CULTURE WAR OVER PUBLIC HEALTH MAY GET WORSE

The United States is on the brink of a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in which new treatments could sharply reduce the number of deaths among the unvaccinated population.

Or the U.S. could continue to see tens of thousands of deaths every month among the tens of millions of adults who remain unvaccinated.

The question now is: If skeptics don’t believe the public health establishment when it comes to the efficacy and safety of three U.S.-approved COVID-19 vaccines — which have benefited billions of people around the world — why would they believe what the same establishment has to say about antiviral pills from Merck and Pfizer?

The new treatments reduce the risks of hospitalization and appear to entirely prevent death among unvaccinated COVID-19 patients who take pills for five days after developing symptoms. U.S. regulators are so enthused about test results from the Merck pill — which has already been approved in Britain — that they could take initial steps as soon as Nov. 30 to approve its use on an emergency basis. Pfizer announced Tuesday that it was also seeking approval for its pill on such a basis.

Both drugs suppress the process the coronavirus uses to reproduce itself inside the human body, though in different ways. Both Merck and Pfizer reported no patients died during their trials. Merck said that those who took its drug — molnupiravir — within five days of showing COVID-19 symptons were 50 percent less likely to be hospitalized than those given placebos. Pfizer said its pill, Paxlovid, reduced the risk of hospitalization by 89 percent among those who took it within three days of showing symptoms. Pfizer’s drug must be taken in sync with ritonavir, an antiretroviral medication used along with other drugs to treat those with HIV/ AIDS. The pharmaceutical companies reported minimal side effects.

Studies have not been completed yet on how the pills work on vaccinated individuals who suffer “breakthrough” infections. But Pfizer officials are very bullish on the early results of a trial involving the vaccinated that will wrap up next year.

Since the pills lose their effectiveness the longer they are taken after infection, health experts say it is more crucial than ever that athome test kits be as widely available in the U.S. as they are in other affluent nations. But between supply-chain issues and what some critics see as bureaucratic footdragging, the Biden administration has been unable to deliver on promises about easy access to at-home tests.

In a normal era, when that day arrived, COVID-19 really would have felt manageable and not much scarier than the flu.

Unfortunately, we are in an abnormal era — one in which COVID-19’s body count keeps going up.

Despite reports that unvaccinated individuals are at least 11 times as likely to die and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized due to the disease than the vaccinated, 1 in 5 American adults have declined the jab. The ratio is far higher in the Deep South and northern Rocky Mountain states where vaccine resistance is strongest.

And now there’s hard new evidence that this skepticism about COVID-19 shots is spreading to other vaccinations. A poll by Axios/Ipsos found 68 percent of Democrats said they have gotten a flu shot or are very likely to do so. But only 44 percent of Republicans offered this response. A poll by Kaiser Family Foundation had a very similar result — 65 percent of Democrats said they had received or will definitely receive the flu shot versus just 40 percent of Republicans. CNN reported polls in 2016 and early 2020 showed negligible differences in flu shot views among those in each party.

Public health appears well on its way to becoming just another front in the ever-expanding culture wars. Fox News vs. the “mainstream media.” “The war over Christmas.” “Cancel culture.” Crime and policing. Immigration. Abortion rights. Gun rights. Speech rights. Issues involving sex and gender. Climate change. Secularists vs. the religious faithful. The America of the 1619 Project vs. the America of 1776. And now a pitched, binary fight over how to address a pandemic that has killed nearly 770,000 Americans and counting over 20 months.

I used to take solace in the idea that Twitter is not the real world — and that moderates were still the most influential people in

America. I’m no longer sure. And while I still dismiss the idea that Americans’ differences are so deep that an actual civil war is possible, that is small consolation in the big picture.

We are now in the middle of an era in which each side justifies violence by individuals or groups that it believes have the right motives — all while continuously engaging in what amounts to a constant cold war of ideas, one with no room for nuance. On the left, distinguished journalists like Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald are endlessly pilloried for pointing out flaws and logical weak points in progressive thought. On the right, distinguished public servants who dare to voice negative views of Donald Trump are insulted and shunned.

And to think I used to love covering politics. Now it’s the mutual hate beat.

New polls shows Republicans are more likely to reject flu shots than they were before the pandemic.