Many of us, especially in red or rural areas, have lived normal lives since Day One of the coronavirus pandemic. But for those trapped in blue, urban locales, where mandates and fear are the norm, it’s been 20 months of misery and misinformation.
Nevertheless, it’s still worth paying attention to prevailing wisdom from these corners, since liberal folks frequently rely on “experts.”
Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine, penned a worthwhile piece Wednesday in the left-leaning Atlantic, arguing that the FDA’s recent authorization of COVID vaccines for 5-to-11-year-olds is among the final steps “back to normalcy.”
She opened by claiming, “Immunity is rising, and the approval of shots for young children is one of the last thresholds before a return to greater normalcy.”
She says that by January or February, vaccines for elementary-age kids “should be able to begin winding down most of the formal and informal limits to which Americans have become accustomed.”
(Whether or not one supports pediatric vaccines or crazy mandates, let’s remember that children already are at minuscule risk of severe illness from COVID-19.)
28 million children in this age cohort. The mortality rate works out to 0.000003464285714. This doesn’t take into account co-morbidities. https://t.co/fhwwWlxDiL
— Probably Mulder’s Intern’l House of Pandemicakes (@banishedprotein) November 4, 2021
Across nearly 1,400 words, Gandhi analyzed what “needs to happen” before the country can declare an end to the “crisis phase” of the pandemic.
“By now, Americans should realize that there isn’t a magic solution that will make COVID go away,” the doctor explained. “Although the coronavirus’s course remains unpredictable—and bad surprises are still possible—the Delta-variant surge that started in early July ushered in what may have been the final major wave of disease in the United States…because of widespread vaccination and because of the immunity generated by the sheer volume of Delta infections.”
Related: CDC Plans to ‘Educate’ the Unvaccinated
Eradication, with its worldwide goal of zero cases, is unrealistic. COVID will become endemic and circulate at a low rate but never truly go away. Controlling COVID — causing the disease to circulate at low levels with little harm — is the most realistic goal, Gandhi argues.
“Infection, hospitalization, and death rates have begun to shrink since the peak of the Delta surge, and it’s not premature to begin planning for an end to the crisis phase,” she tells her progressive readers. “Once the emergency is over, Americans can focus on rebuilding their lives and think more clearly about how to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination abroad—a moral imperative that would also do far more than masks or booster shots for healthy, vaccinated U.S. adults would to end the global pandemic.”
She notes that Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore have all focused on virus elimination, but Delta made this goal untenable.
Australian nurse speaks out about the lies the media#Australia pic.twitter.com/Ucmz8AE2QT
— Sietskema (@Sietskema) November 3, 2021
There will indeed be more variants, and some could elude vaccines. Meanwhile, multiple public figures contracting COVID in recent weeks have been fully vaccinated.
“We may be approaching a comparable level of immunity now because of how many Americans have been vaccinated, survived COVID-19, or both,” Gandhi writes.
Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have been falling across the U.S. over the past two months, while nations that lifted restrictions have not yet seen significant increases in severe disease.
“The U.S. still has more progress to make, but the reality is that the coronavirus is encountering fewer and fewer Americans who are defenseless against it,” Gandhi concluded.
It’s an imperfect overall analysis that probably relies too much on pediatric vaccines, but the ethos — that cases are dropping, and life should resume because elimination has never been an option — is welcome. Let’s hope the fearmongering Atlantic readers take heed.
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