Thread by @EvanBlake17

Capitalist politicians are scrapping all #COVID19 mitigation measures globally. Many have done so by falsely claiming that COVID has become “endemic” with the implication that the virus is now no more harmful than the flu or even the common cold. 1/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The term “endemic” implies a predictable and controllable level of disease in a given region. The trajectory of the pandemic is the exact opposite. In just over 2 months, Omicron infected 140+ million people and excess deaths reached 41,200/day Monday. 2/ economist.com/graphic-detail…

Contrary to the claims that letting Omicron rip through society will produce “endemicity” and “natural immunity,” there are now growing signs that the BA.2 Omicron subvariant could cause another global surge in cases in the coming weeks. 3/

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1491309163129237504

The media has played a leading role in spreading lies that COVID is becoming “endemic.” On Monday, the New York Times asked, “What Would Covid Being Endemic Mean For Travel?” The FT warned its readers, “Living with endemic Covid will not be painless.” 4/ nytimes.com/2022/02/06/tra…

Boris Johnson is lifting self-isolation rules in the UK after declaring last month, “As Covid becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others.” 5/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…

All restrictions and testing are ending in Sweden, the birthplace of the “herd immunity” strategy pursued by the all right-wing governments in 2020. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson stated, “The pandemic isn’t over, but it is moving into a new phase.” 6/ apnews.com/4a3171e442c019…

As fascist supporters of the Freedom Convoy continue to occupy Ottawa, Canada, their demands for the lifting of all COVID-19 mitigation measures are being implemented. Nearly all restrictions will be lifted in Quebec and Alberta in the coming weeks. 7/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Amid a rollback of restrictions in Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated in January, “We are heading towards an endemic illness rather than the pandemic it has been up to now.” 8/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Across the US, Democratic governors have begun to remove all mask mandates and other measures reestablished during the Omicron surge. In New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts and other states, mask mandates in schools were lifted this week. 9/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…

In California, Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the state’s mask mandate will expire on Feb 15 as part of his “endemic plan,” which is expected to include the lifting of mask mandates in schools and all other remaining COVID-19 mitigation measures. 10/
kcra.com/article/gov-ne…

These moves have clearly been sanctioned by @POTUS and Jeff Zients, who meets weekly with the state governors. Zients is a multimillionaire and pandemic profiteer, whose role in the pandemic was exposed by the WSWS here. 11/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…

After last week’s meeting with Zients, NJ Governor Phil Murphy, told reporters that the discussion centered on the question, “What does the road from pandemic to endemic look like, and how do we keep score?” He added, “There was broad agreement that that’s the task before us” 12/

Anthony Fauci told FT, “As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of Covid-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions [on mitigation measures] will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated.” 13/ ft.com/content/3800e6…

In lieu of using the term “endemic,” Fauci instead used the euphemism “equilibrium” to vaguely describe this same process. He stated emphatically, “There is no way we are going to eradicate this virus. But I hope [...] Covid restrictions will soon be a thing of the past.” 13/

Speaking last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Fauci stated, “It is an open question as to whether or not Omicron is going to be the live virus vaccination that everyone is hoping for.” 14/

All of these policy changes and claims that COVID-19 is becoming “endemic” are completely unscientific and will create the conditions for new, potentially more dangerous variants to evolve that will cause further surges of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. 15/

In this WSWS interview, @EpiEllie spoke on the issues re: endemicity, stressing that it's premature to label COVID-19 endemic. She noted that those politicizing the term “endemic” are exploiting the ambiguity of the term, which has multiple definitions 16/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Dr. Murray stated, “They’re saying that if COVID is endemic, we don’t need to do anything any more. And that is a ridiculous prediction. What they are implying by calling COVID endemic is that we will no longer have any COVID, which is patently false.” 17/

“Every infected person is a chance for a new variant to arise, and we have so much infection right now there is no reason that there couldn’t be a complete immune-escape variant. There’s no reason we couldn’t have something twice as severe as Delta.” 18/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The deliberate misuse of the term “endemic” is comparable to the distortion of the scientific concept of “herd immunity” by Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro and their right-wing co-thinkers internationally. 19/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Previously applied to the level of *vaccine-induced* immunity needed to protect a given population, in 2020 this concept was exploited to prematurely reopen all businesses and schools and allow the virus to spread totally unchecked. 20/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

This homicidal strategy has been embraced by Biden and other world leaders that previously maintained a pretense of seeking to end the pandemic through limited mitigation measures. Their distortion of the term “endemic” serves the same purpose and same class interests. 21/

At the start of the Omicron surge, the Biden administration made a cold-blooded decision to allow the virus to rip. Told that millions would be infected and 100,000s could die, they chose to proceed, killing 100,000+ Americans so far. 22/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a lively debate within the scientific community about whether the best response to COVID-19 is an all-out effort to eliminate or eradicate the virus, or whether it can be managed through mitigations. 23/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

But reality is rendering this question moot. On one hand, the experience in China has shown that it is possible to save millions of lives through an elimination strategy, even in the world’s most populous country. 24/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Throughout much of the rest of the world, making COVID-19 “endemic” has become a slogan for ending all restrictions on the spread of the disease, meaning that the death of 1 million Americans in the US will soon become two, three and more. 25/

Mankind is confronted with 2 possible responses to the pandemic: The ruling class’s demand for mass infection, under the guise of “herd immunity” and “endemicity,” or the demand of the working class, articulated by the WSWS, for global elimination. 26/ wsws.org/endcovid

The fight to end the pandemic must be taken forward by the working class, independently of all capitalist parties and their backers in the trade unions. This requires the building of a global network of rank-and-file committees fighting for Zero COVID. 27 wsws.org/en/special/pag…

The most critical task is to build a revolutionary socialist leadership, armed with a scientific understanding of the Zero COVID strategy and a political understanding of the social and historical forces that have caused the pandemic. 28/ wsws.org/en/special/pag…

The Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic will serve as the central axis to educate the working class on the scientific, political and economic dimensions of the pandemic. All scientists and workers are encouraged to participate! 29/29 wsws.org/covidinquest

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