I hate COVID so very, very much. Not only has it (bizarrely) become a new third rail in American politics, but its international nature has also accelerated many global trade and diplomatic disputes which were already dissolving the globalized era. The virus hasn’t simply robbed us of lives, but also of time. And as I say repeatedly in multiple contexts in my new book – The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization – time is the most valuable thing we have.
There are any number of aspects of COVID that are worth discussing, but I’m attempting to stick to my tried-and-true approach of pissing off everyone. Vaccines and natural immunity are not the same, but they are also not consistent. COVID is a moving target.
Luckily, the most recent ammo in the fight against COVID – the Omicron-specific booster – was just approved for use in North America and Europe. By the time you’re reading this text it should be shipping out to pharmacies. It should be available before the end of September!
Note:
I misspoke at about 2:55: I should have said something like “We know from data that the vaccines worked better than natural immunity against Delta and Omicron B, but we also know that natural immunity worked better than vaccinations against Omicron A.” (I accidentally mentioned Omicron B twice. I don’t backpack with fact-checkers. My bad.)
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