Now I have your attention I am going to tell you something that is nothing to worry about, we’ve been here before; we survived the last time and, essentially, it is a ‘non-story.’ But you’re going to hear about it anyway.
There is a new Covid-19 variant circulating in the USA, and it has reached these shores. Going by the name ‘EG.5’, it has been nicknamed ‘Eris’ after the Greek goddess of discord (possibly lost on all but the few classics scholars we have left). But it seems that it may well have been named Bambi, after the eponymous cartoon character, for all the harm it is likely to do.
However, to read the headlines in Medscape (‘US Has New Dominant COVID Variant Called EG.5’) and Global Health Now (‘The Emergence of EG.5, aka “Eris”’), you could be forgiven for thinking that pandemical Armageddon was on the way.
Presumably that is the point of those who peddle this alarmist rubbish – they assume only the headlines and the first few lines of any article will be read, and that will keep the population exactly where they want them; in a perpetual ‘Dodsworthian’ state of fear from which they can be led to a safe hinterland of mask mandates, never-ending vaccine boosters and social distancing.
Quoting relative as opposed to natural frequencies when trying to spread panic is one of the oldest tricks in the epidemiological book, and it is being used regarding Eris. Thus, the variant is ‘dominant’, it accounts for 17% of all Covid infections, and that is up 12% on last week. And woe is us, it now accounts for one in ten Covid cases.
According to Medscape, regarding Covid hospital admission, ‘In Minnesota, the rate jumped by 50%, and in West Virginia, it jumped by 63%.’ Then we discover, across the USA, that only 8,035 people were admitted to hospital last week with Covid.
To put that in perspective, let’s look at another percentage: that is precisely 0.002362% of the population of the USA. And they’re telling us about it! Global Health Now repeats much of the same garbage but does, to its credit, conclude its piece with ‘overall numbers remain “small in absolute terms.”’
It seems that Covid has achieved the kind of immortality that many celebrities and rock stars can only dream of, still to be talked about long after their death. Covid hardly deserves its fame; as a global pandemic it barely got off the ground, and tales of its lethality were grossly exaggerated. But with impresarios and agents such as Neil Ferguson, Anthony Fauci and a supporting cast of medical nobodies whose time in the limelight had finally come such as Susan Michie and Devi Srhidar, the manufactured reputation of Covid was sold to a largely unsuspecting public. Like a long gone Coronation Street star or one of the Chuckle Brothers, Covid has been taken to the nation’s heart and we just cannot let go.
Well, I was never that taken with Covid myself. Always found her talents overrated (she has a gender now) and largely ignored her, even at her peak. As for all variants to date and the newest to emerge, as far as I am concerned (and this must be said quickly in a Scottish accent), ‘you can kiss my Eris.’
Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.
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