For the second time, South Africa identifies a new ‘variant’. For the second time it reaps the same reward: stigmatization, isolation and more decimation of its fragile tourism industry.
Already on its knees after almost two years of one of the harshest and most pointless lockdowns in the world, the South African economy stands on the brink.
For what? Viruses mutate. When they mutate into a more transmissible form, that form dominates. The Delta ‘variant’ quickly supplanted other circulating variants globally, despite all attempts to slow its spread.
SARS-CoV-2 is endemic and will mutate forever, the prevailing variant at any given time will, by definition, be the most transmissible.
So is this how it’s going to be forever? Whenever a potentially more transmissible variant is identified, the world closes its borders and trillions of dollars are wiped off the global economy?
Selection pressures ensure that respiratory viruses typically mutate into more transmissible, less virulent forms. That is a good thing. Immunity is spread quicker, with less collateral damage.
There is still no evidence that the Delta variant is more virulent than any of its predecessors and certainly no evidence that Omicron is.
We are told that Omicron ‘may be 500% more transmissible than Delta’. Why then try to contain it by closing borders when that strategy has been shown to fail?
Once again, devastating policies are implemented ‘to be safe’ with no attempt at cost-benefit analysis, and indeed no analysis at all.
Omicron will be used to accelerate the march towards authoritarianism and tyranny. It will be the excuse to further push compulsory vaccination while simultaneously and ironically ramping up fear that it ‘may evade the vaccines’.
It will be used in an attempt to justify further devastating lockdowns and restrictions that will once again impact the poorest and drive inequality.
In the face of this madness, PANDA will continue to promote good science and proportionate public response, as we have done from the start.
#OpenScience #HumanAgency #CourageousSocieties
From the Telegram Channel of Panda (www.pandata.org)
Psychologist and Trauma Recovery Coach, Meredith Miller spoke to the Corona Ausschuss recently. This was a revealing explanation of the way in which we respond to fear and abuse, often without necessarily recognising the reality of what is happening. She explains why people agree to bizarre rules and restrictions without asking questions. She describes a gaslighting campaign which is already leading to an epidemic of mental illness and divisions in relationships.
“This is actually a continuation of Nazism. After World War 2, for example, America imported hundreds of Nazi scientists in Operation Paperclip, and they put them to work in psychiatry, in government organisations. In psychiatry and psychology, they ended up working on behaviour modification science … This became a foundation in social media. So we see that social media was a key component in making this work. Ten years ago this wouldn’t have worked. They actually tried the pandemic thing in 2009 and it flopped … I’m hopeful that more people will wake up as it intensifies. Unfortunately it’s going to intensify. In every abusive relationship, the abuse escalates … “
alicespringstomind 