Yaneer Bar-Yam: The primary question that is left to answer, which is super important, I think, is the next structural question—what can we do about it?
We are being told that we must live with the virus because it’s “endemic,” whatever that means—a term which people are confused by. We’ve been able to eliminate endemic diseases in the past and endemic doesn’t mean we can’t eliminate it now or tomorrow. But this obvious truth isn’t preventing this incorrect narrative that the virus is endemic and will remain with us. The narrative is also claiming that it’s going to remain mild. But we know that it’s not mild.
So, what happens is we redefine what is acceptable according to this loss of value of life and of health.
Benjamin Mateus: I think those points are extremely important. I wanted to touch base on what we have recently seen in South Africa, Denmark, South Korea, and Hong Kong with the BA.2 sub-variant. In these countries we are seeing objective evidence of BA.2’s severity.
YB: The spreading of BA.2 has particularly started in Europe from Scandinavian regions. But it is growing in the UK, it’s spreading around Europe, and it’s growing all over it in
— source wsws.org | 8 Mar 2022