Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"I'm not suggesting that we need to be on a state of high alert forever. But we need to shape Covid-19 policies according to the data, not by wishful thinking among people who should know better. To sound the all-clear now or imply that we can in the next few weeks is presumptuous at best. If we want to learn from history, we can simply look at the 20th century's most fearsome pandemics for guidance. John Barry, the historian of the great influenza of 1918, reminds us that the deadly fourth wave of that catastrophe only occurred in 1920, when millions had already been exposed to the virus, when the lethality of the third wave was subsiding, most people had let down their guard, and no public official was interested in pushing mitigation efforts in the face of the indifference and weariness of a nation. Barry also reminds us that 'natural immunity' and vaccination after the influenza pandemics in the late 1950s didn't stop the virus from cutting a large swath of death in 1960 when it returned with a vengeance. A similar scenario played out in Europe in 1968 and 2009 flu pandemics, when, after a first round of infections and vaccinations, influenza's second wave crested and washed over the weary continent.

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"What we're seeing now is a combination of what we saw with influenza and with HIV. First, it's capitulation based on misguided or at least premature hope, frustration, and anger that this has gone on for so long, disrupting our lives. It doesn't help that America's political leaders have never really stepped up to address the pandemic with the seriousness of other nations, nor provided the necessary social and economic support to help people survive these past few years. Instead, they have largely left us alone against a virus. While pundits try to spin this as a debate about risk management at an individual level-claiming that some of us are being too cautious as we enter the golden age of endemicity-it's far more like what happened with HIV: Once people feel like they're safe enough, the safety of others doesn't really matter that much.

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"The great, white middle-stretching right and left across the political spectrum and the op-ed pages of the Times-is ready to move on. The thing is: Those left behind don't have the choices or the resources that those with privilege do, whether they are poor, living with disabilities or chronic medical conditions-or just too old to matter. As my friend and colleague Steven Thrasher has noted, they will become the latest viral underclass in America, where inequality and disease collide."

-- Gregg Gonsalves (gregggonsalves), "Why Wishful Thinking on Covid Remains As Dangerous as Ever", The Nation, 2022-02-03