Western media attempts listlessly to stir new panic about surging infections in China, studiously ignores what is actually happening there

“China prepares for new wave of Covid cases from XBB variants”, screams the Washington Post. “New Covid variant in China could infect 65 million people a week from June”, proclaims The Independent. “40 Million Infections per Week”, hyperventilates Welt. Even Eric Feigl-Ding has taking a break from disingenuous histrionics about “Asian American hate” (by which he means hatred of, and not by, Asian Americans) to beat the virus panic drums once again.

Happily, aside from that small minority whose minds have been permanently broken by virus propaganda, nobody much cares anymore.

Chinese media sources attribute the wave to mysteriously “weakening immunity” following the winter wave, which we’re supposed to believe infected between 80% and 90% of the entire Chinese population. Of course this is wrong. Nor is it the scary new XBB variant that accounts for Chinese infections, or vaccination rates, or any of the other Covidian chestnuts. Far more explanatory is the collapse of the anomalous, late-Spring Chinese influenza wave:

Viral interference is real, and the antagonism between Covid and influenza is so obvious, you can use it to predict future Covid activity with reasonable confidence. To the extent that influenza is the more dangerous of the two viruses, it’s hard to know how the present Covid surge is a bad thing.

Why the virus panic industry still refuses to acknowledge these screamingly obvious patterns is an enduring mystery.