Measures to control COVID-19 proven to help

Good news about the coronavirus pandemic always seems to arrive walking on eggshells, with the threat of things turning south at any moment.

But things are looking up and, in a way, maybe a looming “spring surge” of COVID-19 will keep that trend going — by convincing people to continue to behave.

Infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been in steady decline recently. Various reasons are cited as to why that is, but most everyone agrees maskwearing and social distancing are among them.

That’s heartening because one of the most simple things to fight the pandemic — certainly when compared with developing vaccines and devising COVID-19 tests — is individuals adhering to well-established safety guidelines.

That’s also maddening because for too long too many people chose not to follow them, for reasons of politics, stubbornness, willful ignorance and disbelief the pandemic was real or serious, despite obvious evidence.

According to polls, a lot of people still are skeptical about following such protocols and even about getting vaccines. In California, there’s a political divide, with Republicans less inclined to wear masks, social distance or get vaccinated, according to a survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy institute of California.

But overall, things are getting better, so let’s look at why.

While President Joe Biden has stopped short of a national mandate, he has ordered masks be worn on federal properties and public transportation, and urges they be worn elsewhere. How much that has persuaded doubters is unclear. But most experts agree there has been a wider acceptance of wearing masks and social distancing.

“This is a consequence, probably, of a much better message uniformly distributed about masking in the United States,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, said on CNN last week. “More people really than ever before in this pandemic are wearing masks.”

Vaccines hold great

promise for overcoming the COVID-19 crisis. But when the downward trend started, too few people had been inoculated to be a factor.

“I don’t think the vaccine is having much of an impact at all on case rates,” Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, told CNN a week ago. “It’s what we’re doing right: staying apart, wearing masks, not traveling, not mixing with others indoors.”

Frieden and other experts also cautioned that the improvement needs to be put into perspective. The COVID-19 numbers are still higher than they were during the surges in the spring and summer.

The current CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, also noted the declining numbers but said cases are still “more than two-and-a-half-fold times what we saw over the summer.”

“It’s encouraging to see these trends coming down, but they’re coming down from an extraordinarily high place,” Walensky said on NBC’S “Meet the Press.”

She said it is too soon for

states to be rescinding mask mandates.

One growing suspicion is the reduction in coronavirus cases may be, at least in part, illusory.

Eleanor Murray, a professor of epidemiology at Boston University’s school of public health, said an increased focus on vaccine distribution and administration could be making it harder to get tested, according to The Washington Post.

“I worry that it’s at least partly an artifact of resources being moved from testing to vaccination,” Murray said on Twitter.

The Post reported that the COVID Tracking Project, which compiles and publishes data on coronavirus testing, noticed a steady decrease in tests, from more than 2 million per day in mid-january to about 1.6 million a month later. The project’s latest update blames this dip on “a combination of reduced demand as well as reduced availability or accessibility of testing.”

While health officials generally are gratified by the current trends, they’re a long way from spiking the football.

For weeks, experts have been warily following more infectious coronavirus variants and now warn of a possible fourth surge in the spring.

“It could happen, but it’s within our power to prevent it from happening.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told the Los Angeles Times.

He noted it will be months before enough people are vaccinated to subdue the pandemic. Meanwhile, he continued to urge people to wear masks and avoid congregating, particularly indoors.

One interesting collateral benefit, and further proof that distancing and related measures help, is that the normal flu season essentially was nonexistent this year.

Unfortunately, that’s partially because people haven’t been able do what they used to — go to the office, attend school, dine out and watch sporting events in person.

National Public Radio said that some 400,000 people were hospitalized for the flu, with 22,000 deaths, during the 2019-20 flu season, according to the CDC. In the second week of February — just ahead of the season’s usual peak — the CDC had recorded just 165 flu-related hospitalizations since October.

Yet, Dr. William

Schaffner, infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, said that could mean a tougher than usual flu season beginning in the fall — just as we may be truly putting the coronavirus pandemic behind us.

“Many of us didn’t get a boost from encountering the flu virus this year, and so we haven’t had a chance to build up our antibodies,” he told NPR. “All the more important to get vaccinated this fall.”

It seems more virus trouble of some sort is always lurking around the corner.

Tweet of the Week

Goes to various news organizations about the proposal to erect a statue of Dolly Parton in Nashville.

“‘Given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time,’ she said.”

JARROD VALLIERE U-T As the vaccine continues to roll out, wearing masks and physical distancing are still critical.