not good enough
Jan. 9th, 2022 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacThis is about virus-evasion, including masking, so I'm putting it behind a
I was reading this opinion article in the Washington Post on how to deal with the omicron wave. It proposes three ideas, two of which it says aren't good enough and the third is the best solution.
Actually, all three aren't good enough.
The first idea is lockdowns. This won't work, it says, because people are tired of it. True, but the virus isn't tired.
The second idea is to just let the virus run its course. This is stupid to the point of evil. Not only, as the article says, will it fill up hospitals, it will also kill vast numbers of people (smaller risk of omicron times larger number of infections still equals a large number), and instead of running the virus out it will only encourage new variants. We can hope that a non-dangerous variant takes over, which is what eventually happened in the 1918 pandemic, but hope is not a plan.
The third idea, and the one the author recommends, is to require "high-quality masks in all indoor public spaces [and] mandate proof of vaccination — and boosters — for all indoor dining, gyms, movie theaters, and sporting events."
Masking would help, but only help. It doesn't say anything about congested outdoor spaces, which concerns me, and even a high-quality mask only reduces the risk. Vaccination doesn't prevent you from getting the virus. What it does is reduce the chances of severity if you do. But remember that you could be out of commission for weeks and suffer debilitating after-effects for even longer and it's not counted as serious because it didn't put you in the hospital or threaten to kill you.
And this promise to reduce risk is significantly lessened if you're older or have chronic disease. I'm both, so anything other than lockdown only means that I have to personally lock down even more. At least during the original lockdown I could venture out to do occasional shopping because I knew there'd be hardly anyone else there. Now I have to be careful even about that.
If, as some have said will happen, the omicron wave dies down in February, then we might be back to where we were in the breathing space before delta in June and July, and I might breathe easier. Until then I'll think twice about anything that might put me around people, and I'll double-mask - how does N95 with a surgical underneath sound? - when I do.
I was reading this opinion article in the Washington Post on how to deal with the omicron wave. It proposes three ideas, two of which it says aren't good enough and the third is the best solution.
Actually, all three aren't good enough.
The first idea is lockdowns. This won't work, it says, because people are tired of it. True, but the virus isn't tired.
The second idea is to just let the virus run its course. This is stupid to the point of evil. Not only, as the article says, will it fill up hospitals, it will also kill vast numbers of people (smaller risk of omicron times larger number of infections still equals a large number), and instead of running the virus out it will only encourage new variants. We can hope that a non-dangerous variant takes over, which is what eventually happened in the 1918 pandemic, but hope is not a plan.
The third idea, and the one the author recommends, is to require "high-quality masks in all indoor public spaces [and] mandate proof of vaccination — and boosters — for all indoor dining, gyms, movie theaters, and sporting events."
Masking would help, but only help. It doesn't say anything about congested outdoor spaces, which concerns me, and even a high-quality mask only reduces the risk. Vaccination doesn't prevent you from getting the virus. What it does is reduce the chances of severity if you do. But remember that you could be out of commission for weeks and suffer debilitating after-effects for even longer and it's not counted as serious because it didn't put you in the hospital or threaten to kill you.
And this promise to reduce risk is significantly lessened if you're older or have chronic disease. I'm both, so anything other than lockdown only means that I have to personally lock down even more. At least during the original lockdown I could venture out to do occasional shopping because I knew there'd be hardly anyone else there. Now I have to be careful even about that.
If, as some have said will happen, the omicron wave dies down in February, then we might be back to where we were in the breathing space before delta in June and July, and I might breathe easier. Until then I'll think twice about anything that might put me around people, and I'll double-mask - how does N95 with a surgical underneath sound? - when I do.
