I have been paying far less attention to Covid lately. After more than two-and-a-half years of daily updates, every worsening news and constant speculation, conjecture and grandstanding from politicians, public health officials and media pundits, I am burnt out.
But, I still don’t want to get Covid. I’m still not afraid of getting it, but just like I don’t want to get the flu, be in a car accident or catch a common cold, I just don’t want to deal with being unhealthy if I can avoid it. My life is too good when I’m healthy and pushing myself pretty hard.
I now only occasionally check in on two podcasts to get updates on Covid – Osterholm’s Covid update and Andy Slavitt’s In the Bubble. From what I can ascertain:
- The latest variants (BA4 and Ba 5) are more contagious than others (what else is new?)
- Vaccines don’t prevent infection but still supposedly reduce the likelihood of severe illness
- Vaccine effectiveness seems to wane after a few months, necessitating boosters every 4-6 months
- The rest of the country, like me, is done with Covid. People are no longer socially distancing, mask usage is very rare and people are gathering in large groups for concerts, dining, parties, weddings etc.
- Prior infection and/or vaccines seem to offer no guarantee of immunity against new variants.
So now Covid hospitalizations are rising once again. Infections are speculated to be increasing, but since most states no longer track these closely and many people are doing tests at home, the data is at best a big guesstimate.
I don’t listen when epidemiologists discuss the “spike proteins and mutations” of specific variants. I don’t care about this.
What I’m concluding is that Covid is here to stay. Mutations are happening constantly. Older people, unhealthy people, immunocompromised people and (perhaps) unlucky people with specific genes will have more severe infections, reactions and possible death.
Am I one of those people? Who knows?
I’ve decided I have to accept that Covid will most likely be here forever. There will be fluctuations in cases based on current variants, locality, and other conditions.
As for me, I’ve accepted that I already live a socially distanced life. Now that I’m no longer dating, my close exposure to others is very limited. I don’t enjoy crowded places so I’m not going to packed restaurants, theaters, sporting events or concerts.
I don’t go out to eat.
As for occasional social outings with others, I’ve made a conscious decision that I will avoid people who have recently put themselves in a higher risk situation like traveling, being in crowds or knowing they’ve been exposed.
It’s not that big of a change for me anyway. Most of my social contact with people is by phone or incidental contact outdoors.
I still shy away from large gatherings of kids. But to be honest, I did this before Covid during flu season anyway. Kids are little Petri dishes of snot and contagion. There’s no need for me to be exposed to them at all.
I’m not flying anywhere. I haven’t flown since 2017 and don’t miss it at all.
I think I might someday want to travel throughout Europe, but there’s no urgency for me to do this at all.
I hope my predictions about Covid are wrong. I hope a universal vaccine is developed that can eradicate it. But I can’t count on my wishes coming true so I don’t.