Olive, thank you for sharing the Scientific American article. It’s an interesting perspective. I agree that a pandemic’s hold over people – and perceptions regarding the pandemic’s timeline – is a sociological and not a scientific phenomenon. But, objective reality and subjective perceptions of reality often don’t match. Objectively, we’re still very much in a pandemic. Hospitalizations and deaths are still far above what would be considered normal, by any metric. If we get to less than 100 deaths a day – which would be like a bad flu year – I’ll declare the pandemic over. Until that time, it’s folly to say it’s over. We’re at 387 deaths a day. Now, how people behave is a totally different matter. We’re definitely behaving like it’s 2019. Understandable in many ways.
When the article was published – March of this year – globally, all trends pointed in the right direction, so one could say (I was among the people who said) that we were getting closer to the endemic phase. Unfortunately, we’ve since trended in the wrong direction worldwide. It’s NOT nearly as bad as it was in some of the previous waves. But, it’s still very much pandemic mode throughout the world. Even when we say we’re living with the virus, it’s still a pandemic. We’re just living with a pandemic.
Thanks TK.
Olive, thank you for sharing the Scientific American article. It’s an interesting perspective. I agree that a pandemic’s hold over people – and perceptions regarding the pandemic’s timeline – is a sociological and not a scientific phenomenon. But, objective reality and subjective perceptions of reality often don’t match. Objectively, we’re still very much in a pandemic. Hospitalizations and deaths are still far above what would be considered normal, by any metric. If we get to less than 100 deaths a day – which would be like a bad flu year – I’ll declare the pandemic over. Until that time, it’s folly to say it’s over. We’re at 387 deaths a day. Now, how people behave is a totally different matter. We’re definitely behaving like it’s 2019. Understandable in many ways.
When the article was published – March of this year – globally, all trends pointed in the right direction, so one could say (I was among the people who said) that we were getting closer to the endemic phase. Unfortunately, we’ve since trended in the wrong direction worldwide. It’s NOT nearly as bad as it was in some of the previous waves. But, it’s still very much pandemic mode throughout the world. Even when we say we’re living with the virus, it’s still a pandemic. We’re just living with a pandemic.
Dangers of the anti-vax movement are becoming apparent, as diseases such as polio and diphtheria return: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/03/toddler-diagnosed-with-first-case-of-diphtheria-of-the-throat-in-nsw-in-a-century
C-19
7-5
ready