By MARSHA MERCER
As
omicron tightens its grip, the mayor of Washington, D.C., Monday declared a state
of emergency.
Once
again, masks are required indoors in such places as churches, gyms and grocery
stores, regardless of vaccination status. Masks are not yet required in
restaurants and bars in the nation’s capital, as they are in New York and Los
Angeles.
“I
think we’re all tired of it. I’m tired of it, too,” Washington Mayor Muriel
Bowser said, announcing the mask mandate will last until Jan. 31. “But we have
to respond to what’s happening in our city and what’s happening in our nation.”
The
mayor is correct. What’s happening is nearly three-fourths of the new coronavirus
cases in the United States are now from the highly transmissible omicron
variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. Coronavirus
daily case totals are at their highest level since last summer.
There
is no statewide mask mandate in Virginia, but the Virginia Department of Health
recommends masks be worn indoors in communities with substantial or high COVID-19
transmission.
More
than 800,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19. Public health
officials knew the coronavirus mutates and new variants were likely. Still, fast-spreading omicron caught nearly everyone
by surprise last month.
Much
remains unknown, including whether the illness omicron causes is less severe
than the delta variant’s, and what the long-term effects of even a mild case
may be.
The
first death in the United States related to omicron was announced Monday. The
victim was an unvaccinated man in his 50s with an underlying health condition in
Houston, authorities said.
So,
while we all feel coronavirus fatigue, we find ourselves on the verge of another
New Year having to rally again to fight an
insidious, unpredictable virus.
Former
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who died this year, once said you go to war
with the army you have, not the army you might wish you had.
It’s
wrong that Americans have had to stand in line for hours for coronavirus tests,
as they have in some parts of the country. Other nations have long been able to
supply their residents with free, at-home test kits.
The
Biden administration is now rushing to make available, starting next month, 500
million free, rapid, in-home coronavirus test kits. The government is opening
more testing and vaccination sites, deploying military medical teams to
overwhelmed hospitals, and plans to expand hospital capacity.
These
are important changes that remind us we are not in the same place we were a
year ago. Last year during the holidays we glimpsed the hope of vaccinations as
the end of the pandemic. This year, we known the pandemic is still with us, and
we are lucky if all we must endure are its inconveniences.
Mask
and vaccination mandates cannot be partisan when the virus is bipartisan. Senators
Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Cory Booker, Democrat of New
Jersey, who both are vaccinated and boosted, tested positive for COVID-19, as
did Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and a cancer survivor.
Breakthrough
COVID-19 cases are common. President Joe Biden, 79, sat near someone on Air
Force One the other day who later tested positive.
Most
breakthrough cases seem to be mild, which is why Biden is urging every eligible
American to get fully vaccinated and boosted.
And
yet, when former President Donald Trump said Sunday in Texas he had received a
booster, some in the audience booed. That’s a sad commentary on the misguided, ill-informed,
anti-vax crowd.
Fortunately,
there are no plans for lockdowns or a widespread return to remote schooling. We
are learning to live with uncertainty.
Wearing
an effective mask, such as the N95, getting vaccinated and boosted, and tested
if we feel sick or are exposed to someone with COVID-19 are steps all of us can
take to protect ourselves and others.
Those
who feel their personal liberty is abridged by mask mandates can do something
about it: They can stay home, off public transportation and out of public
places.
As much as we Americans don’t like rules or mandates, especially rules that change, we must live in the real world. We all want the pandemic to end. We also want our families, friends and ourselves to be around next year. Be vigilant.
©2021
Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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