It’s Hard to Describe What’s About to Happen in America

We’re woefully unprepared.

Omicron has become the second most contagious virus in the world, according to a pediatrician in Ohio. A study from the University of Hong Kong has found that it replicates 70 times faster. Another study from Imperial College has debunked the myth that it’s milder, and also found that it’s five times more likely to reinfect someone.

If you’re reading this, you probably already know all that, and you’re sick of hearing people downplay the virus.

If so, I’m with you.

The Tuesday before Christmas, Joe Biden gave the kind of speech you’d expect from a real president. He didn’t advise anyone to drink bleach, which is good, but he didn’t exactly seem to grasp the gravity of the situation, either. He sounded very calm and reassuring. He basically told us everything’s going to be fine, and I don’t believe a word of it.

Honestly, I wish I did.

All I believe is that Biden and his team are trying their best in a country that seems to have resigned to an attitude of cruel indifference in the face of our biggest threat yet. It’s easy to see why. We’ve been facing “our biggest threat yet” for almost two years. Meanwhile, Biden’s popularity has tanked. He’s reached a point where he has to tell everyone what they want to hear, and let us figure out the rest on our own.

You get it, right?

Politics.

This is going to be a disaster.

Here’s the basic facts:

We know Omicron is highly contagious, and it’s not milder on its own. We also know that it knocks Pfizer’s vaccine effectiveness down significantly, even if you’re boosted, and that the benefits of a third shot only last a few months. Israel has already started rolling out a fourth dose.

Meanwhile, drug companies are working on a vaccine that targets Omicron, but it won’t be ready until March.

Only 30 percent of Americans have gotten a booster.

Healthcare workers in states like Rhode Island describe the system as “currently in collapse,” and the Omicron wave has just barely started, after leaping up to 73 percent of cases in barely a week. Based on that rate, it’s probably already at 100 percent by now.

None of this is good news.

This isn’t the kind of information that says we can all go back to living our normal lives, but that’s exactly what too many Americans are doing. They’re acting like the pandemic is over, pretending Omicron is mild, and shaming anyone who doesn’t play along.

Our government is fully expecting for some fully vaccinated and boosted people to get severely sick, even die, based on the drops in efficacy. They know it’s going to happen. It’s happening right now. The losses have simply reached an acceptable level for bureaucrats and politicians seeking reelection. It doesn’t bother billionaire CEOs and hedge fund managers, either. They’re just not saying that part out loud.

It sounds amoral.

It is.

Our leaders have failed us.

Halfway through Biden’s Omicron speech, I facepalmed when he recommended getting a booster before holiday travel.

Think about it.

We’re four days before Christmas, and millions of Americans are already in transit. Millions more are packing their bags. You know, I don’t think they’re going to drop everything and get jabbed right before boarding a plane, or embarking on a 10-hour road trip to see grandma.

I mean, have you met people?

Even if they went out and got boosters right now, that’s not going to build a magic force field around them tomorrow.

That’s not how vaccines work.

Later, I facepalmed even harder when CDC director Rochelle Walensky went on national television, smiling to everyone as she said, “just being vaccinated with two doses may not be enough.”

Ya think?

It’s hard for me to describe the sheer apathy and/or stupidity someone must possess to announce something like this, using words like “might” and “may” to describe what we should’ve done months ago. This feels like the response we’ll get going forward, a weak suggestion amid a crisis that’s already well underway, almost irreversible at this point.

After all, the time to plead with Americans to get boosted was months ago. If you remember, the FDA and CDC rejected Pfizer’s pitch to roll out third shots, saying we didn’t need them.

They were wrong.

In America, it’s anything goes.

It’s not just our leaders.

As a country, we don’t seem to be listening anymore.

When I look around, what I see is a mass of exhausted people who’ve simply decided to take their chances. I’m not the only one who notices the indifference resting under this year’s holiday cheer.

Listen to this professor:

There is no authoritative anchor to where we are or what we should do… Does anyone believe what the CDC says anymore? Ten years ago, people trusted the CDC. If you don’t trust the people who are supposed to be smart, you’re left to your own devices.

— Erik Gordon, U of Michigan

Writing for CNBC, Alex Sherman paints a vivid portrait of confusion and muddled policy that dominates the national mood. Every city and every business is handling the pandemic their own way now. There’s no coherent plan at any level, just a bunch of broad recommendations. Half the time, policies and mandates aren’t even enforced.

It’s anything goes.

That goes double if you live in the south.

Down here, the vaccination rate barely ever hit 50 percent. Almost nobody wears a mask. You have no idea who’s boosted and who’s not. Some of us still care, but we’re few and far between.

It doesn’t feel safe at all.

It doesn’t take a crystal ball.

Here’s what I think will happen, in the bluntest terms:

With barely a third of Americans boosted, we’re looking at a total disaster. Most Americans are going to ignore the news and celebrate the holidays as if the pandemic is over. Omicron is going to hit us hard and heavy before January, and we’re not going to be ready.

Experts will keep begging us to shut down.

We won’t.

Hospitals will start turning people away, because they’re already severely understaffed. People won’t just die from the virus, they’ll die because they couldn’t get necessary care. This has happened before, but it’s going to be worse, and it’s going to leave our healthcare system scarred for a generation. This is already happening. It just hasn’t hit the national news yet. Right now, it’s doctors and nurses telling us what they see with their own eyes, taking to social media to plead with us one last time.

That’s not the worst part.

The part that I dread the most is the indifference. Millions of people just don’t care anymore. They’re going to live their lives while those around them get sick and lose loved ones, or struggle to keep their sanity during three more months of isolation, waiting for vaccines. Too many people won’t act until it’s too late, and they won’t care until it’s them in the emergency room, waiting for a nurse who never comes. All the while, bureaucrats and politicians will assure us the pandemic is “mostly over.”

I thought we were on our own in August, and now that feels like an understatement. For some of us, our last and only hope is that we can stay safe, despite a virus that outpaces vaccine development and a world that’s growing increasingly numb. If I keep repeating myself, it’s because every day stuns me with the ineptness of our leaders. Time and again, they show up after the fact, with a plan for yesterday.

We have to take care of ourselves now. We have to keep masking and distancing, even if our friends and family think we’re nuts, even if our bosses give us a hard time. We have to keep checking for updates from experts like Eric Topol and Eric Feigl-Ding, or Deepti Gurdasani, even if we’re truly sick of hearing about the pandemic.

We don’t have a choice.

It’s all we’ve got.