Big stories coming later today.

But first this hopeful analysis: don’t let the rise in case numbers fool you. Culturally and politically, the United States appears to be putting Covid in the rear-view mirror.

And since Covid was always much more a cultural and political problem than a existential threat - or even a medical threat to almost anyone in halfway decent health - spring is coming. Omicron will likely accelerate this trend, unless the South African data are completely wrong.

It is easy to miss what’s happening, given the endless screeching from the elite media and outliers like Bill de Blasio’s idiotic effort to force vaccinations on kids in New York City.

But ask yourself these seven questions:

1: Do you have any idea how many Americans are now dying with/from/near Covid each day? The answer is still over 1,000 on average, but the daily death count - which was a national media-fueled obsession for a year - has been entirely forgotten.

2: What percentage of 5-11 year-olds have been Covid vaccinated? More than a month after jabs for kids were approved, the answer is barely 15 percent - not even one child out of six - despite a massive advertising and media campaign. And I can promise you that number is not going to budge much going forward. The parents who were dumb enough to give their kids a quasi-experimental and short-lasting “vaccine” for an illness that even before Omicron was a cold for most have already done so.

3: When was the last time you heard anyone suggest mandating Covid vaccines for kids? See question 2. Even deep blue state politicians have gone silent on this issue (again, except for the moronic soon-to-be-former mayor of New York). And even the craziest vaccine fanatics have mostly found other issues to froth over. Elections have consequences, and the Virginia election sure did.

4: How many different federal district courts have now ruled the Biden vaccine mandates unconstitutional? I believe the answer is ALL. All the courts.

5: What are the odds the Supreme Court follows suit? Yeah, that bet has been taken off the board. Too likely. Too much action on one side.

6: How many companies have “suspended” or “paused” their vaccine mandates since the courts stepped in? Not quite all, in this case. But many, including bellwethers like Oracle (which as a couple of readers noted to me is particularly telling since it is known for treating employees like widgets).

The labor market is tight and companies don’t want to fight with 20-40% of their employees, especially since the vax nuts are now indicating they are going to try to make boosters a standard or quasi-standard to “remain” vaccinated. (Remain? Vaccination by definition should be a permanent or at least semi-permanent - as in lasting a decade or more - condition.)

7: Speaking of boosters, do you know anyone who actually believes the public health authority/media attempt to rewrite history and pretend that boosters within six months of vaccination were planned?

Here’s the thing about the booster. I don’t think the booster will work. I think it will fade within six to eight months. The Israelis are four months in, and they are clearly concerned, even though cases haven’t actually spiked yet.

But in the unlikely event it DOES work, great! No one will need a fourth shot.

And in the much more likely event it doesn’t? We have already seen exponential decay in willingness to take a third shot, and that will surely continue to the fourth, especially as side effects continue to pile up. Even the dullest MSNBC viewers will eventually figure out they are better off taking their chances.

So either way, the third shot is the end of the line.

—

And all this was BEFORE Omicron, the little cold that could.

Now, this analysis is US-focused. Europe is older, more frightened, leans harder left, and has national and supra-national bureaucracies with powers that make woke American progressives drool. Australia and New Zealand are in even worse shape, as they have never quite shaken the dream of zero Covid.

But I am increasingly convinced that by this time next year, barring some medical catastrophe, we will see all the Covid mandates - including the vaccine push! - the way we now look at school closures (and police defunding) - as regrettable and never-to-be-repeated episodes of societal insanity.

Even the Atlantic is catching on.

And let me tell you, if the Atlantic is catching on, the end is nigh.

Oh well. It was fun (for the vaccine billionaires) while it lasted.

Unreported Truths

The light at the end of the Covid