza? What if it comes and goes seasonally, leaving its victims with a dollop of immunity that wanes over time? What if, like the flu, it regularly mutates, meaning that recovery from one version bestows only partial protection against others? What if it is checked rather than halted by vaccines — again, like flu rather than, say, polio?

If we are dealing with such a disease, a recurrent respiratory virus, then almost all the measures that we have put in place around the world are pointless.

Let me repeat that: Almost all of them are pointless.

Restrictions designed for an epidemic make no sense when applied to an endemic disease. Why test people at airports when the virus is everywhere? Why require masks when almost all of us going to be infected, probably several times during our lifetimes? Why try to slow things up by closing schools or banning large gatherings?

The argument for lockdowns, all along, was that COVID-19 risked overwhelming our hospitals. Lockdowns were a way to spread things out, to flatten the curve, to (in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s phrase) “squash the sombrero.” We can argue about whether the lockdowns were proportionate or effective even on their own terms. Having backed the Swedish approach throughout, I can’t resist pointing out that Sweden had the lowest excess mortality rate in 2021 of any country in Europe. But there was at least an argument for buying time — especially while we were rolling out the vaccines. What are we buying time for now?

More at URL above...

[Smokin Joe]

We are waiting for the fear pimps to make sure we don't have honest midterm elections.

then the next POTUS race will be hit by at least one more variant...

ad infinitum....

Lather, rinse, repeat, until Americans just say "NO".

[massadvj]

But there was at least an argument for buying time — especially while we were rolling out the vaccines. What are we buying time for now?

Good question.

bit by bit, we have been lulled, habituated, anesthetized — to the point where a permanent diminution of our liberties seems almost natural. For, make no mistake, these shutdowns will be a permanent feature of life.

The author answered his own question. We are buying time to enact global martial law.  We are all North Koreans now.

[Kamaji]

Only a half-wit thinks it won't be endemic, and low-grade, like omicron is even now.  The pandemic is over, but so far, fascism has triumphed.