A Covid-19 Beginner's Guide for 2025

Send us Fan MailIt's 2025, and we're still pretending COVID is just another flu.You've probably noticed it by now. Friends who can't shake that lingering cough. Coworkers who are out sick more often than they're in the office. The endless cycle of "brutal colds" that seem to hit everyone harder and last longer than they used to.What if I told you this isn't normal? What if I told you we're witnessing the slow-motion collapse of public health in real time?The official narrative says the pandemic is over. We beat it. Mission accomplished. Time to move on.But the science tells a different story. A much darker one.COVID is still circulating widely. The Winter Coronavirus Infection Survey from late 2023 found roughly one in 24 people in the UK were infected. That's not a blip – it's endemic transmission at high levels.Even more alarming? UK hospitalizations in 2022 were actually higher than in 2020 or 2021. Higher. Let that sink in.We've been gaslit into believing COVID is no longer a threat because we stopped looking for it. We dismantled the systems that tracked it. We changed how we measure excess deaths to hide the signal. Most people don't even test anymore, and when they do, they often use less sensitive tests at the wrong time. ...  Continue reading the articleThis is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets EmpathyIndependent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter.  Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Support the showDisclosure: This podcast uses AI-generated synthetic voices for a material portion of the audio content, in line with Apple Podcasts guidelines. We make rigorous science accessible, accurate, and unforgettable.Produced by Michelle Bruecker and Scott Bleackley, it features reviews of emerging research and ideas from leading thinkers, curated under our creative direction with AI assistance for voice, imagery, and composition. Systemic voices and illustrative images of people are representative tools, not depictions of specific individuals.We dive deep into peer-reviewed research, pre-prints, and major scientific works—then bring them to life through the stories of the researchers themselves. Complex ideas become clear. Obscure discoveries become conversation starters. And you walk away understanding not just what scientists discovered, but why it matters and how they got there.Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter.  Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs