During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic governments increased police powers and implemented lockdowns, curfews, QR codes and later vaccine mandates and vaccine passports in order to promote the establishment of herd immunity. The fact that Australia is now blatantly allowing business groups to set the limits on the isolation period for infected citizens, as well as make mask wearing in confined public places, including aeroplanes, voluntary, indicates the power corporate interests have over health policy.

Unfortunately, this shift in focus to a business-as-usual pandemic has reinforced in people’s minds the idea that the most effective measures such as mask wearing, washing hands and social distancing are of little utility. Ceasing the regular publication of statistics on infection and mortality, a stark feature of daily lockdown television, also encourages the impression that the problem has been contained.

Worse, people are now encouraged to believe it is merely another common cold, and go to work or school when still possibly infectious even if asymptomatic (5-7 days¹), increasing the likelihood of the spread of infection amongst the herd. Apart from actually reducing attendance and productivity, this state of affairs is a complete reversal of the of the idealistic position we set out from more than two years ago, while still maintaining the antidemocratic powers.

Unfortunately this virus is virulent and deadly. As for its origins, scientists are still divided between considering it the escaped masterpiece of gain-of-function military research from a specialised coronavirus lab, or a random act of zoonosis in a market on the very lab’s doorstep (actually there are three labs in Wuhan²). A most-likely explanation, happily marrying both views, is that a lab worker surreptitiously sold infected animals in the market for cash rather than incinerating them.

Unfortunately there is no getting this virus back, and as it evolves no one knows what the level of danger the next variant will carry. This means that there will be no return to pre-COVID normality in the foreseeable future, unless we completely deny the measures that only two years ago seemed imperative enough to severely damage the economies of many indebted nations. Then there is the matter of millions of people with Long-COVID who have yet to return to their former health, or even to the workforce.

Being vaccinated I see a place for effective and safe vaccination programs; even so, anyone can read the sobering official CDC report on reported adverse events for COVID vaccines (VAERS data, MedAlerts.org), or the MIMS for other vaccines. I also read that the EU regulator has just approved a dual vaccine specific for both the omicron BA.1 variant and alpha, an initiative that is already obsolete. After all, alpha was the initial virus strain and BA.1 caused a surge in COVID cases last winter, a threat that has been superseded by the current omicron BA.4/ BA.5 variants, for which there is also now a bi-valent booster.

Regardless of who influences policy decisions, public health authorities are still requesting that adults and children use PPE, wash their hands regularly and practice social distancing, if only voluntarily, and we should certainly take this excellent advice.^3,4 We should also seek what alternative measures we can from nature’s abundant pharmacy of immune-stimulating herbs and nutrients to protect ourselves and our families in the near and long-term.

References:

1.         Hakki S, Zhou J, Jonnerby J, et al. Onset and window of SARS-CoV-2 infectiousness and temporal correlation with symptom onset: a prospective, longitudinal, community cohort study. Lancet Respir Med 2022;S2213-2600(22)00226-0.

2.         Markson S. What Really Happened In Wuhan. Sydney: Harper Collins; 2021.

3.         Ingram C, Downey V, Roe M, et al. COVID-19 Prevention and Control Measures in Workplace Settings: A Rapid Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021;18:7847.

4.         Ravindra K, Malik VS, Padhi BK, Goel S, Gupta M. Asymptomatic infection and transmission of COVID-19 among clusters: systematic review and meta-analysis. Public Health 2022;203:100–9.