That is the view from a piece in The Atlantic...
I believe the piece is on to something…
While the NY Times leads the charge in pushing the view that the pandemic IS just raging across America…
Most of the country is just shrugging and going about its business…
Yes they are wearing masks some places …
But in others?
Mask wearing is something for others….
Yes some people are getting virus shots and boosters…
But that percentage of the population is still ‘reported’ at around 60%…..
American’s are tired of the virus which has been part of their lives for 2 years now the piece reports…
We just went thru Thanksgivings and Christmas is coming and people ARE traveling and expect Santa Claus to stop by for themselves and their kids….
Even Dr. Fauci said people shouldn’t put off their holiday celebrations …
The Omicron variant is exploding across the planet….
(There is sure to be a Gamma variant in the Spring…)
And hopeful people like to hear the caparison to the common thing as a sign of hope that things have indeed moved to some sort of ‘normal’….
They just want to get on with their lives the piece says…
(Sports and Entertainment large crowd events ARE back and go on…. Virus cases of some partisipants testing positive do NOT shut anything down…Nor do school’s shut down anymore…Firing non- faxed employee’s means less people to work..)
A good many have gotten a tolerance to the bad news…
And they accept it and just file it away…
Others do not…..
I don’t know how to put this in a way that will not make me sound flippant: No one cares. Literally speaking, I know that isn’t true, because if it were, the articles wouldn’t be commissioned. But outside the world inhabited by the professional and managerial classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many, if not most, Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over, and they have been for a long while.
In my part of rural southwest Michigan, and in similar communities throughout the country, this is true not despite but without any noticeable regard for cases; hospitalization statistics, which are always high this time of year without attracting much notice; or death reports. I don’t mean to deny COVID’s continuing presence. (For the purposes of this piece, I looked up the COVID data for my county and found that the seven-day average for positive tests is as high as it has ever been, and that 136 deaths have been attributed to the virus since June 2020.) What I wish to convey is that the virus simply does not factor into my calculations or those of my neighbors, who have been forgoing masks, tests (unless work imposes them, in which case they are shrugged off as the usual BS from human resources), and other tangible markers of COVID-19’s existence for months—perhaps even longer….
…
My point is that sophisticated adults are generally capable of winking at overly stringent guidelines. In the case of COVID, many are not….
Gee people are “tired” of this pandemic?
There’s a revelation!
We have all read about people like this guy and his neighbors.Lots of them have died.Lots more will.Lots more will get sick, some will be hospitalized.
What’s the point of this?Anyone is entitled to act foolishly.?So he and his friends are going to act as if everything is Jim dandy.Who is stopping him.More importantly ,who cares?
I long ago gave up any empathy for these types.Let them go their own way.
And just to be clear, James?If this reflects your view or anyone else here?I don’t give a damn .about you either.Ill reserve my empathy for older folks ,immunocompromised people and others who, despite being vaccinated , are hospitalized and sometimes die from this horrible virus.
David Frum,a former aide to GW Bush ,Says we need triage in overloaded medical facilities With those unvaccinated pushed to the back of the line.I totally support that too.
The article’s author “Matthew Walther is editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal, and a contributing editor at the American Conservative.”
This a frighteningly tone-deaf piece because it treats an incredibly infectious (and perhaps contagious) disease as if it were a personal choice, as with exercise, smoking [except for second-hand smoke] or drinking [except for driving a car or heavy machinery].
The author says that in his corner of rural Southwest Michigan he knows no one (himself included) who has received a booster shot. And a booster shot is far less inconvenient than masking or social distance or working/schooling from home.
If irresponsible folks in the Red Heartland continue (as is nearly certain) with this attitude, the overworked doctors and nurses in their own states, and everyone in Blue America will suffer needless pain, death, fatigue (from physical work & stress, not from boredom from Virus messages) and irkssome restrictions on their daily lives that would otherwise be unnecessary.
Thanks.
It should also be pointed out that the media was attacked here for exaggerating the Omicron variant.The media has been reporting that it is highly transmissible although possibly milder in its symptoms and less virulent in causing deaths.
Despite that purely emotional and unhinged criticism here,based on what is presently happening in the U.K. and Europe?The media narrative appears to be spot on.
Ted Cruz attacked the CEO of United Ailines for vaccine mandates, Saying the other airlines aren’t requiring them of their employees. There was a time when Cruz argued that there should be fewer regulations on what businesses can and cannot do. But if the choice is the interests of business or the culture of death, the culture of death will always wins with Cruz.