This one’s against Covid. And like Afghanistan, we may lack the will to win

(Originally published Sept. 8 in “What in the World“) U.S. President Joe Biden is reportedly about to launch a new offensive against the Delta surge, even as cases ebb. It may be too little, too late: the Delta strain appears to be burning out in what has become a typical, 3-4 month cycle in populations where it has been allowed to spread without stringent social distancing measures. Delta has already reversed what economists thought would be a September surge in the U.S. economy.

That doesn’t mean a new U.S. effort is pointless: efforts to stop Delta might well still save thousands of lives, prevent tens of thousands more from falling ill, and help protect hundreds of thousands of Americans from catching newer strains such as Mu and then spreading them around the world, giving rise to new waves of infection, illness and death.

What would work? As this column opined late last month, only a genuine, 2-week global lockdown can potentially end this long nightmare. Short of that, an expensive and cyclical global vaccination campaign can at least help reduce loss of life and restore some normalcy to human activity.

The case for vaccination rolls on, with new evidence that those who have recovered from Covid and were then vaccinated having “superhuman” resistance to new infection. And so as students heading back to classes, many colleges are resorting to penalties against those who still haven’t gotten vaccinated. While vaccines have proved less effective than perhaps hoped in preventing the spread of Covid-19 and its Delta strain in particular, they have succeeded in sharply reduced the severity of illness and likelihood of dying.