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"Clusters of mostly asymptomatic cases among the vaccinated, like what we’re seeing with the Cal football team, are neither cause for concern, nor unexpected with a virus that will become endemic." -- Monica Gandhi, UCSF
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During this long strange pandemic, one of the relatively sane voices over time has been that of Dr. Monica Ghandi.
As the medical director of General Hospital's acclaimed HIV clinic, a professor and director of AIDS research at U-C, San Francisco, she qualifies as a leading expert on public health issues.
But unlike some, she's never under-estimated the emotional and intellectual challenges we face collectively in confronting Covid-19. She is one of those leaders who understands the holistic nature of the crisis, that it is about much more than one nasty disease.
Thus she avoids the scare tactics chosen by so many others.
Meanwhile scare tactics attract media coverage, which in turn boost ratings, but they do little to help us grapple with the daily decisions we need to make about how we lead of our lives.
And what Ghandi and similar voices have been saying for some time now is that Covid cannot be eradicated -- it's not going to go away -- so we simply have to learn how to live with it.
As near as I can tell from reading numerous reports, the most likely scenario for Covid is that it will retreat to the status of a seasonal flu -- worse some years than others -- but always there as a threat to the most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, vaccines have been developed to cope with it, and they will continue to evolve along with the virus as it mutates.
The takeaway? For virtually all of us, it's time to get over the irrational fear of a Middle Ages- type plague and get on with living our normal lives.
Of course, there are some among us -- the extreme elderly, frail, immunocompromised and others -- who face an elevated risk should they get infected. And we need to aggressively protect them.
But while it is quite contagious, Covid-19 isn't a particularly lethal disease. It has a mortality rate of around 1.4 percent, which mens that 98.6 percent of those who get ill survive. (In citing this, I'm in no way minimizing the tragedy of any individual death.)
As I look at those right around me, practically everyone I know has been exposed, a few people have been infected, fewer still were actually symptomatic and no one, thankfully, has died. Meanwhile, I have lost a number of friends and relatives to other causes having nothing to do with the pandemic.
Life and death go on.
But too many people, IMHO, continue to behave as if the virus is a vicious killer stalking them around every corner. They shrink away from contact with other people, cross the street rather than encounter them at close range, and shrink the pool of their social contacts to the barest minimum.
That is no way to live a life. It is, however, a perfect way to miss the opportunity of a lifetime.
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SUNDAY HEADLINES
* Why Facebook won’t let you control your own news feed (WP)
| * We need to start thinking differently about COVID outbreaks, says UCSF’s Monica Gandhi (SFC) * Covid misinformation spreads because so many Americans are awful at math (James Surowiecki/WP) * After two weeks of talks in Glasgow, diplomats from almost 200 countries have agreed to ramp up their carbon-cutting commitments, phase out some fossil fuels and increase aid to poor countries on the front lines of climate change. But the deal doesn’t offer the transformative breakthrough scientists say must happen if humanity is to avert disastrous planetary warming. (WP) * How the U.S. Hid an Airstrike That Killed Dozens of Civilians in Syria (NYT) * Can California save itself from the flames? (BBC) * Delhi shuts schools as government considers 'pollution lockdown' (AFP) * Fox News edits video of Biden to make it seem he was being racially insensitive (Guardian) * During climate negotiations at COP26, extreme weather was rampant around the world (WP) * Austria and Netherlands set out stringent curbs to control Covid-19 (Financial Times) * Can Self-Defense Laws Stand Up to a Country Awash in Guns? -- The Kyle Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Arbery cases raise intriguing legal questions about people who take the law into their own hands and then claim self-defense when someone dies. (NYT) * The Taliban Is Vulnerable. Here’s How to Seize the Moment -- The Taliban is tottering; Afghanistan is in chaos. This offers the West unprecedented leverage over a foe it couldn’t beat on the battlefield. (Politico) * Some Afghans trying to flee country face exorbitant costs as Blinken touts success of efforts to help Americans (CNN) * Boys Have Eating Disorders, Too. Doctors Think Social Media Is Making It Worse. (WSJ)* Discovering the Oldest Figural Paintings on Earth -- While working as an independent archeologist, an Indonesian grad student revised the human story. (New Yorker) * The Manufactured Migrant Crisis on Europe’s Doorstep (Atlantic)* Skunk Forced To Bluff Way Through Encounter With Dog After Realizing There’s Nothing Left In Chamber (The Onion) *** "Let's Live For Today"When I think of all the worries People seem to find And how they're in a hurry To complicate their minds |
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