As Russia’s invasion force “exercises” around Ukraine, politicians bow to pressure to pretend the pandemic is over.

(Originally published Feb. 11 in “What in the World“) Russia has launched the military exercises in Belarus it said were why it was sending troops there. Nonetheless, the drills—which take place on the borders of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania—have raised fears that it is mobilizing the forces it has continued to deploy around Ukraine for an imminent invasion. While Russians are playing capture the flag with their Belarussian buddies, the Russian navy has launched war games off the Ukrainian coast so extensive Kyiv is warning they could block sea lanes. If the Russians are just play-acting, it’s getting hard to tell the difference.

Covid appears to increase the risk of heart disease long after infection, according to a new study. While another points to new risks of complications for pregnant women, finding that infection by Covid may destroy the placenta and result in stillbirth. But the list of governments surrendering to Omicron-induced statistical confusion nonetheless continues to grow, with New York state dropping rules requiring people to wear masks inside places of business. The Empire State thus joins a growing list of states whose governors have caved into public pressure to undermine national policy, contradict the advice of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and needlessly sacrifice more American lives permanently to their near-term convenience.

This despite the fact that U.S. Covid deaths continue to accelerate and daily case numbers, while receding sharply, remain near pandemic highs. For anyone who understands division, this means the mortality rate of “mild” Omicron is rebounding. And while it is now near a pandemic low, that is largely thanks not to Omicron’s supposed mildness, but to aggressive efforts to vaccinate the population, which is consequently becoming blasé about its impending vulnerability.

As long as case and death rates are still this high (and seem to be yo-yoing every six months), we can’t call Covid “endemic,” or think we can “live with the virus,” according to a fascinating interview in El País with William Hanage, the co-director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard University.

“The Moon is not a hamster and omicron is not endemic. Endemic implies a constant amount of disease and looking at the case of omicron in Spain, it went from around 5,000 cases a day before omicron to a peak of more than 130,000 cases a day. Does that sound like stable, flatlining endemic to you? No. It doesn’t mean that there will never be an endemic state, but pretending that it is now is one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen over the course of the last two years, and I’ve seen some bizarre things.”

The U.S. isn’t the only place, however, where politicians are surrendering prematurely to Covid to win votes. The flat-earthers are staging a counter-offensive everywhere and anti-vaccine blockades by truckers (long known for the scientific acumen) are spreading globally to countries as far-flung as France and even New Zealand, where restrictions and border closures been demonstrably effective. It’s little surprise that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is again throwing in the towel (I’ve lost count of how many times the U.K., Denmark and Sweden have announced they’re lifting restrictions only to be pummelled by Covid once again). But it’s a bit of a shock that Germany is as well. We saw this before ahead only last fall when the public thought Delta was the last they’d see of Covid.

But public immunity levels are likely to recede long before Covid does, meaning the virus is likely to kill a lot more people who used to think they were immune to severe illness. Keep in mind that roughly 45% of the world isn’t vaccinated at all, many of them our tiniest citizens who, despite living among us and not holding jobs, aren’t eligible for vaccines. That may change this month if the CDC approves vaccines for children under five years of age.

In the meantime, we don’t lose to the virus until we all lose to the virus. So any government still trying to retard transmission to buy citizens more time can now expect a new wave of infections from incoming travelers.