What I imagine a chief public health officer would write, but can't:
“Dear citizens, I write to explain some difficult realities. We are tired of fighting Covid-19. Our strategy was entirely based on vaccines, and though they are amazing, their benefits are proving fleeting...
"We could have built a strategy to supplement our vaccines with multiple mitigations, but we did not spend the time or the effort to do so despite having two years to plan and implement this...
"We ignored compelling evidence that the virus was airborne and highly dangerous in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. Instead, to avoid offending powerful personalities within our ranks, we stonewalled and now are completely unprepared to contain this virus...
"Thus we have created the worst of all worlds for our children. Vaccines are unavailable to many of them, we have done little to make schools safe for them, and many <5 now need hospital care. Pretty much every child in school will get infected...
"Even worse, we are purposefully ignoring evidence that our immune system can be damaged by Covid, perhaps permanently so. The costs to our medical system and in decreased life expectancy are incalculable...
"We also purposefully ignore evidence that Covid causes immense body-wide vascular damage, things we are seeing on a daily basis in patients even weeks after a Covid-19 diagnosis...
"Instead we will add fuel to the fire, while our hospitals are full, we will reopen industries that represent ~2% of GDP because they are visible and politically powerful, and the REITs and pension funds that own expensive office towers need these workers back...
"Even though America is giving its people the tools to fight future waves with giveaways of rapid tests and N95 masks, we will do nothing of the sort. You are on your own, and always will be...
"We have no plan except to allow you to be infected because we hope it will provide some lasting immunity. Even though the evidence is building that infection with Omicron, like other variants, provides short term immunity, especially in the unvaxxed...
"Even though many of you have worked so hard over 2 years to avoid SARS2, we will drop mitigations soon. By the time we realize that repeated infections cause lasting damage, with many people becoming permanently disabled, it will be too late to change course...
"We do this knowing that effective treatments will be available in quantity in the summer, including Paxlovid, a potent antiviral. We are quickly running out of medicines like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, but we still feel overwhelming our hospitals now is the right approach...
"We have thus chosen to surrender to the virus. We have neither the inclination to hand over the fight to those more able to do so, nor the capacity to chart a better road for all of us...
Politicians take note: Public opinion is firmly in the ‘Don’t give up’ or ‘Hell no, I don’t want no Covid’ camp.
Give people credit, many know someone with a covid 19 related complication or disability.
Transient immunity case in point: An Omicron sub variant is rapidly spreading in Europe. Disregards previous infection and immunity.
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