*dons a respirator, hard-hat & asbestos gloves again*.

here's why i'm *really* tired of seeing "magic immune escape variants" as justification for, well, anything, *even if that intervention/plan is reasonable*: it's basically lying to the public.

treat the public like adults. there's good reason to be careful. there's good reason to not open too early. there's good reason why vaccine apartheid is evil. heck, there's even an actual variant justifying a few of these, tho inexplicably it's not the one we're focusing on.

folks, we're not "going to go back to early 2020", at least not in the developed West, at least not via this particular virus. everything about what we know about CoVs shows that you need antigenic novelty for severe disease & you can't get that via SNPs.

CONVERSELY, THERE'S STILL A TRAGEDY HAPPENING OUT THERE. BRAZIL'S HAD A FEW DAYS OF 9/11-A-DAY DEATHS. MEXICO'S GETTING THERE. AND EVEN IN THE USA YOU'RE STILL AROUND PEAK OF SECOND WAVE EQUIVALENTS.

there's plenty to worry about *now* still, plenty of reasons justifying *why* we should & what concrete actions we *need* to be taking.

we should be communicating this clearly using *actual* reasoning, instead of the continued communication failure i'm seeing.

also, i know some folk are erring on the extreme end of caution b/c that way there's a minimal chance of being dangerously wrong.

sure, in the field, *maybe* you can make that argument.

but as i've said: for better or worse we're all public-facing now. and there's a reason we all think EFD's messaging is actively harmful.

it's been a year of pandemic. scaring people *has many actual tolls*.

i see it happening in one of two directions, either people just get progressively more & more anxious, or they just give up b/c they fear this will never end (when yes, it will). it's an immense toll on people either way, to say nothing of the loss of trust that will result.

can we please all take a deep breath, step back, read papers carefully, & treat the public like adults? that's literally all i ask for. i know y'all can manage this, which is why seeing this nonsense over & over on my TL is particularly frustrating & depressing to me.

do better.