I think part of the “problem” with COVID is that because it’s not the dramatic society killer we see in movies and games, it doesn’t live up to a lot of people’s expectations. It hasn’t reached the expected drama level to activate the “this is horrific” mode.

But what we’re actually experiencing is the WORST kind of pathogen - one that elicits a slow bleed of life & society. It destroys us in a way that we begin to normalize ourselves to it. And the virus has been enabled by the behavior of officials we should be seeking guidance from

A “low” case fatality rate is meaningless with a pathogen that is so contagious & unpredictable in the way it effects the host. And I wish I was being overly dramatic when I say the way this outbreak has been handled will be slowly dismantling society for at least another year

The extended incubation period of this virus, the copy-cat symptoms that can easily be dismissed for just how it feels to be an overworked & overstressed human, make identifying cases much more difficult. And the ease with which it spreads makes it’s ~1% fatality rate disastrous

The virus has also become a political tool, and infectious disease control measures which have, for decades, existed in an ivory tower of apolitical respect have been twisted into a political stance.

The whole point of this thread is that these are all the reasons why I feel confident that COVID-19 has become endemic to the US just like malaria in Africa.

There is no “end” here if you’re waiting for one. There’s no reprieve unless drastic measures are taken.

What will happen is that the way things are now will continue indefinitely until both a vaccine and therapy are identified. States will continue to open and people will continue to die and it will be up to individuals as to how much they want to risk.

And years from now we may be as close to “normal” as we have been, once enough people have been vaccinated and COVID becomes something that is just another pneumonia.

Anyways thanks for coming to my TED talk and while it sounds depressing, the whole point is that we can make a better future for ourselves but it involves all of us caring more about our neighbors than we care about how we look in a mask