I think, slowly, the gullible public and governments everywhere have started to understand; COVID19 was a media hype; typical exaggeration of a trivial virus in order to create a great story.

I know the media. I've worked in it for 60 years. This is how we, in the media, function. Always have done.

Not always a bad thing. Media can alert the world to dreadful situations. Thalidomide. The False Allegations Industry.

But by provoking a panicdemic, where absurd and ludicrous over reaction caused premature deaths of thousands, the global media made a serious mistake.

By talking about hundreds of deaths when such an amount was standard. By calling thousands millions and quoting percentages.
By pretending that finding millions have Covid when billions probably have colds or flu or other viruses with no or mild symptoms, and thus claiming this is a killer plague.
By not admitting viruses mutate and a possibly deadly virus can become an impossible deadly virus through Mother Nature.
By ignoring the effects of changing seasons (Down Under is now in winter but still it's all "we must shut our borders").
By not, from Day One, concentrating on protecting and treating the (then) vulnerable. THAT's what media should have done.

FLU was appalling when it started - a hundred years ago. But thanks to medicine it has now become a trivial virus for the majority.
Nobody brain washed by media dares look at the 2017-2018 "wrong virus" figures - three months with far more excess deaths than Covid has ever produced.

When in early 2020 I called Covid a trivial virus I predicted that a vaccine would emerge by year end. Even I did not anticipate dozens of vaccines. This is a really trivial virus. Nasty for a tiny minority; lethal for a few.

The trouble is - when a really nasty lethal virus takes hold, everyone (and media) will see how easily Covid was conquered and predict that new Ebola type killer is no worse than a cough or sneeze.

Then BILLIONS will die.

Why is there "a weakening of the link" to hospitalisation? Because the media are now telling everyone that Covid is not dangerous if you've had the vaccine. So people with mild coughs no longer rush to A&E convinced death is imminent. Indeed, so gullible and stupid are many members of the public, I bet some have died with minor symptoms. It's the opposite of the Placebo effect.

"And the reason for that" (lower hospitalisation and deaths) "is the brilliant vaccine success" says an expert.

More Media hype. Keep it simple.

The truth, of course, is A reason. Not simply THE reason. When did humanity become SO simple, SO stupid, SO gullible?

The other major risk from all this is if people continue to fail to see the part the media has played and the mistakes world Governments have made.

If they continue to assume masks & lockdowns are THE reason we have moved on, rather than just one possible reason (& highly contested, at that) among many factors; if they continue to expect zero deaths and protection that can't in reality be given by the State (as opposed to personal protection such as losing weight...) for any future virus at ANY cost - if ONE way of dying can again be allowed to assume cult status and dominate rolling news cycles at the expense of all others - then we will be trapped endlessly in these cycles of hysteria and self-destruction.

Well said Wyot - one of your finest posts. I shall keep wearing a mask (around my neck 99% of the time) as one never knows when it may be required. About 5 years ago I got a fantastic Freedom Pass on London Transport but whenever I went on the Tube (most Saturdays I took in a West End movie) I pulled my hoodie sleeves down over my hands - I was nervous about getting flu or something worse from the hand rails. I'm sure I got Covid in February 2020 by the woman directly behind me coughing throughout Upstart Crow (I had to leave in the Interval). Sensible precautions have always been needed - but especially now I'm old and diabetic. Stops about 1% of risk I think - perhaps as much as 5%, no more - but makes sense to this fat old queen.