Umair Haque is an extreme pessimist. A good writer, but his glass isn't even half empty. And I did not say the pandemic was going to be over tomorrow. I'm well aware that it's not.

Delta is not more airborne or smaller. It's a slightly different shape and appears to infect more efficiently, but it's def. not smaller. I can see how you might have come to that conclusion, though.

But there's a huge difference between "It's not over yet" and "Forget about ever having a life again we're all doomed to eternal lockdown."

And we don't have to wipe it out. We didn't wipe out the 1918 flu, I got vaccinated against it last year. Heck, we haven't wiped out bubonic plague! There are a few cases every year. It's just now treatable. We don't have to eradicate COVID-19 (which was never in the cards) to defang it. I think that's what a lot of people are missing. They hear "We aren't going to eradicate it" and "Viruses don't evolve to become less deadly," both of which are true, and assume that means we have to lock down (which is causing lit. starvation in poorer countries) forever.

I sympathize with the vaccine access issue, mind, I really do. I am well aware that I am highly privileged to be fully vaccinated. And I also sympathize with the anxiety.

I just also know my history and how these things went in the past WITHOUT the miracle of vaccination.

They end.

Vaccination just gives us a chance to end it with fewer lives lost.

(And no, the UK doesn't, I think it's the Seychelles, but the Chinese vaccine they used hasn't been great at controlling the spread of Delta, although it's still keeping people out of the hospital and the morgue. Israel also has a higher rate. Part of the UK's problem is the fact that one dose doesn't control Delta, and that made their gamble to extend the gap between vaccinations not pay off as well as it might have).