Thread by @EmpireinWinter

'Nobody talks about goals anymore at all. Masks and capacity limits and testing and green passes have become routine aspects of public life, observed for their own sake, because they make some people feel better.'

https://twitter.com/mikezimmer_gmz/status/1491111621665918976

'even were we to stop all this madness tomorrow. It is hard to describe how much everything has changed here, and how thoroughly many seem to have accepted this bizarre new nursing home world.'

'What I feared most last fall, was the normalisation of containment & vaccination policies. Crazy vaccinators hawking sixth booster doses are a problem in the moment, but it is the bureaucrats in the back rooms, planning stable policies for the longer term...'

'who might well destroy the world. The ominous thing now, in Germany, are the hints we get here and there of plans for an indefinite regime of Corona management.'

'there is a non-zero chance we end up in an indefinite purgatory of annual mass vaccination drives, arbitrary mask mandates and recurring seasonal restrictions. '

'This pandemic has changed everything in my life. It has made me a vastly more private and withdrawn person than I was before this started. It’s alienated me from friends and colleagues I used to respect, it’s driven me out of the city...'

'I very much doubt I’ll keep my academic position for very much longer. I’ll never see my way to forgiving them the arbitrary restrictions and the medical harassment of the last many months, and writing for all of you here is more important and more rewarding.'