The War on Masks
State-mandated "herd immunity by constant reinfection"
Since Covid is finally endemic (as is MERS in the Middle East) and we have briefly celebrated our victory, we must finish the job. All reminders of the virus must be vanquished as well, starting with masks.
The mayor of NYC, recently knighted by the Biden administration, has taken up a crusade against masking. He suggests mask use helps criminals by telling shops that they shouldn’t let in people wearing a mask. This is only permissible if there is an assumption of constant exposure and infection to SARS Cov 2, which there is. Indeed, this policy would ensure it, and has been in the making given how many claims “maskers” prolong the pandemic by trying to prolong their lives.
This policy of forced and frequent infection is a new attempt of a revisionist “herd immunity” by infection- except it’s of “herd immunity by constant reinfection.”
Yes, you read that right. This is coming from those who argued we may already have “herd immunity” to SARS Cov 2 in 7/2022.
Please contrast this claim with mine from the same era- that we could not achieve herd immunity to sars cov 2 but rather would be left with endemic covid.
Professor Gupta, instead of defining herd immunity in the conventional and longstanding definition, revised it by claiming it would become “herd immunity through constant reinfection,” a post-hoc rectifying statement which sought to reconcile both the claim and goal of “herd immunity through infection” with the fact that people kept getting reinfected as she penned the piece.
After claiming we had “herd immunity” several times, people started to revise what sort of “herd immunity” it was. Notably, Fauci published in 2022 that herd immunity would likely not be achieved for sars cov 2 given the rate of mutagenesis.
Now that we have the proper context of this moving goalpost, we can better understand the shift to facilitated infection. Again, this is endorsed by somehow protecting the vulnerable in the above piece. In reality, this “focused protection” is not possible or likely, due to synchrony. When it comes to infections and epidemiological waves, more is more. This was shown mathematically by Prof Bergholtz.
This did not stop people from redefining herd immunity and claiming that post-pandemic infections would provide it and protect the vulnerable, as many had.
This piece in Nature Immunology by Professor Marc Veldhoen also claims that constant reinfections will somehow protect the vulnerable. In my opinion, this has only created more vulnerable and more Long Covid. It has also ensured that the vulnerable are quickly reinfected and met with bad outcomes, as shown by the WASH U VA study.
So, now with context, you can better understand the move to frequent infections. The effect this would have in theory is that of a holoendemic disease where acute admissions are not in as much of a wave-pattern as hypoendemic diseases. The burden is spread, however, it is greater cumulatively.
Take care,
AJ
nous sommes tous vulnérables