Learning to live with COVID – Orange County Register

For three long weeks in 2002, the Washington DC area – where I lived at the time – was terrorized by a duo of snipers shooting people randomly in public.

Gas stations, parking lots, bus stops – nowhere is safe. We were told not to walk in a straight line. We were asked to sit in the car while we were pumping gas. At Nordstrom Rack where I work, a company policy was implemented on how to leave at night – in groups, zigzag walking.

There is a hunt. Ten people were killed, three others were seriously injured.

It is surreal and scary. And while there’s a big difference between sniper attacks and COVID-19 – the death toll, for example, is unmatched (COVID has killed more than 800,000 people in the US), and snipers don’t. infection. But both cases involve the public being terrorized by something beyond any individual’s control.

In sniper attacks, when we know that anyone can die at any time, after everyone has taken their own relative precautions, there is a Accept that life must go on.

So I’m surprised that now, in times of COVID, when we know most people won’t die from COVID and understand quite well who is most at risk, fear is rampant in the billions of dollars. large percentage of the population.

I recently read an essay in The Atlantic titled: “I’m Starting to Give Up on Life After the Pandemic.”

“Despair is not a mild symptom” is the subheading.

And it’s only gotten gloomier and sadder from there.

The writer begins with an anecdote about a day spent with his 7-year-old daughter, which is wonderful, but the essay quickly goes dark by implying that it was one of the only great days. since COVID started. As the essay continues, the writer wonders in many ways whether COVID will ever end.

“Having lived for two years on Earth, one should be allowed to wonder if our present circumstances can last indefinitely,” he wrote.

Deaths have slowed dramatically and hospital admissions don’t appear to be higher – especially among unvaccinated people – but the virus continues to mutate and doesn’t seem to stop. Maybe COVID will never go away completely.

Well, what if not? Honestly, I stopped caring long ago because I accepted a few facts.

Fact #1: Everyone dies one day. Me too. It’s just a matter of when and how. And statistically, the vast majority of us won’t die from COVID.

Fact #2: Every day we take risks that can kill us. Cross the road. Drive. Nature hiking. Use a sharp knife to open the package. Out in the sun. Eat alone. And never mind the array of medical problems lined up to set us apart, like cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

Sure, we take sensible precautions, like monitoring our cholesterol or wearing sunscreen (or getting vaccinated), but we don’t write paranoid essays about our fear that we won’t. never come back to life before deadly car accidents.

Fact 3: At least as far as COVID is concerned, we have a pretty good idea of ​​who is most susceptible. The CDC says obesity (another US killer) is a huge factor in determining the severity of the effects of a COVID infection. In addition, the elderly, immunocompromised and those with comorbidities are the major concentrations of COVID-19 deaths.

And according to the CDC, unvaccinated people are five times more likely to test positive for COVID than those who have been vaccinated, and 14 times more likely to die.

Fact 4: The shot works.

As a general rule, I’m not comfortable with immunization duties and I trust adults make their own decisions.

But I’ve been vaccinated, plus I’ve had a booster shot, and still haven’t noticed that the government is tracking me or that my DNA is being rearranged. I think everyone without a good reason should get vaccinated and I don’t think anyone should wait for the government to make them do it.

But as absurd as I find most excuses for not getting vaccinated, I find it equally as absurd as the author of the article in The Atlantic, who seems to be everywhere in West Los Angeles or the Bay Area. or Davis and was paranoid despite not fitting the high-risk profile.

Writer Freddie deBoer put it quite well: “Imagine my embarrassment, then, given the number of vaccinated people, almost all of them educated, liberal, and highly mobile, exist in a constant state of anxiety and fear in the face of Covid, despite the fact that these feelings offer no survival benefit at all. “

These people are an influential group whose two-year anxiety has forced policymakers to overreact.

What an ironic turn of our times when the most worrisome people (those who have not been vaccinated) don’t, and those who shouldn’t (those who most seriously adhere to public health guidelines) must all be afraid.

I’m sure pride is motivating people on both sides: They’ve spent two years bolstering their opinions despite convincing information to the contrary, and don’t want to admit that they might be wrong. . But of course the fear of death is also a motivator.

I really think most people should get vaccinated. And I think many people who have been vaccinated will light up. Both are keeping this uncomfortable era going in their own way.