The Delta variant is the fastest, fittest and most formidable version of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 the world has encountered, and it is upending assumptions about the disease even as nations loosen restrictions and open their economies, according to virologists and epidemiologists.
We should always organize around what is necessary. That does not mean we will win on our desired timeframe, or at all, on a given issue.
You're correct: high vaccination rates are necessary in a cultural context contingent on international travel, no quarantines, and otherwise relying on "personal responsibility" as their "solution". In fact, vaccination itself is a "personal responsibility" narrative in these cultures.
But to be clear, no, that's not the only way. It's just one way that would work. Complete, coordinated worldwide lockdowns would also work, they just appear less politically feasible. Individual countries committing to individual isolation and lockdowns could also work, but would require their perceived economic self-sacrifice. Actually mandated masks - not just suggestions from on high - would be a helpful element of such an approach.
You can choose to bank on a mandated vaccine strategy, but please remember that this is more about politics than a scientific understanding of, say, masks vs. vaccination. It's about what you think will be the most likely sufficient path to ending the pandemic, in this case by reducing it to a harsh flu through high vaccination rates. In the meantime, please remember that we're operating in societies where even a mask mandate is controversial, that masks do help protect the vulnerable, and that none of what we're talking about here has any real impact. We need to organize irl with clear demands to be doing anything more than role-playing while tut-tutting each other on COVID responses.
Indeed. And similarly, "just do vaccines and individual choices with them and masks" has literally been the failed policy of bourgeois states contributing to that situation.
Banking it all on vaccines -> fucking off about everything else based on West chauvinism (remember Sweden thinking cultural superiority would protect them? lol) -> hoarding vaccines and trying to make as much money off them as possible, limiting supply in both production and trade. People worldwide, particularly in the most exploited of the Global South, suffer from this "approach" to public health.
Don't get me wrong, the vaccines are a necessary technology and we should be producing them at a massive scale with enforced mandates. I agree with parent that socialist orgs should be placing focus on this (and to end vaccine apartheid). But we've gotta adapt to current conditions everywhere as best we can, fight the battles forced on us by those in power while also presenting a clear vision for a better future.
We should always organize around what is necessary. That does not mean we will win on our desired timeframe, or at all, on a given issue.
You're correct: high vaccination rates are necessary in a cultural context contingent on international travel, no quarantines, and otherwise relying on "personal responsibility" as their "solution". In fact, vaccination itself is a "personal responsibility" narrative in these cultures.
But to be clear, no, that's not the only way. It's just one way that would work. Complete, coordinated worldwide lockdowns would also work, they just appear less politically feasible. Individual countries committing to individual isolation and lockdowns could also work, but would require their perceived economic self-sacrifice. Actually mandated masks - not just suggestions from on high - would be a helpful element of such an approach.
You can choose to bank on a mandated vaccine strategy, but please remember that this is more about politics than a scientific understanding of, say, masks vs. vaccination. It's about what you think will be the most likely sufficient path to ending the pandemic, in this case by reducing it to a harsh flu through high vaccination rates. In the meantime, please remember that we're operating in societies where even a mask mandate is controversial, that masks do help protect the vulnerable, and that none of what we're talking about here has any real impact. We need to organize irl with clear demands to be doing anything more than role-playing while tut-tutting each other on COVID responses.
Never mind all that western chauvinism like the US vaccination plan means shit to people dying in the global south.
Indeed. And similarly, "just do vaccines and individual choices with them and masks" has literally been the failed policy of bourgeois states contributing to that situation.
Banking it all on vaccines -> fucking off about everything else based on West chauvinism (remember Sweden thinking cultural superiority would protect them? lol) -> hoarding vaccines and trying to make as much money off them as possible, limiting supply in both production and trade. People worldwide, particularly in the most exploited of the Global South, suffer from this "approach" to public health.
Don't get me wrong, the vaccines are a necessary technology and we should be producing them at a massive scale with enforced mandates. I agree with parent that socialist orgs should be placing focus on this (and to end vaccine apartheid). But we've gotta adapt to current conditions everywhere as best we can, fight the battles forced on us by those in power while also presenting a clear vision for a better future.
Solidarity, comrade.