Rant

I try not to rant on the blog, but sometimes I just have to. Here is the rant that I wrote today.

I am mind-boggled over the tra-la-la attitude everyone seems to have about returning to work and school tomorrow. Transmission rates of Omicron are so high that anyone who goes to work or school is likely to catch it. But everyone else in this country seems to be perfectly OK with that. What happened to “flatten the curve”? Has anyone even looked at the curve lately?

The experts say that Omicron is different, but I’m not sure how much to trust them. For one thing, they’re basing their opinions on evidence from other countries that are smaller and that have different vaccination profiles and that aren’t even necessarily through their waves yet. Even if the variant is really milder, as it seems to be, a certain percentage of people will still have bad cases, not to mention that Delta is still out there, too. What happened to “everything counts in large amounts”? What happened to protecting the vulnerable? Have we just given up on all the ideas that guided us previously?

It’s so hard for me to judge, because we are getting mixed messages. Experts are saying that Omicron’s not so bad, because hospitalizations are barely up, even as hospitals all over the country are screaming, “We’re full! Help! Help!” Experts are also saying, “You’ll all be fine if you’re vaccinated and boosted!” even as we read every day about how many people are not vaccinated and/or boosted. They also neglect to mention that even the vaccinated could potentially get long-haul Covid. Has everyone forgotten about long-haul Covid?

Now, with many hospitals on the cusp of being overwhelmed, and with still large numbers of unvaccinated people out there, we are about to send everyone out to catch Covid at once. That’s like the dumbest, most irresponsible science experiment of all time. I want no part of it, but by law I am supposed to send my kids to school tomorrow.

I’m not sure what to do. The four of us are vaccinated and boosted to the extent possible. We will most likely be fine. So we should probably just proceed as normal. And yet, I can’t help but to keep returning to the idea that it’s stupid to expose everyone all at once to a disease that we’ve gone out of our way to avoid for two years and without being sure exactly how this is all going to play out and without extra protections for the people who might not be safe. Maybe we are all going to catch Omicron eventually, but we should at least try to stagger the cases more. So I am tempted to keep my kids home for the week, knowing that there is a very good chance that the schools will close soon due to staffing problems, freeing me from the problem of how to proceed in following weeks.

The question is now very pressing: will I send my kids to school tomorrow? I’m not sure. Probably? All I know is that I’m worn out from having to make this decision over and over and over. The variables are a little different every time, but the problem is always the same. We never have quite enough information, so the decision feels like a crap-shoot every time. Nobody should have to feel like they’re gambling when it comes to their family’s health and welfare. It was bad enough before, back when most people at least pretended to care, and it’s worse now that everyone seems to have thrown in the towel. Ugh!