Some are more culpable than others: the propaganda machine that turned basic safety precautions into a totalitarian socialist plot; the cynical politicians — hello, Ron DeSantis — who tried to score “freedom” points by allowing thousands to die. But the culpability extends to those who’ve decided that treating the pandemic like an ongoing emergency is no longer a viable option. Life will go on. Schoolteachers and overwhelmed health care workers will just have to suck it up. That’s not to say these policy questions have easy answers. In-class education is clearly better for most students than remote learning; it’s also better for a lot of parents, especially those who don’t have the luxury of working from home or whose kids rely on the free meals schools provide. Months of additional business restrictions would also be economically cataclysmic unless the federal government (read: Joe Manchin) approved trillions more dollars in aid, and most governors would be unlikely to go along in any event. And that’s to say nothing of the psychological weariness enveloping us. So we’ve backed ourselves into a corner. Returning to normal will cost hundreds of thousands of lives — many (but, importantly, not all) of whom belong to the very people dren and teachers back into classrooms, who’ve spent the last two years arguing but the first week after winter break saw that we should ignore the pandemic — and widespread absences among students and reduce us to hoping that the inevitable next educators — and, for that matter, bus driv- variant is milder still instead of the other As long as selfishness wins, the pandemic is here to stay ers. As one parent told the Washington way around. Few people would call this Post: “It’s frustrating because you see a lot good public health policy, but it’s what our of the experts on TV saying schools are politics demands. BY JEFFREY C. BIL L M A N The pandemic has starkly illustrated a important, schools should be open. And hospitalizations have skyrocketed: increas- that’s true. I completely support that. But tension that dates to the founding of the Here we go again. COVID cases are through the roof — es of 227 percent and 293 percent in Florida, nobody is doing the things necessary to American experiment: balancing individual about 680,000 a day, officially, and that’s respectively; 678 percent and 136 percent have that happen, which is to lower com- rights with community needs. Your right not to get a vaccine, not to wear a mask, to an undercount. Testing can’t keep up. ICUs in Texas; 546 percent and 361 percent in munity spread.” Meanwhile, as Omicron spreads, the send your unvaccinated, unmasked kids to are nearing capacity. The CDC’s quaran- Louisiana; 702 percent and 203 percent in staffing shortages bedeviling retailers and school and force teachers to sit in confined, tine guidelines are inscrutable. And now, Mississippi. But it’s not just red states. Two years in, hospitality businesses will only worsen. poorly ventilated rooms with them for eight death counts are rising, more than 1,500 the country — Democrats and Republicans Hiring already slowed in December as hours a day, eat and drink and carry on as if every day. Sure, the Omicron variant appears “mild- alike — has decided we’re over the pan- COVID cases mounted; things don’t look nothing was wrong; versus my right to not er” than its predecessors, particularly for demic. Schools are open. So are bars and better for January. In South Africa, where get sick, to not risk a breakthrough infection, those who’ve been fully vaccinated and restaurants — in some states, with mask Omicron was first identified, cases peaked to not see my family members get seriously boosted. But 12 percent of Americans over “mandates” that let you remove your mask in mid-December, but deaths are still rising ill, to not worry about my “elective” surgery the age of 65 — those most susceptible to as soon as you eat or drink, rendering three weeks later. Cases in the U.S. haven’t to remove that suspicious mole on my severe disease — are not fully vaccinated. the exercise pointless. And the Supreme crested yet, which means we’ve got a ways back being postponed indefinitely because Their populations are heavily concentrated Court looks likely to invalidate the Biden to go. To date, nearly 850,000 Americans hospitals are full, to actually have life return in rural parts of the country; Omicron has administration’s vaccinate-or-test mandate have died; we’ll almost certainly top 1 mil- to normal once everyone is vaccinated. It’s about your right to think of yourself so far torn through major urban centers like for employees of large companies, due to lion this spring, if not sooner. Think about that: one million Americans versus my right to think of everyone else. New York City and Boston. Nearly 40 per- conservative justices’ ideological eagerness cent of the U.S. population isn’t completely to hobble the “administrative state” (and dead — more than 1.5 Bostons wiped off Because our political system is fundamenthe map, for reference — more than half tally broken, selfishness is winning. As long vaccinated, either. In other words, it’s going Justice Alito’s anti-vax flirtations). Of course, what the government allows, dying after safe, effective vaccines became as selfishness wins, the pandemic is here to get worse. In red states that long ago decided to the market sometimes does not. States and available. Spin it however you want, but this to stay. wish the pandemic away, both cases and school districts may want to force chil- is an unmitigated failure at every level. feedback@orlandoweekly.com
AMERICA SHRUGGED
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JAN. 12-18, 2022 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
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