Thread by @opinion

Early in 2020, the world urgently needed to raise its sense of alarm around Covid-19.

But for the vaccinated parts of the planet, Covid is no longer a horseman of the apocalypse. Instead, it is gradually becoming “just a virus” trib.al/QvxD2SE

In Singapore, where 81% are fully immunized, the Ministry of Health has started prioritizing data on hospitalizations rather than infections.

Israel is riding out a surge in new Covid cases without returning to lockdowns for the vaccinated trib.al/jAnL73X

The calls from some quarters to stop publishing daily Covid case totals may be premature for a disease that’s still killing thousands of people a day trib.al/jAnL73X

🦠 At some point, when Covid has passed from its current pandemic status to the endemic situation, we’re likely to be as vague on daily or even annual case numbers as we are in the case of influenza trib.al/jAnL73X

It’s hard to believe that an infection that’s killed more than 4.5 million people could be thought of in such a routine way.

But viruses throughout history have flipped between endemic and pandemic status with remarkable frequency trib.al/jAnL73X

The “Russian Flu” pandemic, which circled the world in the late 1970s, appears to have been an unremarkable seasonal flu strain from the 1940s and 1950s, possibly released to the world anew via a laboratory accident trib.al/jAnL73X

Yellow fever, which shaped the history of the Americas for four centuries, has now largely vanished from urban areas of the western hemisphere, while remaining a devastating infection in sub-Saharan Africa trib.al/jAnL73X

A coronavirus strain called HCoV-OC43 might have been responsible for an 1889 outbreak also known as the Russian Flu.

That particular strain now crops up as one of the main causes of the common cold that doctors safely dismiss trib.al/jAnL73X

We’re not at that stage yet.

We must keep treating Covid-19 with respect, at least until everyone has had the chance to be vaccinated and we have a clearer sense of how long protection against severe infection persists trib.al/jAnL73X

Covid will always be with us — but in a milder, less troubling form.

After the trauma of the past two years, it’s hard to believe that we’ll ever look upon that prospect with a sense of equanimity — but that’s what must ultimately happen trib.al/jAnL73X

The moment we’ve beaten Covid won’t be when we eradicate it from the human population.

It will be when we’ve reached a level of vaccinated and natural immunity where we no longer have reason to fear it trib.al/jAnL73X