“Four years ago today a doctor in Wuhan reported a mystery pneumonia, whose origin was an unknown virus. Today, transmission of that virus is as high as it has ever been since that point. Millions of people a day. This is total, utter and astounding failure
That virus has killed about 25 million people in four years, and disabled millions more. It is now the leading cause of infectious disease death, in adults and children. It is the biggest mass death event in US history
It is routinely downplayed by a media and political class for whom thousands of deaths a day are the price of business-as-usual. A class that won't even call for protection measures for the most vulnerable in hospitals, despite it being almost fully preventable in those places
The virus continues to mutate at a rate unlike any other virus in global circulation. In the US, vaccines that can help protect against the worst outcomes of this virus now cost hundreds of dollars. In the UK and much of Europe, under 65s can't even be vaccinated against it
Millions of vulnerable people mount no immune response through vaccination or infection. These people have been sacrificed, fully sacrificed, for capitalist business-as-usual, as shown by the dropping of all airborne virus protection measures in hospitals
The absurdity of herd immunity, the mocking of masks, the labelling of covid as a cold or flu, once only far-right mantras, have been entirely absorbed by a liberal political, media and corporate class who saw the adoptions of these ideas as the route back to recreational liberty
The willingness to make the smallest material sacrifice, was, for most people, strictly timebound. I'm not talking about lockdowns. I'm talking about sticking a swab up your nose who putting on a mask while you do your shopping or visit the hospital. This became too much
There was a fear in internalising the idea that everything had changed. That it wasn't 2019. If it wasn't over with vaccines, then maybe it would never be over. And so maybe that means I have to change forever. That fear was overcome with normalisation and denial
Many people's lives have been profoundly changed in last 4 years. Through the death and disease of the illness itself, and by witnessing the great return to normal, a return, which signalled for many, the mass abandonment of principles and ideals. By allies, friends, family
All the love to those who never gave up and who make their belief in solidarity material every day”
Nate Bear @NateB_Panic Dec 31, 2023
