Pandemic Narratives?

Debra Mackenzie points out that every event has two components. The first is what actually happened and the second is its narrative (the story we tell ourselves). The narrative is generally the stronger. Sometimes narratives are correct but other, false narratives, sow confusion and can result in poor decision making. Mackenzie maintains that false narratives about the Covid19 pandemic probably caused millions of deaths. False narratives about Sars-CoV-2 included the early assumption that such viral outbreaks were only a problem for poor, less developed countries. Other erroneous narratives included claims that the virus would 'soon burn itself out' and that the infection would naturally become milder as the virus 'adapted to its host'. It was even maintained that shutdowns mean't governments had to balance saving people's lives against protecting economies. Mackenzie states that that 'the stories aren't finished and neither is the pandemic'. She clearly feels that we ought to have learnt much more from the experience. This would include putting monitoring in place to warn of the next zoonotic pandemic. The fact that narratives are still having their effects is clearly illustrated by recent statements from the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO claims that the sharp European rises in Covid19 infections (probably due to the more transmissible BA2 subvariant of Omicron), are consequences of some countries prematurely lifting their coronavirus restrictions (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/22/rising-covid-cases-europe-curbs-lifted-too-soon-world-health-organisation). 'Freedom days' have costs.