Ann: Video update from Chief Investment Officer and Chairman, page-224

Sure, but without acknowledging the incredibly successful development of anti-virals, the decreasing pathogenicity of the virus and the existing high rates of vaccination and potential for boosters your post is arbitrary doomsaying.

In terms of severity, yes the the pandemic is over. If people need to take anti-virals and endure further vaccinations every 12 months (if they choose to) so be it, but the means of control and solutions are out of the hands of government this point. A 90 year old grandma succumbing to covid isn't a tragedy, its part of the basic contract that is existing as a human being.

The death rates post-Omicron with the use of antivirals, vaccination and the broad natural immunity that Omicron will confer will be inconsequential. We can see data elsewhere that suggests the peak level of cases and broad natural immunity will be achieved within months.

Saying "likely it never will be really over" might sound rhetorically effective to a simpleton, but one could say the same about the flu or deaths related to car crashes. Suggesting we may need booster shots every 6 months for a lifetime is pseudoscience and you've based that on no data or evidence because none exists, but even if that were the case that is hardly an economic disaster. At this point the economic damage is caused by government restrictions like quarantining, not by the disease itself. And the disease itself at the current rate of spread will peak and decay within months.

If you're worried about "psychological" or more intangible effects, maybe avoid the idiotic use of phrases like "it never will be really over" or suggesting that we will need permanent 6 month boosters for life without a shred of data based evidence for it. When you have people in their twenties who are vaccinated worrying about a 1/100k chance of being hospitalised, you ought to put your foot on the breaks and stop being part of the mass psychosis and mental harm you supposedly worry about.

I'm interested in the economic effects of the virus, not rhetorical flourishes about what sounds good to white collar workers who worked from home the entire pandemic. And my belief is that there is clear evidence that in terms of treatments, Omicron's decreased severity and the rapid rate that herd immunity will be achieved that in 3-6 months the economy will be moving back to normalisation. Whether or not people ought for their safety to get 4 boosters has nothing to do with that normalisation.