As omicron tests resolve, respond with grace
Hospital staff begins 2022 already fatigued, while two experts expect far worse — up to 1 million new cases a day nationwide
SAN ANTONIO — At the start of a third year of the coronavirus pandemic, I wish I could say I remain my usual hopeful, optimistic self.
But we have to be real here. Given the breakneck spread of the omicron variant and the continued refusal of many Americans to mask up and get vaccinated, more people will die this year in one of the most advanced countries in the world — a country lucky enough to have an abundant supply of vaccine.
2022 won’t be easy. More likely, nations, cities and families will have to learn to live with the coronavirus as the newest new normal.
For all the success of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in keeping severe illness at bay, threats remain because deniers refuse to get vaccinated, limit interactions and wear face coverings properly if at all.
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District reported Monday that COVID is now spreading at the rate of nearly 4,000 new lab-confirmed infections per day — 10 times the average number of just a few weeks ago.
Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, vice provost for global initiatives at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in the Washington Post that the omicron surge “could be the worst public health challenge of our lifetimes.”
Cotton or surgical masks won’t cut it anymore. Osterholm and Emanuel said only high-quality masks worn routinely can make a difference against this latest mutation of the coronavirus. That means “non-fraudulent N95, KN95 or KF94 respirators.”
Pandemic exhaustion will take a bigger toll as well.
Over the Christmas holidays, I visited a relative who was in the hospital for non-COVID-related surgery. I saw an exhausted institution. The staff seemed tired and outnumbered. Even the building looked weary.
My family endured several gaps in communication between doctors and nursing staff. Details seemed to fall between the cracks under the stress of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, omicron did its deadliest work on unvaccinated patients, who have flooded intensive care units and further stretched hospital staffs.
They’re tired. We’re tired. This is how we’ve begun a new year. 2022 will push the limits of the newest normal.
One issue — unreasonable expectations about vaccines — has become clearer. Vaccines can’t prevent infection, but they can ward off severe illness, a visit to the ICU, a ventilator and death.
The unvaccinated die at a rate 20 times higher than the vaccinated.
In 2021, the nation let its guard down prematurely. It was too hopeful and ended the holiday season disillusioned.
But we can’t lose faith when the fight isn’t over. Families must stand together with grace and patience.
In San Antonio, hospitalizations have reached their highest levels since before Halloween.
“We can expect it to go up much more sharply than with delta,” Dr. Junda Woo, medical director of the Metropolitan Health District, said of the omicron variant.
“That’s what we’ve seen every place else in the world,” Woo said. “It may be startling to people at first. But that’s just how omicron works.”
Sixty-six percent of Bexar County’s residents, about 1.35 million people, are fully vaccinated, and 81 percent, about 1.65 million, have received at least one dose. Not bad, but not good enough.
What 2022 needs is a rewind of 2020, when people were lining up for — even fighting over — the opportunity to be vaccinated.
2022 also requires learning to live with the coronavirus and constantly balance risk versus reward.
It will require governments to better anticipate need, not just for more tests and treatments but for creative ways to support weary hospital staffs.
Osterholm and Emanuel laid out the risks they see over the next six to eight weeks, including the potential for 1 million new infections a day across the country.
One million.
“The window of time to act is closing quickly,” they said.