Thread by @SGriffin_Lab

OK, so @WHO have, in the space of a few weeks, confirmed that SARS2 remains a #PHEIC, then compared it to seasonal influenza...
Anyone else confused/astonished/outraged?
No, we are not in the same position as in 2020, and thank goodness that’s the case. But, it does not mean the

job is done. Consider if COVID emerged now as a new disease with associated harms, would we act? Of course we would.
Ironically, the fatigue many feel is due to mismanagement of the pandemic and swinging like pendulums from extreme measures to the total absence of restrictions.

This does not occur in many South East Asian countries, who brilliantly applied test, trace, support and isolate both prior to, and following the availability of vaccines.
I do not understand how a virus that continues to cause mass hospitalisation, longer term and latent health

issues, and of course, long COVID across all the age groups on such a scale, can be classified as anything other than an emergency. A PHEIC is a scenario that requires international cooperation and coordination of responses across multiple countries to limit the spread of disease

It seems we may have reached a point of international disinterest, rather than the disease becoming a “non-emergency”. This disinterest seems primarily centred in richer, highly vaccinated countries with good healthcare systems, who can also afford therapeutics. The inequity in

all of these areas remains to be addressed.
Whether or not governments choose to acknowledge, test for, survey, vaccinate against, or behave in a manner commensurate with responsible public health, should not – in my opinion – change the reality of this disease. The notion of

“living with” COVID is a privileged choice, and ultimately it’s discriminatory against those least able to cope, either from a health or a socioeconomic perspective, and this applies on all levels from individuals to countries. Consider how many “key worker” groups now represent

those most likely to report suffering from long COVID.😞

There has been a worryingly successful drive to focus upon individual risk, which is all well and good provided we have safety nets in the shape of public health policies. However, these seem to have been deliberately

abandoned in the UK and other countries. The example of crossing the road is always a good one – something we do every day that is unlikely to end in tragedy, we are also unlikely to know someone killed in this way, and yet we’re aware on a national scale that RTAs are a major

cause of harm that we legislate against…the government is trusted to do this, and yet the ongoing pandemic is referred to by MPs and the mainstream media in the past tense.
Population scale risk matters. 2022 saw five successive waves of COVID in the UK, killing more than 30K

people and hospitalising many times more than this. Over 2 million people report suffering from long COVID, which is almost certainly an underestimate, and our under-resourced NHS simply cannot cope with this on top of catching up with the backlog that’s been growing since 2010

See pinned tweet by @lee_georgina, simply brilliant, but brutal as well...

So, some suggest that SARS-CoV2 should be treated as influenza. Some have calculated that the individual risk in our population of dying of COVID is similar to that of influenza AND pneumonia (important

difference as SARS is much more likely to be the underlying cause). However, risks need to be scaled by prevalence to calculate the clinical burden of disease, and the area under the curves for COVID still dwarfs that of SEASONAL influenza and other viruses for this very reason,

and this is before we start to factor in widescale morbidity that is actively reducing the UK workforce.
Importantly, SARS2 is NOT endemic, which means predictable, not benign. The waves we see are a direct result of ongoing rapid viral evolution that escapes antibody responses.

Yes, behaviour exacerbates this, but we are nowhere near a seasonal pattern of behaviour. This said, we could also do so much more to limit the impact of flu and other diseases as well, but for some reason the lessons learned from the past few years are being forgotten. We also

cannot rule out that the pi VoC may surface at any point – it wasn’t that long ago that many considered delta to be the evolutionary peak for this virus.
Perhaps most worrying is the continued isolation and discrimination against the millions of clinically vulnerable people,

especially those unable to make effective vaccine responses. The UK squandered the opportunity to embrace prophylactic therapeutics for this group, and the number of early onset antiviral treatments is now dwindling in the face of waning research funding.The UK squandered the

opportunity to embrace prophylactic therapeutics for this group, and the number of early onset antiviral treatments is now dwindling in the face of waning research funding. The reality is that whilst only “most” people live with COVID, far too many people either don’t, still, or

or end up having to live in spite of it. Ignorance may be bliss, but sadly this is not the case for all.

A critical way forward, to ensure that as many of us CAN live safely in spite of this virus, is to create infection resilient environments, to stop the pressure on

presenteeism and drive for 100% school attendance, and to support and advocate for vaccination programmes instead of dithering. The fact that SARS-CoV2 is not yet part of pre-school vaccinations is just astonishing, and yet other countries have taken this sensible step forwards.

We must move forwards, not pretend it’s 2019 again.

We CAN make infection resilient environments, improve safety in schools, tailor COVID vaccines and ensure long term programmes rather than infecting kids, support isolation and sick pay, fund the #NHS properly, install NPIs if

environmental factors can't be improved, research better therapeutics and vaccines, research long COVID and adverse reactions, maintain surveillance and sequencing, speed up medical approvals, increase awareness of risk, ensure healthcare settings are safe...
We choose not to 😒

We revert to pre-pandemic norms, they are safe for many, but they neglect a significant few...
We could manage all respiratory viruses better, and others. Flu vax push, approve zoster, expand COVID repertoire...it's doable, but funding is lacking...pandemic preparedness forgotten

again.
Folks worry rightly about costs...well, of course, but tech is getting better and cheaper, plus don't tell me we don't have £££££s, Brexit bailouts, VIP, submarines, aircraft carriers, NHS outsourcing, etc etc...why is it necessary to write about the same 💩 over and over?