I stopped writing about Covid developments in autumn/winter 2021.
Why? Once vaccination became common enough, I saw less value in monitoring updates. To the extent that I was able to persuade friends and family to change their behaviour, I had finished doing the most important things. Debates about whether to stay home and/or mask after having 2 vaccine doses were fundamentally less important than earlier issues such as whether to vaccinate or mask at all. Also, I was burnt out after 2 years of this, even if my effort was fairly small.
At some point I will revisit all my writing to evaluate how accurate my claims and predictions were. I think I did fairly well. I was right about some big questions relatively early (I argued for masking in March 2020), and was able to convince at least a few people about this. But a fair and comprehensive evaluation awaits.
Covid continues to take lives, but there are fewer people dying of it globally now than since early 2020. Its larger effects on society linger. Meanwhile, the rise of Monkeypox suggests we haven't learned as much from Covid as we should have. But let's hope we have learned enough to avoid at least some future disasters.
Why? Once vaccination became common enough, I saw less value in monitoring updates. To the extent that I was able to persuade friends and family to change their behaviour, I had finished doing the most important things. Debates about whether to stay home and/or mask after having 2 vaccine doses were fundamentally less important than earlier issues such as whether to vaccinate or mask at all. Also, I was burnt out after 2 years of this, even if my effort was fairly small.
At some point I will revisit all my writing to evaluate how accurate my claims and predictions were. I think I did fairly well. I was right about some big questions relatively early (I argued for masking in March 2020), and was able to convince at least a few people about this. But a fair and comprehensive evaluation awaits.
Covid continues to take lives, but there are fewer people dying of it globally now than since early 2020. Its larger effects on society linger. Meanwhile, the rise of Monkeypox suggests we haven't learned as much from Covid as we should have. But let's hope we have learned enough to avoid at least some future disasters.
