[afavour]

I've seen a few posts like this recently and I have to confess: I don't get it. What does "it is time to stop obsessing about Covid" mean? I have small children so I'm still living in some kind of COVID purgatory but for the majority of the population COVID hasn't really been an obsession for quite a while. People are dining indoors, they're traveling, socializing... life more or less is back to normal. Schools are shutting down from time to time but that's because teachers are getting sick with COVID, hardly because of some irrational "obsession". If anything it shows we maybe stopped caring too early.

Of course, a lot more people are still working remotely, something I consider to be a plus but that I suspect venture capitalists like the author do not. So when I see someone like that advocating “unlearning many of the behaviors we’ve learned in the last two years” I'm immediately suspicious.

> We’ve got other pressing matters to deal with. [...] We have other health care challenges to tackle.

One of the most pressing issues with healthcare today is the sheer number of COVID patients overwhelming the ability for a hospital to do anything other than treat COVID. Yes, even with the milder Omicron variant. Again: if anything this suggests that this lack of obsession has come too early, not too late.

And has any call to "stop politicizing" something ever worked? That's simply not the world we're living in (these days, at least). The vaccine is politicized. Masks are politicized. You can’t just wish that away.

[immibis]

It's one out of a large number of propaganda lines or "NPC script lines" where the ultimate goal is to convince the reader/listener to decide that we should simply stick our heads in the sand and pretend the COVID-19 pandemic does not exist.

You are lucky if you have not been exposed to this propaganda very much yet.

You might notice that the editorial reads as if the word "Covid" refers to "that time when the government told us to wear masks and get vaccines and all that stuff." I'm not sure if people actually hold this view or just pretend to, but it's not uncommon.

It's trying to give off the aura of "Oh, remember when all those silly people told us to wear masks, it was just a silly thing that happened one time, why are we still talking about it, we should just forget it ever happened."

People with attitudes similar to the author are the reason there is still a COVID-19 pandemic, in the developed world at least. I'm surprised you don't have experience with them by now.

[jzackpete]

I'm confused as to why they (or their "propaganda") are the reason there is still a pandemic. Abandoning mitigations means it burns through the population quicker. Eventually we will all decide that the COVID-19 pandemic does not exist, because it will end at some point, right?

[immibis]

If not for propaganda, most of us would've done the things to ensure the virus didn't spread, and the virus would've not spread, and there wouldn't be any any more.

[mam4]

> People with attitudes similar to the author are the reason there is still a COVID-19 pandemic, in the developed world at least. I'm surprised you don't have experience with them by now.

This line of thinking is crazy: variants are getting every 3-6 months more contagious, sure less harmful, but at the same time more evaise of vaccine. I have some friends who had 3 doses and still had hard time with omiron. At some point all the population will have had some sort of covid in the future, probably multiple time if you think on a decade length of time.

Saying "the pandemic is still there because because of the crazy ones who don't want to confine for a year" is just nonsense. look at australia who had the strictest rules ? They are taking the current wave right in the face.

While it's important to protect old and fragile people, i'm really convinced most young people who were not in contact with old people should have not confined. The risk was super low, upside was to get natural immunity and not kill the economy. Half of the world (the < 40) bowed to fear for exactly 0 positive consequence imo.

[riddleronroof]

It’s because the authors don’t have under 5 kids. So they don’t care.

Bitter lesson from last 2 years: no one cares about other’s misfortune at cost of self’s convenience.

[CountDrewku]

Under 5 children are not susceptible to covid by any large measure and this has been the science since the beginning of the pandemic. If you have children without co-morbidities and you're running around in fear of them dying from covid you have health anxiety issues. Your fear is not justified by data whatsoever.

[peteradio]

> sheer number of COVID patients overwhelming the ability for a hospital to do anything other than treat COVID

Your statement makes it sound like hospitals are devoting 50%+ to Covid, that is just not even close to reality frankly anywhere in the world.

[eli]

I don't know where you got 50% from, but between covid patients and hospital workers themselves becoming ill the situation is really not great https://www.reuters.com/world/us/overwhelmed-by-omicron-surg...