About 10% of people were maskless.
For weeks scientists have been warning that the omicron variant of COVID-19 is different from its predecessors, with a keen ability to infect the vaccinated as well as the unvaccinated – especially as immunity wanes and efforts to roll out booster shots lag. . . . Highly vaccinated neighborhoods throughout the Portland area are among the ZIP codes with the biggest spikes in coronavirus cases. . ..
I get flashes of irritation at maskless people in stores. Costco enforces a mask rule at the entrance, so maskless people inside took an affirmative act to take the mask off. I perceive this as careless hostility, like shooting a gun into the air in celebration. The bullet comes down, sometimes onto someone's head. It kills them. Or littering. Or not picking up after one's dog.
I will keep wearing double masks. My daughter, a senior at a Portland high school in an upscale part of town, says that "everyone" is vaccinated, but getting COVID anyway. Acquaintances here in Medford, fully boosted, tell me they are getting breakthrough COVID, too.
Some things in life happen slowly, until there is a tipping point. We are familiar with Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises:
"How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked.
"Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually, then suddenly."
Thanks to omicron, suddenly has happened. Reality changed, but our mindset has not. We have mental and political inertia. If policy makers acknowledge the new reality, they will be accused of being indecisive, of flip-flopping, and of having been wrong all along. The new reality is as politically unsatisfactory as the end of the Afghanistan war. We put off the inevitable for 20 years in Afghanistan, then, suddenly, the floodgates of reality opened. The Afghan people didn't want to be Americans. They wanted to be Afghans. The end looked ugly. Couldn't the army see this coming? It fell apart so suddenly.
With COVID, we held the line on infections and put off the inevitable for 20 months. We flattened the curve, we kept hospitals functioning, we got vaccinations into the arms of most people, and we developed some therapeutics. Now, suddenly, reality floods through. Omicron is everywhere and there is no hiding. Everyone will get it. Couldn't the CDC see this coming?
We are going from avoiding exposure to managing inevitable exposure. I expect mask and vaccine mandates to end. Reality intervened. People will be confused by the change and say the months of avoidance wasn't worth it. It will be politically ugly. People who are alive because of the past policy will be here to complain about it. We were never going to win the war against COVID, only delay the inevitable, gradually.
It was worth it. It bought us time. We will survive COVID.
7 comments:
On the Cayman Islands where nearly everyone is compliant, conscientious, Covid seems to be spreading anyway. I’m guessing this variant won’t be stopped without extreme measures. I’m grateful that it was delayed long enough for me to get the vaccine and booster so I’ll probably live when I get it. The unvaccinated can tell everyone to get vaccinated on their death beds, but that’s already been done x a lot with little effect. I don’t feel any compassion for them anymore. I just think what a moron they were.
"Acquaintances here in Medford, fully boosted, tell me they are getting breakthrough COVID."
All the more reason to continue wearing a mask and keeping your distance.
"We will survive COVID."
Except for those who don't.
It is interesting. You make the apt comparison to littering. I'd add tailgaters and speeders.
There is a little thrill that comes with flaunting authority when one's life is otherwise miserable. It enables abdicating responsibility for one's bad decisions in summa. Mostly it's when no one is looking, although you might get pulled over, but that's part of the thrill. If you can do it in public...now that's exciting. Most of these same folks will obediently wear their masks on a flight, right?
You think it's casual, I don't agree. It's akin to indecent exposure to my way of thinking, which is why you instinctively are repelled.
Poke the bear. Is it foolish? You tell me.
Pete,
Why do you keep going back to Costco?
If I don't feel safe shopping at a place I don't go there. By spending your money in a place where mask policies aren't enforced you are endorsing that behavior.
Yes, you can survive without Costco. You did before.
The common cold in some instances can be caused by forms of coronavirus. If the currently pandemic form evolves into something as benign as the ones causing mild cold symptoms, we are all better off for it. In hindsight, I never would have drastically changed my lifestyle to avoid a cold. We have, however, lived through a pandemic that has resulted in an extreme number of deaths in excess of what would have otherwise occurred. Otherwise healthy people are still dying from it. If Covid-19 goes out with a whimper, I’m fine with that, but avoiding the disease has become a matter of principle. Testing positive now has a stigma attached with it stemming from the politization of a public health crisis. I will continue to religiously avoid the disease that I associate with a certain disgraced former president.
Believe it or not, there are people who blame our ongoing COVID woes on Biden and our lack of testing, rather than all the idiots that refuse to get vaccinated. That’s like the people who blame Trump’s election on “liberal elites,” rather than all the idiots that voted for him. It’s called denying the obvious.
The key to curing both these afflictions lies in our schools. To prevent such self-inflicted catastrophes in the future, children need to learn critical thinking. However, I expect Republicans would probably pass laws against it.
But you should change your behavior to avoid a cold. Those actions could protect you from all types of communicable diseases, from the common cold to flu to measles.
They include handwashing, not sneezing into your hand, and isolation when you have a fever.
The point is, they are not significant changes. They protect you, your family and the community.
Post a Comment