Unfortunately I actually fear this may happen with the rise of MPOX in the states. If the people in charge of HHS and the Pandemic Response team get gutted or mislead then I fear we will be back to COVID lockdown but for MPOX.
Don’t worry, they would probably make any effective controls illegal at the federal level so no lockdowns, masks or vaccines for the next pandemic in the US.
Ohh I know it’s still around but it’s it’s just endemic now and not pandemic. And we have a vaccine even if people don’t take it.
It’s not endemic yet because it continues to mutate, and while vaccinations reduce how many people die, they do not equate to immunity, meaning infection rates continue to be unstable. It won’t hit endemic until the numbers are predictable, and that hasn’t happened yet.
Vaccinations also do not provide much in terms of protection from long covid. I would argue while the acute phase of covid may be working towards becoming endemic, the post-Covid condition is not. 11% of covid infections become long covid (that’s vaccinated and not combined) and 25% of those never go away. On top of this, risk of long covid increases every time someone contracts covid,as does the risk of it being permanent. So with no mitigations in place, we are pushing towards a mass disabling event that none of the health centres, governments, etc. are talking about.
