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Lots of powerful people want you to stay scared about COVID, even as the toll in terms of death and hospitalization continues to plummet in the United States and other advanced countries.
Because viruses naturally evolve rapidly, they have a new variant, at first called “The Indian variant” because it was first spotted there. But it has now been renamed the “delta variant,” perhaps to be able to continue to maintain that calling COVID “the Chinese virus,” or “the Wuhan flu,” is racist.
The normal practice of naming new diseases after the place they were first identified (German measles, Hong Kong flu, Lyme disease) had to be suspended to protect China’s interests (as the W.H.O. so assiduously does) and to demonize Donald Trump as a racist.
The response of the scaremongers to the delta variant has predictably been to try to scare people and use their fright as a bludgeon to continue, expand, or restore limitations on their freedoms such as lockdowns, mask wearing, and restrictions on public gatherings.
On June 25, for instance:
The World Health Organization on Friday urged fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks, social distance and practice other Covid-19 pandemic safety measures as the highly contagious delta variant spreads rapidly across the globe.
COVID-19 | Delta Variant Debunked
“People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said during a news briefing from the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
And Dr. Fauci issued a carefully worded statement that included the words “greatest threat” in discussing the delta variant:
"The Delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19,"
Pay close attention to the care with which Fauci specified that “our attempt to eliminate COVID-19” was what was what was threatened.
The delta variant is even more transmissible than earlier versions of the virus, but the other side of that coin is that it is weaker, less lethal. All those people driving around with “Darwin” fishes with legs displayed on the bumpers should be able to follow the evolutionary logic.
The virus, like all life forms, wants to reproduce to survive. But if it kills off its hosts, it can’t do so. That’s why as viruses mutate, they become less lethal and more transmissible.
By specifying that the object is “our attempt to eliminate COVID-19,” Fauci is positing an impossible goal. We haven’t eliminated the common cold or any of the flu variants that plague us every year. The best we can hope to do is minimize their impact as they burn themselves out.
Fauci knows that the delta variant is less lethal than the first viruses, so he highlights its transmissibility as the “greatest threat” to an unrealistic goal of complete elimination.
The headlines all feature the scary words “greatest threat” with no attention to the diminished lethality. In fact greater transmissibility of a milder variant has helps natural herd immunity, rendering potential hosts nearly immune to further viral infections.
By specifying that the object is “our attempt to eliminate COVID-19,” Fauci is positing an impossible goal. We haven’t eliminated the common cold or any of the flu variants that plague us every year. The best we can hope to do is minimize their impact as they burn themselves out.
Fauci knows that the delta variant is less lethal than the first viruses, so he highlights its transmissibility as the “greatest threat” to an unrealistic goal of complete elimination.
The headlines all feature the scary words “greatest threat” with no attention to the diminished lethality. In fact greater transmissibility of a milder variant has helps natural herd immunity, rendering potential hosts nearly immune to further viral infections.
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