1/I look at COVID data every single day and usually spend a couple hours at it

What I've been seeing recently is that vaccination is kicking in in a huge way

And this is a great thing for the World...

@cjsnowdon @s8mb @dr_barrett @DrDomPimenta @AtomsksSanakan @thereal_truther

2/There is one group for whom this is a terrible thing

The COVID deniers/Anti-Vaxxers/Flat-Earthers

For them, effective vaccination is an existential threat

Why?

3/Their entire narrative is built around the virtue of inaction. That mitigation simply leads to more, not less, harm

The fundamental theory behind the concept of lockdowns (by which I mean NPIs, such as social distancing, masks, etc.) is the Germ Theory

4/Germ Theory holds that disease is transmitted from one person to other persons

The theory behind NPIs is that if you block that chain of transmission, you slow or stop disease progression

Most anti-NPI people are not dumb enough to challenge Germ Theory (although some do)...

5/Rather their argument is that eventually the disease spreads and everyone gets infected

And, frankly, they're right

But the key is the word "eventually"

NPIs themselves are not the end-game

They simply buy time...

6/The anti-lockdowners argument has been that it's pointless to buy time because "virus gonna virus."

But virus can't virus if people are immune

And vaccination makes people immune

7/So in the face of the eventual development of effective vaccinations, buying time with NPIs makes a shitload of rational sense

For the anti-lockdowners it destroys any justification for a "let it rip" strategy, such as implemented in the US, the UK and (wait for it), Sweden

8/Perhaps even more important, it pours blood directly on the hands of those who argued for let it rip, focused protection, herd immunity or any of the manifold and odious alternatives to sane deployment of NPIs