- In Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now, I sounded the alarm on COVID.
In Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance, I explained what we had to do about it.
Today, in Coronavirus: Game Over, I’d like to explain why this means the end of the pandemic phase, and the beginning of the end(emic) phase.
I hope he's right.
My whole family has covid right now. It's...interesting. And maybe even a little liberating? I'm going to a fucking hockey game and getting loaded next week for sure. The kids are getting through it ok. I almost thought my wife and I were going to escape without getting sick, but alas, you can only withstand about 200 coughs directly to the face before your immune defenses collapse or just fucking give up or whatever. Anyway, we're making dinner plans with friends and thinking about planning a vacation. Might as well enjoy the freedom. I do, however, have a new found appreciation for people with chronic fatigue syndrome. Every step I take is labored, like trudging through mud.
I think he's right. I'm attending a top 5 public health school in the US. We've announced that we're going back full time in person at the end of January. School's reasoning is that we need to start the "next phase" of the pandemic. Thus, Emory will begin taking important steps to shift our protocols and minimize future COVID-19 disruptions by empowering more personal accountability. This effort will require a new level of community engagement, and our partnership will be more crucial than ever as we move into this important phase of pandemic response. https://www.emory.edu/forward/resources/messages.html -- Message from Jan 13th. I'm guessing much of the world will be deciding the same thing very soon, especially with messaging around personal responsibility like Emory and like this guy. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I understand it. And I have no doubt we're headed there.As we prepare for the return on January 31, we know that our community is at an inflection point in the pandemic. Given what we have learned from Omicron, along with the effective vaccine interventions already in place, Emory will move into its next phase of COVID-19 response. We remain focused on our objectives of limiting transmission, reducing severity of illness, protecting the most vulnerable, and promoting a vibrant campus experience. At the same time, we know our COVID-19 strategy must evolve to better respond to the most immediate needs, while also advancing our academic and research mission.
My next door neighbor's car got stuck in her driveway in the snow. A few of us neighbors banded together and got her pulled out. This weekend she invited everyone over to say thanks for the help, and had snacks and espresso martinis. There were six of us, and two late-teens kids. (Who were actually making the martinis!) It is the first time in two years I have been in another person's house. Been without a mask around non-relatives. It was ... kinda wonderful.
We're dealing with absolute fucktons of COVID right now. Starting to talk about rapiding everyone who comes in in labor and then kicking them if they test positive. But then the test is unreliable and they're more likely to test correctly two days later - so if they test positive two days later do we lock down anyway? And how much of their fee do we keep? two of our midwives got in a shouting match about that (well, as close to a shouting match as you can get in WhatsApp because this is our life now). We've got 22 tests left, and we've been informed by our distributor that there won't be any more because all these tests the government is handing out were promised without much consultation with the manufacturers. I pointed out that we're talking about six women tops because this stuff is over by mid-February. All but two of them are vaxed anyway. Play it case-by-case and don't worry about setting a precedent you'll never have to stick to. The dollar store was closed yesterday because they only had two employees. One came in at 7 to stand in front telling people they were closed, the other one spelled him at 3. Guy I talked to wasn't at "zomg everyone's sick" he was at "this is so lame." My wife pointed out that we can expect a combined flu/covid shot every winter and we can expect it to be elective. The end.
I stopped wearing a mask a few weeks ago. I've been exposed a couple of times, but haven't seemed to been able to catch it. I am not planning on getting an omicron vaccine. I'll just get omicron. Vaccines are low risk, but not zero risk. Much like omicron. This is what we were waiting for.