Hunkered Down in Bremerton

The New Normal

This week the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has begun to appear...First in either South Africa or the Netherlands and late this week in the good 'ol USA. It's new, its unknown and to many it is scary. But with it coming in so fast and spreading around the world so fast we should take the opportunity to look at where we stand on defeating the pandemic.

New York State has gone back to emergency situation. Europe is banning flights from southern Africa. Visitors from southern Africa are receiving extra screening and quarantine rules and contact tracing. More cases are being discovered. We don't know if this new variant is more contageous than the Delta variant or if it in some way gets past the anti-bodies that are built up in our bodies through contracting and defeating earlier variants or through immunization. We just don't know yet. These were the same procedures taken and the same questions that we asked when the Delta variant swept through a few months ago.

Several months from now there will be a newer variant (Pi?). You can almost guarantee that the world's reaction will be the same.

Welcome to the new normal. We are there now.. with same the rules and restrictions, with masks, with social distancing, virtual meetings etc that we have had since early Spring 2021. Will any of these rules be relaxed, will we be able to go about our lives freely without the lingering fear of the unknown looming infection? No. This is it folks... this is the new normal.

Vaccinating 60% of the population in the USA and trying to force vaccinations on the rest has not brought us anywhere near where we need to be to relax all regulations and get back to the 2019 version of normal. Vaccination is helping to protect me from getting Covid-19 and for that I am grateful. But I still have to wear a mask when I go to Safeway. Only the drive-thru is open at Burger King. Millions are still refusing to go back to work. Get used to it.

Until we can reach world-wide herd immunity new variations will continue to develop and to be spread through international travel. With the rate that immunizations are being given in much of Africa, I think we can expect world-wide herd immunity around 2088. This is the new normal.

Through my participation in Rotary, I have been very aware of the Polio Eradication efforts around the world. Through the billions of dollars spent and billions of immunizations given since the current world-wide Polio Eradication efforts began in 1986 by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, millions of Rotarians, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations and thousands more... Polio still exists and is still being transmitted. Why, because not everyone, everwhere has achieved immunity. There have been only three reported new cases this year (in Afghanistan), but after 35 years of effort we are still at risk.

Welcome to the New Normal

Howard B. Julien

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Updated December 3, 2021