COVID Isn't the Only Condition that Kills!

Nothing seems to go as planned.  Two years plus into the pandemic, with lockdowns and hospital admissions and deaths mushrooming in and out of our control with the hope of reaching some soon to be steady state and plateau, trillions of dollars spent for I’m not sure what, and big brother bludgeoning the public with monotone decrees and mandates that are destined to temporarily forestall the rise in infections, hospitalizations and deaths – even so a defensible initial strategy considering the rollout of the vaccines prevented greater death and disability, while nevertheless of dubious and debatable value at present. 

Still, what has transpired overtime is difficult to comprehend. Even with an explosion in cases of omicron, the US continues to have large numbers of antivaxxers who have, if anything, hunkered down, even with the knowledge that the omicron variant showers them preferentially and defenselessly with a viral pathogen causing a wide spectrum of disease, hospitalizations and death. It also provided the public with indisputable evidence for the benefit of vaccinations – i.e., that at the very least they protect you beautifully from omicron’s serious morbidity and mortality. Once the benefit of the vaccines was shown to be effective in the initial study population, you could not design a more exacting global study – which would also be unethical – to randomize two groups of Americans to a vaccination group and a non-vaccination group in order to track outcomes.  Indeed, I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the number of Americans who have decided to forgo the opportunity to be vaccinated in a country that was in large part responsible for its evolution, production and availability.  To be sure, world-wide evidence clearly proves that the incidence of infection, hospitalization, and death is patently more for those unfortunates who have chosen to skip vaccination as compared to the vaccinated groups at all ages. 

This empirical knowledge is trumped by the continuous, confusing and contradictory media hype about the nature of the pandemic, the utility of various masks, the value and potential limitations of the various vaccines, therapeutics and distancing strategies, etc.  While scientific clarity emerges incrementally in stages based on the day-to-day statistical roll out of cases, ongoing study result reports of vaccine efficacy as well as adverse events, and experience and analysis of preventive strategies and therapeutics, those media elites and many self-proclaimed public health experts and commentators have been shown to be lacking as the public has witnessed one pronouncement after another that is subsequently proven false or misleading, and the clashes within the media types along party lines adds to the confusion, mayhem, discontent, and distrust.  A more measured approach, and restraint among those enamored by the limelight of media attention – in providing information about COVID-19, particularly in reinforcing what is not yet known, would have created a more realistic picture of what we know and don’t know instead of pontificating sound bites of contradictory rhetoric, ultimately staining their credibility while cementing the media distrust about virtually every aspect of the COVID-19 story.  Who would blame the strong minority of Americans from distrusting the worthiness of the vaccine with so much incongruous cacophony?  

The media has simply intoxicated and addicted its viewers to a perpetual COVID-19 obsession and they have gained handsomely as a consequence.  How would we live if we didn’t hear how many cases were diagnosed each day in our local, or how many deaths occurred in the previous 24 hours? We know more about COVID-19 than the statistics about cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, drug addiction, mental health concerns, accidents, etc. We seem to keep COVID-19 in the limelight, even after knowing that there is almost nothing one can do to avoid infection with the omicron variant other than shut out the entire world and live like a hermit.  We are already trapped in a “free” country where people can selfishly decide to remain unvaccinated, reasoning the risks to them are measurable and contained, while simultaneously exposing those not so fortunate by choice (unhealthy living) or by design (increasing age). We worry SO much about the potential complications of the vaccine and or COVID, yet the general public lacks the knowledge and or the will to reduce risk factors that kill many more Americans such as cancer and heart disease.  Death greets all of us at one point in time or another but no one wants to die needlessly or earlier than expected.  But how much better off we would all be if the daily ritual of time spent surfing the internet with the latest COVID news was used for a walk, a run, a swim, a bicycle ride, weight training, stretching, carefully selecting the fruits and vegetables to be consumed for the day, avoiding tobacco, unnecessary and illicit drugs, excessive alcohol, or even reading an enjoyable book that lifts your spirits.