WHO Warns of 500,000 New COVID-19 Deaths in Europe by February - World Socialist Web Site

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WHO warns of 500,000 new COVID-19 deaths in Europe by February - World Socialist Web Site

Excerpt:

European officials continue to claim that vaccination is the sole tool to halt the pandemic, even as they send unvaccinated children back into schools, workers back to work, and infections and deaths skyrocket. In France, where daily cases have just reached 10,000, Health Minister Olivier Véran recently told Libération that because of vaccination, he is less concerned about the rise in COVID-19 cases.

He said: “We are following this very closely, of course. This rise is taking place across Europe, unsurprisingly, as we know climate conditions favor the spread of respiratory viruses. However, we know vaccination has strongly limited the correlation between the number of infections and the number of serious cases and hospitalizations and deaths. So today, what I look at carefully, beyond the spread of the virus and incidence rates, it is mainly the pressure on hospitals, which is the fundamental indicator.”

In Britain, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson infamously declared, “No more f*cking lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands,” the government claimed it would take further measures only if COVID-19 deaths exceeded 1,000 weekly, or 52,000 per year. This figure has been reached, but the government is still not proposing any significant new public health measures.

In Germany, where daily infections have surged above 35,000, Health Minister Jens Spahn recently announced that the government is canceling the legal finding of an “epidemic situation of national scope,” ending the legal basis for anti-COVID-19 health measures. In Spain, the judicial system has repeatedly ruled that the lockdowns imposed last year to halt the pandemic were illegal.

Elimination of the coronavirus is a realistic and feasible policy, as scientists have made clear in webinars hosted by the International Committee of the Fourth International.  Averting truly monumental loss of life requires the mobilization of a conscious, international movement in the European working class, opposed to Europe’s capitalist governments, and consciously fighting for the elimination of the virus and for socialism.