<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/09/covid-five-years-right-narrative-outbreak>
"Once, we all respectfully listened to what epidemiologists said. We queued up
for vaccines, observed distancing lines and confidently asked unmasked
passengers on public transport to cover their faces. A tyrannical virus ruled
over us, and we did everything in our power to limit its ravages.
Five years on from the declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s the masked
passenger who is suspect, nobody notices the scuffed distancing lines and trust
in vaccines has taken a tumble. A different narrative has invaded the
conversation: it wasn’t the virus that ruined our lives, but the response.
This narrative was always there, but for a long time it stayed on the fringes.
Now it’s becoming mainstream, turbo-charged by the recent successes of its
political champions who typically gravitate towards the populist right. Public
health experts have watched its advance with a gathering sense of doom. They
know that how we respond to the next pandemic depends on how we understand the
last, and that the next one is probably closer than most people think.
Mind-bogglingly, many of them worry that Covid-19 has left us more, rather than
less, vulnerable to it.
The response was far from perfect, these experts say, but the purveyors of the
new narrative have picked the wrong target: science. The mRNA vaccines
prevented millions of deaths. The technology for building new, effective
vaccines quickly came on in leaps and bounds. Masks worked. And as with every
pandemic in recent history, subsequent reviews have found that the advice to go
early and hard with containment was correct. Did the scientists make mistakes?
Of course, but they were working in conditions of high uncertainty. But they
were also often ignored or countered by the politicians they advised, as well
as by others in positions of influence – and yet those people aren’t the
villains of this piece.
Anyone who doubts the power of narrative need only look at that modern Icarus,
Anthony Fauci. Five years ago, the seasoned epidemic warrior and prominent
figure in the US Covid-19 response (he was chief medical adviser to the
president, 2021-22) was anointed the country’s “most trusted coronavirus
expert”, and its “scientific voice of reason”. Then the white-hot heat of
public opinion melted his wings. Having accepted a pre-emptive pardon from Joe
Biden, he was forced to point out that he had committed no crime. And though he
has been subjected to frequent death threats, Donald Trump has withdrawn his
federal security detail.
Fauci’s British counterparts, Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, have also
received death threats. But in allowing these scientists to be treated so
shabbily, we undermine ourselves in the long run. Who would take on that
thankless task now, if a new pandemic struck? Fauci et al are just the visible
face of the backlash. Behind the scenes, infectious disease researchers report
their funds are drying up, leaving them less able to predict and prevent the
next pandemic. The Trump administration has sown disarray at its medical
research agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and ordered US
withdrawal from the only global public health agency, the World Health
Organization. Negotiations over a pandemic treaty, which would improve disease
surveillance and vaccine access globally, have stalled."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: March 13, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-march-13-124252060
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
