Warren Davidson @WarrenDavidson
](https://twitter.com/WarrenDavidson/status/1481246046705655818)
“Let’s recall that the Nazis dehumanized Jewish people before segregating them, segregated them before imprisoning them, imprisoned them before enslaving them, and enslaved them before massacring them.”
Davidson’s memory is faulty, contradicted by historical reality.
Another hidden reality behind Fauci’s statement is that children are getting Omicron in much higher numbers and to this point the under five crowd has been left out on the vaccine front. I am triple vaccinated but my 4 year and 9 month daughter can’t get a vaccine because she isn’t 5… as if 5 is some magic cutoff point. So I personally take little comfort from the vaccine.
Speak for yourself, I’m going to live forever (or die trying)
While I completely agree with your post, Paul Krugman gives the same answer to occamscoin’s original question in two words:
White Privilege.
What, now you tell me? 
The virus will evolve less frequently if it has fewer opportunities to replicate. So as more people gain immunity (through either vaccination or infection) the likelihood of a viable variant is reduced.
I AGREE.
Furthermore, this is why when picking our leaders, competence, temperament and experience matter.
Based on my own experiences and knowledge, my bet is that the virus originated as some aholes PHD project.
That is for different reasons there is a good chance it was created in and escaped from a lab, by how Government’s are explaining/investigating (or not) its origins. That is the issues and concern that would be raised over all university and other than military labs causing a NIMBY affect on those labs and demands for many to be shuttered, while the truth is likely already known to those in the know, we will not learn the truth of its origins until it is no longer a danger.
But as you said this is really a strawman discussion to distract from how awful the Trump administration handled the situation. For example Bush, who until Trump this student of history names as the worst president in American history, when a situation threatening a pandemic occurred in China, without talking to China put people on a plane and then told China “we are sending our people in and you don’t have a choice.”
Trump on the other hand pulled all our people out.
At least Trump’s three most recent predecessors had situations with the potential of COVID-19 but dealt with them competently and forcefully without regard to politics or cost and history barely noticed. Trump on the other hand did the opposite of showing more concern with the politics and cost of dealing with the situation and here we are.
FTFY, given how many people have a strong incentive to put a big thumb on or under the scale.
So Vaccinology 101: Parenterally administered (injected) vaccines by and large do not prevent infections; they prevent disease. Organisms can still make contact with and colonize mucosal surfaces and interact with the systemic immune system only when they cross the mucosa and enter the circulation or internal spaces, Take inactivated polio virus vaccine (IPV) as an example. Individual immunized parenterally with IPV can still be infected, harbor and transmit polio virus. The oral polio virus vaccine (OPV) prevents infection and transmission of the virus. The injected COVID-19 vaccines are like IPV in that regard. So we all (vaccinated or not) can be “infected” with the virus, show a positive Coronavirus test, and transmit the virus and may or may not show symptoms. Immunization prevents severe disease - not infection.
Except… The flu doesn’t cause so many people to be out of work we have cancelled airline flights and empty grocery store shelves. It doesn’t infect so many students that schools need to shut down, or just tread water on teaching anything because so many students are out. It doesn’t shut down Broadway shows because too many in the cast are sick. And it doesn’t linger in a long form version of the disease with potential costs to the healthcare system that are shattering.
Just why the Republicans haven’t figured out that Covid is the enemy of capitalism, I don’t understand. Maybe they think they can just grow worker bees like mushrooms in the dark? I’ve always known they are assholes, but the upper limit of their stupidity has gone exponentially higher for me in the past two years.
Hey now they’re talking. I would never have suggested massacre myself as a solution to the antivaxxer problem, but what a great idea.
I wish John Judis would read this. It would certainly help with his confusion. Actually I think I could probably put a period after the word read above.
Me too but the obesity “factor” has been way overstated.
Because we fetishize freedumb.
While I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, my point was more to the “future” of life with COVID if it can be “reduced” to the severity of the seasonal flu.
One side benefit of all this MIGHT be that sicknesses like the flu are treated more carefully asking people to just “quarantine” for 2 or 3 days so as not to spread infection and thus reducing the impact, as we should do with new flu-like COVID cases. Since we now know that most jobs can function in a hybrid work model and perhaps if all jobs get some paid sick time we will all benefit going forward.
I know…I’m a cock-eyed optimistic liberal. 
Except… The flu doesn’t cause so many people to be out of work we have cancelled airline flights and empty grocery store shelves […]
This isn’t a function of the flu; this is a function of how American society deals with it. It’s absolutely bonkers right now that at some workplaces, no matter how sick you’re feeling, only a positive COVID test will get you paid time off work. If you’re sick with any illness, especially something as dangerous as the flu, you should be encouraged to stay home.
America, surprise surprise, is just piss poor with how we handle health matters. If anything we should be giving some of the same attention we’re giving to COVID to all common respiratory illnesses.
And it doesn’t linger in a long form version of the disease
For the record, this is not a proven thing. It’s a hypothesis but thus far there are only anecdotes. There is no serious body of data suggesting lingering issues from COVID, and it’s likely something we wouldn’t know for years if it’s there.
If you’re going to quote daily stats at me instead of moving averages, then buzz off. If you’re going to quote counting stats at me where rate stats are more useful, then buzz off. If you’re going to claim a 10% wiggle in a graph is a portent of an 80% drop, then buzz off. If you’re going to cherry-pick one urban region as being more indicative than state-wide or country wide aggregates, then buzz off.
Anthony Fauci: “Everyone will get covid sooner or later.”
Response: “Hmmm, not great, but I see what he’s getting at.”
Janet Woodcock, same day: “Most people will get covid.”
Response: “Wait, WHAT?!?”
One side benefit of all this MIGHT be that sicknesses like the flu are treated more carefully asking people to just “quarantine” for 2 or 3 days so as not to spread infection and thus reducing the impact, as we should do with new flu-like COVID cases. Since we now know that most jobs can function in a hybrid work model and perhaps if all jobs get some paid sick time we will all benefit going forward.
Absolutely. And being more generous with sick time. The norm in America, before last year, was honestly to come to work as long as you weren’t literally dying. That is so fucked up. I’ve seen data before on economy lost because of how many people get sick and spread it during the winter. And yet it never makes headlines because we’ve accepted it as the status quo.
