Thread by @EvanBlake17

Contrary to the relentless propaganda from the political establishment and corporate media of nearly every country, #CovidIsNotOver and the pandemic will worsen in the coming weeks and months. #LongCovid #BA4 #BA5 #COVID19 @DmodosCutter @patientled 1/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The highly infectious, vaccine-resistant and pathogenic #Omicron BA.4 & BA.5 subvariants are quickly becoming dominant globally and threaten another surge of infections and deaths from #COVID19. @PPEtoheros @WalkerBragman 2/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

This takes place under conditions in which almost every world government outside China has dismantled the infrastructure that had been in place to track and slow the spread of the virus. @EnemyInAState @lisa_iannattone @DGBassani 3/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Mask mandates have been lifted, testing curtailed, contact tracing scrapped, and guidelines on isolation, quarantine and travel have been tailored to suit the needs of the corporations. The motto has become “Hear no COVID, see no COVID, and do nothing.” 4/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

There is now a vast chasm between this fictional world of corporate myth-making, where #COVID19 is supposedly gone, and the real world, where each week millions of people are infected globally, thousands die, and millions are debilitated by Long COVID. 5/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The criminal policies implemented over the past 7 months have set the stage for #COVID to become a permanent feature of global society, with recurring waves of infections, deaths & mass debilitation from Long COVID to be accepted as the “new normal.” 6/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

To put the pandemic in perspective, it is more terrible than the school shootings that have provoked global outrage. Unreported by the media, it is a fact that far more young people are dying of COVID-19 than die from school shootings. @FrancSaladini 7/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

In early March, Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 quickly became dominant in South Africa, causing another wave of infections and deaths despite the fact that 98 percent of the population had antibodies from infections or vaccinations. @BenjaminMateus7 8/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Omicron BA.4 & BA.5 are becoming dominant in nearly every country that tracks variant prevalence, including throughout Europe, North America and Australia, as well as many countries in South America, Africa and Asia. @firefoxx66 @trvrb @hamesjadfield 9/ covariants.org/per-country

This takes place under conditions where global vaccination rates have plateaued and antibodies have waned for the majority of the world’s population. @GosiaGasperoPhD @MackayIM 10/

A recent study from @SystemsVirology found that BA.4 and BA.5 are more pathogenic than BA.1 and BA.2, and that vaccinations or previous infections with BA.1 or BA.2 provide very little protection against infection from BA.4 or BA.5. @fitterhappierAJ 11/ biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Last month, BA.5 became dominant in Portugal and has caused a large wave of infections, hospitalizations and deaths nearing the level from BA.1 over the winter, despite the fact that Portugal has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. @Sandyboots2020 12/

One cannot predict precisely how many people will be infected or die from a given variant, but it is very likely that BA.4 and BA.5 will cause a substantial wave of infections and deaths throughout much of the world in the coming months. @DrEricDing 13/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The general trend is that more dangerous variants are evolving. The potential always exists that a new variant could evolve that retains the transmissibility & immune-escape capacity of the #Omicron subvariants while being far more pathogenic & lethal. 14/ sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Beyond the horrific impact of mass infections & deaths, the long-term health ramifications of the “endemic” strategy are incalculable. Since 2020, #LongCovid advocates have aptly characterized the pandemic as a “mass disabling event.” @LauraMiers 15/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Research into Long COVID has expanded, firmly linking COVID-19 infection to increased risk of damage to nearly every organ in the body, as well as to risks of developing diabetes, neurological disorders, cardiovascular disease and more. @KunstJonas 16/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35198136/#:~:t….

The risks for developing Long COVID are compounded with each reinfection and only slightly reduced by vaccination. @loscharlos 17/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Scientist Arijit Chakravarty recently told the WSWS, “If the whole world was vaccinated tomorrow, and we spent just three years ‘learning to live with COVID’ under the current strategy, we could well have over a billion people living with Long COVID.” 18/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The societal impacts of this “mass disabling event” can be seen in this study, which estimates that through January 31, 2022, ~43 million adult Americans were likely suffering from Long COVID, with ~14 million suffering debilitating Long COVID. 19/ solvecfs.org/wp-content/upl…

For >2 years, the @CDCgov & other national health agencies have been fully aware of #LongCovid and the enormous dangers it poses. Nevertheless, they have consciously pursued strategies of mass infection. @ahandvanish @Survivor_Corps @dianaberrent 20/

https://twitter.com/ahandvanish/status/1502034456928047110

The only country which has maintained public health measures to prevent COVID-19 from running rampant is China, which just defeated the Omicron BA.2 subvariant that ripped through #Shanghai and other parts of the country beginning in early March. 21/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The key components of #ZeroCovid are the following:

1) Mass testing;
2) Rigorous contact tracing to identify all chains of transmission;
3) Safe isolation and treatment of all infected patients;
4) Quarantining of all people exposed;

22/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

5) Temporary closure of all nonessential workplaces and switch to remote learning at all schools;
6) The provision and mandating of masks in all public places;
7) Mass vaccination programs; and
8) Strict travel restrictions and border management.

@yaneerbaryam 23/

If the above measures were implemented on a world scale, combined with the improvement of filtration and ventilation systems in all indoor spaces, #SARSCoV2 could be eliminated globally in a matter of months. @jljcolorado @HowardEhrman @ZayarDr 24/ Wsws.org/endcovid

Intranasal vaccines, which could potentially provide sterilizing immunity to fully prevent COVID infection, could become another weapon in the arsenal of measures to stop the pandemic. Three of these vaccines are now in Phase 3 trials. @VirusesImmunity 25/ scientificamerican.com/article/nose-s…

The elimination strategy must also be adopted to stamp out the unprecedented global outbreak of #MonkeypoxVirus, which has rapidly infected >1,600 people in >40 countries throughout the world, as well as many other pathogens. @elisaperego78 26/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The fight to eliminate #SARSCoV2 globally requires a massive struggle of the international working class. Fundamentally, the fight against the pandemic is not simply a medical question but primarily a political, social and economic issue. 28/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Powerful financial interests are determined to block the implementation of paid lockdowns and all other measures necessary to stop viral transmission because this would impinge on their record profit-making. 29/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The experience of the past 2 years and, in particular, the past 7 months of the Omicron variant, prove that the fight against the pandemic requires the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and its replacement with a planned world socialist society. 30/30 wsws.org/join