Say, Whatever Happened To That New COVID Surge Everyone Was Freaking About?

[Geee]

Issues & Insights

As recently as two weeks ago, the big story of the day was the coming surge of a new, highly infectious COVID variant, called BA.5. The Biden administration warned about it. Los Angeles county considered renewing its indoor mask mandate. The head of the World Health Organization said that “new waves of the virus demonstrate again that the Covid-19 [pandemic] is nowhere near over.”

Look at some of the headlines:

• “BA.5 Will Cause ‘Even Greater Surge,’ Warns UCSF’s Wachter of Highly Infectious COVID Subvariant,” KQED, July 6
• “The BA.5 COVID Surge Is Here,” New York Magazine, July 8
• “Los Angeles could reinstate mask mandates as COVID cases rise,” CBS News, July 8
• “As new COVID variants surge, White House urges caution, pushes boosters,” Boston Globe, July 12
• “Experts rue simple steps not taken before latest COVID surge,” ABC News, July 13
• “The ‘worst variant’ is here,” CNN, July 14

Well, the data from the Centers for Disease Control show that the number of new infections has remained pretty flat since late May and is now trending downward. In, fact, the rate of new infections appears to have topped out right when the media were playing up the coming “surge.”

[Valin]

29 minutes ago, Geee said:

Issues & Insights

Say, Whatever Happened To That New COVID Surge Everyone Was Freaking About?

 

As recently as two weeks ago, the big story of the day was the coming surge of a new, highly infectious COVID variant, called BA.5. The Biden administration warned about it. Los Angeles county considered renewing its indoor mask mandate. The head of the World Health Organization said that “new waves of the virus demonstrate again that the Covid-19 [pandemic] is nowhere near over.”

 

 

The Same thing that happened To These Predictions

 

 

[Valin]

“With so many past failures, you might think that environmental predictions would become more cautious. But not if it’s a religion. Remember, the nut on the sidewalk carrying the placard that predicts the end of the world doesn’t quit when the world doesn’t end on the day he expects. He just changes his placard, sets a new doomsday date, and goes back to walking the streets. One of the defining features of religion is that your beliefs are not troubled by facts, because they have nothing to do with facts.”
― Michael Crichton, State of Fear