BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- In the beginning, we were faced with a novel coronavirus and a decision. Should we comply with mitigation which was intended to slow the spread and prevent overwhelming the health care system, or assert our autonomy and resist mandates at all costs? Half of us donned masks, complied with quarantine, and vied for vaccine. The other half acted as if they didn’t even believe the virus was real.
Our government was not immune to this dichotomy, so the actions taken were intense in some sectors, half-hearted in others, and nonexistent elsewhere. Today, the media rails against the administration for too little testing capacity. A testing strategy is no longer feasible; it never really was, here in the United States.
As the omicron variant spreads, there are nearly 900,000 cases of COVID-19 being diagnosed daily in the United States now, and those are for people who can access a test. In China, two cases of COVID-19 are resulting in mandatory testing of a population of 14 million people, because the test-and-trace approach is still possible there. They have few infections and governmental omnipotence. Chinese authorities can mandate isolation, quarantine, and mitigation.
Our government and population have chosen to cede self-preservation to the economy. In an attempt to keep businesses open all the time, we are crushing health care, emergency services, and the school systems. We are in the midst of what has been coined a Great Resignation, either from necessity or choice. With such a workforce shortage, workers can find better jobs, pay, or circumstances. People are reprioritizing their lives and livelihoods.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is being derided for adjusting their recommendations for mitigating health-care-personnel staffing shortages. Conventional recommendations of 10 days of isolation for infection led to contingency standards of five days isolation with five days of masking to crisis standards that amount to sending the asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic back into the fray, just with masking. In other words, when conditions get so dire that losing another health care provider would be even more dangerous than exposing the patient population, the recommendation is to go to work sick and masked. There is understandable outrage over this.
We are going to have to come to grips with a different Great Resignation. Similar to the five stages of grief, we have passed through stages in this pandemic. We went through confusion, half compliance, defiance, fatigue, panic, and now we need to reach resignation that we cannot control this. This genie won’t go back in the bottle despite mask or vaccine mandates, testing or localized lockdowns. It has become too transmissible and ubiquitous, and our population is not duly compliant.
The only saving grace is that the vaccines and boosters are doing exactly what they were intended to do – avoid severe disease, hospitalization, and death. People who misunderstood the intent as preventing all disease and transmission feel cheated. Those of us who feel responsible for our immunocompromised and vulnerable neighbors are gravely disappointed that, communally, we were unable to guard them. We must resign ourselves to the fact that, although we vaccinated will overwhelmingly be protected from serious disease, nonbelievers may not fare as well. We must resign ourselves to the fact that, with such widespread prevalence, new variants are inevitable, albeit hopefully with diminishing virulence.
It is not President Joe Biden’s or CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s or even former President Donald Trump’s fault. It is our collective fault. Our government didn’t have the power or the will to implement the steps that were necessary to check the virus. They let the toddler go outside in 15-degree weather without his coat or gloves because he “wanted to!” and now he has frostbite.
We are going to have to accept that COVID-19 is going to be an endemic part of our lives forever. Endemic means there is always some level of infection in the population, with the potential for outbreaks and epidemics. Resign yourself to it. Better yet, get vaccinated, boosted, and mask up.
Dr. Erica Remer was an emergency physician for 25 years and is now a consultant for Erica Remer, MD, Inc. When given the opportunity, she administers COVID-19 vaccines with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health.
Have something to say about this topic?
* Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.
* Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this opinion column to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com.
Ad Choices