It appears that many in America are waving the white flag on the coronavirus.
Many have decided that they are just going to “deal with it” and go about their merry way, whether they get sick or not. Whether they are hospitalized or not. Whether they die or not.
Many have been vaccinated and boosted. Many have not. And it seems that it doesn’t really matter at this point if you have been vaccinated and boosted, as it appears that the vaccine doesn’t last much more than a year (nobody really knows) and now data has been released saying that four months after the booster shot, your protection decreases.
So that leaves the facemasks. They are the only tool that has really been consistent with protecting oneself from the coronavirus. Yet so many in the United States are giving up on them and doing away with mask mandates. They are just throwing caution to the wind and leaving it up to the individual as to whether to wear a mask or not. We have just given up. Which does not bode well from the remainder of 2022.
It can be argued that cases are dropping and that hospitalizations and deaths are down (that is not the case everywhere in the country), and that is why mask mandates should be lifted. The one thing the United States has to remember with the lifting of mask mandates is that the coronavirus is a world wide problem, not just a national problem. Until we reach zero cases, zero deaths and zero hospitalizations, not just in the United States, but across the world, we are always going to have the coronavirus to deal with at some level. As long as people travel internationally, there will be cases. And deaths. And hospitalizations. And as long as there are mutations, there will be cases. And deaths. And hospitalizations. And the longer time goes on, the less effective the vaccines will become, as nobody has given any guidance on whether the vaccines should be a yearly thing and nobody knows how long they really last. I’m sure right now people who were vaccinated at the end of 2020 are not even protected. Sure you can say you got the vaccine and you got the booster. But how protected are you really? It’s no surprise so many vaccinated people are becoming ill. And although right now many of their cases aren’t as significant as those of the unvaccinated, as time goes on, that is going to change. Then we have the children under five who still can’t be vaccinated. Not that it would probably matter much.
So put your masks away for now if you must. But I wouldn’t throw them away and I’d keep them close by. You’ll be needing them again sooner than later.
michellemchatton.com 