Funding studies on completely magical thinking now. It's still amazing how heavy handed all the narrative spinning was. "Viruses get less virulent over time" some reddit comment says, half remembering something that applies to viruses that kill their hosts before they can be transmitted. And somehow that becomes the public consciousness in a world that's had HIV for 50 years. Of course covid is more deadly than the flu.
And of course no mention of long covid, which is the bigger issue.