In an Anti-Public Health State, COVID-19 Thrives
COVID-19 has not gone away.
One week ago, I had my final breast reconstruction surgery (see previous article for more on that journey: here).
The difference in the hospital mitigation procedures — within the space of just one month — was profound. The check-in station was gone, and the requirement to test for COVID-19 prior to surgery was lifted. People wandered into the hospital without masks. Hospital staff, weary of asking patients and visitors to mask, looked the other way. Few N95s were in sight. This all made me extremely nervous, but I was too worried about getting through my surgery to focus on these safety breaches.
Exactly 6 days later, my wife started coughing. It is allergy season in Alabama, and she said it felt like the same old kind of home-grown gunk. But, out of an abundance of caution, she took out one of the rapid tests I had stockpiled during the Omicron wave.
“Emma, I’m positive!” she yelled from the other room.
My heart sank. After over two years of profound diligence, COVID-19 had finally struck our home.
Feeling outraged, helpless, and alone in my feelings, I took to social media. I found validation and comfort in a Twitter community related to COVID-19 that my “real life” lacked.
This is what I have learned: people have largely “moved on” from COVID-19. They have moved on from masking, from social distancing, and from testing. They have moved on from showing comfort or concern when someone tests positive for COVID-19. Though no one has said this to me or my wife outright, the sentiment is that it was just our turn to get COVID-19. If others had it, why shouldn’t we?
It is this selfish sentiment that shows up so much in modern America. There are resistors of student loan forgiveness who feel that since they had to pay off their loans, everyone should. Health care should be “earned.” In this environment, of course public health is an afterthought. In America, personal health is all that matters.
