Viraling Into 2022 With Covid and Cautious Optimism

Who would have thought 2 years ago that we would be still fighting another devastating wave of Covid in 2022 despite available vaccines!

Yet here we are still trying to dodge our invisible enemies.   I am triple vaccinated but nevertheless feel quite cautious at the beginning of the new year, thanks to Omicron and sub-variants already at play.

I  dropped going to the gym in December,  avoiding most large indoor gatherings except for church, and remaining cautious about taking public transport. Masks are obligatory everywhere in Paris except outdoors with the exception of marchés.

I have postponed travel outside of France, which I was hoping to begin again.   The EU has proposed allowing all fully vaccinated residents to travel within the 26 country block with proof of being fully vaccinated which will make it easier to cross borders without PCR testing.

As long as there are unvaccinated individuals in the world, they will provide the Petri dishes for new variants to come. 

Covid viruses have greater rates of replication in the unvaccinated, therefore increasing the possibility of creating new mutants.

In the news, today, was that Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia are seeing increasing cases of an Omicron variant called BA.2.

The very nature of viruses is to mutate, so we will see other various variants come down the tube in the future.

Anti-vaxxers are worldwide, completely refusing to consider scientific data; with some still holding firm delusional beliefs of Machiavellian conspiracies.

They will continue to find multiple excuses to stuff in their selfish pouch of determined resistance.    Aggressivity is on the rise too with this narcissistic bunch of folks if confronted about “their freedom of choice” of not wearing masks or getting vaccinated.

Airline personnel and bus drivers have been attacked, insulted, and threatened with deadly harm.  Now medical caretakers are being affronted with the same.

The BBC had a recent story on nurses and other clinicians in the Czech Republic taking self-defense courses due to mounting aggression from nonvaxxers.

All hospital medical personnel worldwide all strained to the breaking point in caring for Covid victims.  They are trained to care for and save lives regardless, but resentment is building up in these highly trained professionals.

I feel much empathy for all of them caring for Covid patients who are taking up valuable hospital beds who had refused to be vaccinated.

Their professional facade is wearing thin and many are starting to openly voice their exasperations and anger.

 Anyone, whose work puts them directly in ongoing danger to themselves and their family has a right to express these emotions.

Of special concern and mention are nurses, the most overworked and underpaid professionals that are constantly on the battlefront of bedside care.

Ditto for nursing aides providing direct patient care. Same for hospital cleaning personnel tirelessly cleaning rooms, changing linens, and highly contaminated equipment.

Yet, despite my present concerns, I have this cautious optimism of life returning back to some sort of normality.  It may be a new normal to adapt and adjust to though!

Back in the late middle ages, the Black Plague swept through Europe in several vast intermittent waves, killing 30 to 60% of the population.

They too had to try to survive an invisible enemy, the Yersinia Pesti bacterium, not a virus.  It caused three variations, the Bubonic Plague, inflicted by diseased fleas, Pneumonic Plague that was transmitted by airborne aerosols from contagious victims, and the Septicemic Plague.

I think of what European Jews and those in the Resistance who risked their lives protecting them felt during the many long months of Nazi occupation.

Fear-filled days and nights turned into years as they tried to survive the omnipresent perils of war and death if discovered.   Those who did survive carried emotional scars of losing family members in the Holocaust that affected future generations.

The majority of present-day refugees fleeing war-torn countries in order to survive know firsthand the rawest of deep fear that gnawed through their bones every day.

They knew and could see their enemy, for the most part, destroying their communities and executing innocent victims.

Mental health professionals are seeing increased effects of Covid related anxieties and depression as I predicted in a post early in the pandemic.  This is an evolving consequence of fighting our invisible enemies without knowing any feasible end.

Virologists predict continuing mutations and ensuing infections and possible deaths, as we are seeing now, in the unvaccinated.

I don’t see any breakthrough yet with anti-vaxxers, even some who have caught the virus.  Their personal freedom is more important to them than the well-being of their family and the general public.

Anti-vaxxers who have lost loved ones to Covid seem to be open to changing their minds.   Natural selection will take its course in this population.  Where this will all go, is up for grabs.

Scientists will continue to configure anti-Covid vaccinations to protect us from more deadly variants if they come down the pipe.  If anti-vaxxers persist with other future deadly variants, more governments will make vaccines mandatory, as Austria recently voted to do.

Our job is to live life to whatever extent is rationally safe for us, our families, and the worldwide population.

We can no longer pretend that viral outplays in countries thousands of miles away from us will not impact ourselves.  We can no longer not care about the well-being of all human beings, including those in third-world countries.

We can longer keep ignoring the well-being of animals raised for food. An ideal world where animals are no longer consumed appears extremely dim.

We can no longer afford to deny the escalating climates changes seen worldwide and not adopt personal and governmental measures to reduce it.

We can not control the world, but only learn to live as peacefully as we can with others with kindness and respect in our own communities.

Yes, I know that I am over idealistic.  It is in my DNA.  I choose to look for the good in others.  No apology there!

As AA friends so wonderfully say and with so much wisdom; we have to live life on life’s terms. 

Eventually, most of us learn this after being beaten up with the process of living.  We can not totally control our destiny.

We can choose though to promote peaceful existence and harmony.   I choose to be cautiously optimistic despite this ongoing pandemic.