Thread by @phylogenomics

New Newsweek article by @NedPotter_ and @fredguterl on #COVID "The Forever Virus: What Science Says About the Future of COVID" w/ comments by me and others newsweek.com/2022/02/04/for… 1/n

As I am quoted in the article, I disagree with those (e.g., Ewald) who claim that #SarsCOV2 is attenuating before our very eyes and also that that is something we expect to happen. 2/n

I also call into question claims of some that somehow the spread of Omicron will suppress the evolution of new variants. That seems to be based on hope and not science. There is no reason to expect new variants will not arise and spread and some of these could be much worse 3/n

As I have said before, parasitizing Star Wars "Pandemics are built on hope" (yes, hope is good but it should not drive policy and practice)

https://twitter.com/phylogenomics/status/1380266882872221697?s=20

4/n

Aso I encourage people to read this thread from @celinegounder regarding her comments in the article

https://twitter.com/celinegounder/status/1483936854730809358?s=20

5/n

That should say "Also" .. but anyway. I am indeed still hopeful that things are getting better in some ways. But that hope does need to be tempered. 6/n

What am I hopeful about? Well, one thing is that that that is a growing acceptance of the airborne nature of spread of #SARSCOV2 and thus we can limit the spread by using high quality masks, improving filtration & ventilation, and limiting exposure in non ventilated settings 7/n

I am also hopeful because vaccines and boosters are in fact providing strong protection against severe disease and death even for weird variants like Omicron 8/n

I am also hopeful that vaccines will start to reach the whole world, with initiatives such as that from @PeterHotez and colleagues

https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1437125474384322563?s=20

9/n

What is troubling? That people seem to think it is OK to let Omicron sweep through the population and infect everyone ignoring that many will get sick and die and ignoring the possibility of long covid too 10/n

I am also troubled by the continued misinformation coming from many people regarding severity, kids, masking, vaccines, and more 11/n

I am also troubled by the incredibly late / slow responses by the US Federal Government and some State and other governments in regard to things like testing, masks, vaccine equity and more. 12/n