Here’s this week’s update from Dr. Klotman.
The Omicron wave is subsiding in the US, but it is in full swing in Russia. I’m having fantasies based on H.G. Wells’ “War of The Worlds” in which the invading Martians are defeated not by the military but by microbes – a virus, perhaps. You can see where this is going. Putin gets COVID despite his meticulous hygiene, absurdly long tables and Sputnik 5 vaccination. And the world is rid of one despotic invader. As I said, it was a fantasy.
It’s pretty clear now that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a zoonosis, and it now has gained a solid foothold in multiple species. How it goes from here on out is unclear. It may simply settle down in non-human species and show up only sporadically among humans as people come in contact with infected animals. It may develop yet more mutations and produce additional pandemics as Influenza does several times each century. Who can say?
What I expect is that there will be many books written about the COVID apocalypse. Some will explore the chronology of the pandemic. Others will delve into the clinical features of the disease including “long COVID” and MIS-C. Still others look into the political and public health aspects. Still others will be “post-mortem” examinations of our response to the pandemic. Some will get the causal relationships right; others will not.
A million deaths in the US are sufficient reason to write about it.