The Incredible Disappearing Pandemic

Will the public ever get sick of getting sick?

This week, I wrote a long response to a tweet about how the vaccines allowed “everyone” to go back to their normal lives, citing public behavior as the sole piece of evidence that COVID is indeed behind us.

My response included death certificate data, vaccine efficacy data, disability data, studies about the cognitive impacts of COVID, worker absence data, hospital waiting list data, long-term illness data, studies about the vascular impacts of COVID, reinfection data, and wastewater data.

However, I know that for most people who’ve been on the receiving end of years of minimizing political messaging, the original post- the one that cited no information other than “people aren’t wearing masks” aka “the vibes”- will resonate more with their beliefs, behaviors and desires.

And I’m just so exhausted.