Pandemic of the Public Mind

 First of all, R.I.P. Bill Barnhart, college classmate and Chicago journalist.

This coronavirus pandemic is not over.  The Delta variant is now the dominant strain in the US, and new infections have doubled in a few weeks.  Evidence so far is that the major vaccines protect against serious initial illness but don't necessarily prevent infection that can be transmitted to others.  How deadly this variant is in comparison to other strains will be learned the hard way in the coming weeks.

Nevertheless, the pressure to ignore the virus continues, and to go back to ways that make spreading infection easier.  The CDC has issued guidelines loosening precautions that other organizations find alarming and certainly premature.  One problem is the premise the CDC has stated: "Your health is in your hands."

This is both ultimately true and dangerously false in its implications and assumptions.  It is true that as individuals we are responsible for evaluating risk, but not only to ourselves; also to others.  For it is not true that only my health is in my hands--so to an extent is yours.

Because this is an infectious disease, and the Delta variant is especially infectious.  I am vaccinated, so my risk of serious illness is small.  But I may also be risking the health of others by passing on my infection.  My decisions affect the public health.

This is especially true now of vaccinations.  The CDC mantra can be interpreted as meaning, you can guard your health by getting vaccinated--it's your decision.  But the obverse is also implied: if you feel your health will be fine if you don't get vaccinated, then don't.  And that is an abdication of public responsibility.

The virus feeds on the unvaccinated, and its mutations into other variants depends on them.  The fewer people with immunization, the longer the virus lasts and continues to get more efficient at infecting people, and perhaps more deadly.  If more Americans were immunized now, this pandemic might truly be almost over.

I don't pretend to understand the madness of politicizing vaccinations and attempts to stop a pandemic. Where were these Republicans when people danced in the streets because a polio vaccine was coming?  There is something frighteningly akin to a virus of the mind that's running rampant in America, turning ordinary people into rabid monsters.   Politicians and talk show hosts infected by frenzied ambition--we've seen that before.  Lies viciously promoted are their bread and butter.

This pandemic has seen one miracle: the development so quickly of vaccines that are so effective.  We've seen healthcare institutions strenuously tested, and the resilience of the supply chain.  They've held up.  But the only way we come out of this stronger is if this pandemic strengthens our public health system, and Americans' commitment to public health. 

 Here where I am, our Humboldt County public health office--underfunded for years, practically invisible until this--has functioned very well.  Our new public health director is not keeping us as informed as we've been used to.  But perhaps more is going on behind the scenes.  Still, our county vaccination rate is stalled at just above 50%.  It seems to be the younger adult age groups failing to be vaccinated.  Perhaps these milennials believe they'll survive infection but maybe kill off a few of their hated boomers. 

 Our state public health did well early in the pandemic, but shows signs of the same panic that's sweeping the country to make it all go away by denying its existence.  And despite the new administration and its quick and admirable job of getting the country access to vaccines, the federal public health system does not look appreciably better, yet.

The most depressing of course is the pandemic of the public mind that does not see that public health protects individuals twice--by responding to their individual needs, and by maintaining a level of health throughout the public that better protects every individual. 

 I don't know how widespread this rabid craziness is, that has Tennessee firing its vaccine director for actually protecting public health, and forbidding any outreach on vaccination opportunities.  But I don't see strong advocates for public health to at least try to counter this ultimately suicidal attitude and behavior.  

This isn't the last pandemic for most people alive today.  The distorted climate is going to encourage more of them, as well as cause other effects that require a public response, an ethic of you'd do the same for me. If that dies first, this society dies degraded and without honor.