Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
In 24 months, we have learned many things about responding to a pandemic of a dangerous disease.
Don’t ignore it.
Take reasonable precautions to prevent the spread.
1918 is still relevant.
Work on treatments and immunizations and use them when available.
And more: Lessen our travel. Wear a mask if it’s transmitted by air. Avoid any behavior that promotes spread.
Work hard to do all the above. Don’t panic. That won’t help.
The Omicron variant of COVID has arrived. It is spreading so fast and is turning up so frequently in people that are positive that it is almost assured of being the dominant worldwide COVID variant in a short time. The daily infection rate in South Africa has increased almost 20 times from November 11 until November 28.
There are now 32 mutations of the spike protein from when the virus was first sequenced last year. The spike protein is the target of the vaccines used in the U.S. and Europe. It is not known whether current vaccines will work and if they do, how effective they will be.
The bottom line is we don’t know what this variant is going to do and what will happen to the Delta variant. Will Omicron displace it or will they work together and increase total infection rates. Will they be able to attack a person simultaneously.
As I write this column, I feel as if I am drinking from a fire hose. The new information flow, press releases, government statements, all keep coming faster than I can keep up. What I write this minute may be outdated by the time I finish my column. Imagine what the scientists are going through.
In response to an article I posted on Saturday, one reader wrote that the action that Governor Hochul took, declaring a state of emergency, was very wrong since there was no proof that this variant would be a problem. Waiting for proof that Omicron was a serious new risk would be like closing the barn door after the cows had escaped, and had at least a two-week head start.
Our governor was absolutely correct in her action. You shouldn’t have to prove that in a potential crisis action is necessary before commencing it. You take action until you have proven that action isn’t necessary. In this situation you have to stay ahead of the curve.
What is it going to take to get everyone on board with fighting this disease? Don’t people see the obituaries for young people also dying of COVID? Where does the argument that one’s freedom to do what they want runs up against someone else’s freedom of fear from malignant disease fail?
Right now, everyone over the age of five, who doesn’t have a truly medical indicated reason, needs to be vaccinated, no exceptions. Those who aren’t need to be quarantined; this is a group that clearly has too many members willing to lie and deceive in order to avoid restrictions of not being vaccinated. Everyone needs to go back to masks almost all the time while in public. Seating and eating in public must be limited to stable pods. In fact, we may need to close all indoor gathering of people again, certainly groups that can’t socially distance.
In two weeks, we should have more information on this newly detected strain. We can then again loosen restrictions if Omicron turns out to not be more deadly or harmful than the other variants.
Right now, it is necessary to respond as if going to war. Everyone must do their part.
Dr. Richard Sternberg, retired Bassett Hospital orthopedic surgeon, is providing his professional
perspective during the COVID-19 threat. Also a village trustee, he lives in Cooperstown.
For purpose of comparison, a virus particle is one inch in diameter, the open weave of a mask from 50 to 500
Masks don’t stop the travel or even slow anything down.
The larger drug companies have a long history of being fined for corruption and bribery of ….doctors and medical institutions .
The virus was made deadly by not providing cheap early safe effective treatments and only admitting people for more expensive hospitals treatments when it was relatively too late for most to survive.
The virus is not very harmful to children, nor to most individuals, but there is a push to expose them to untested injections with potentially dangerous side effects.
The Governor has posted that the choice and responsibility for enforcing her “mandate’ (not a law) is up to the individual counties of the State. So far, no word one way or the other from the local officials responsible. Let them make their voice be known one way or another, and not cower behind a mask of silence.
This is all hysteria permitted murder for power and profit with the destruction of small business and individual opportunity a direct result.
It also an attack on our Nation where the populace is being misled into giving up all their rights and Constitutional protections, through the same propaganda tactics the Nazis, Communists and other corporate Totalitarian regimes have used across time.
Will this opinion be published, or would the editor rather be complicit in this attack upon our nation and humanity, for whatever temporary financial and social benefit they may derive. What is America without freedom, and autonomy over one’s own body, and what will supporters of this fraud have to say if their children and grand-children start dying or suffering serious illness from the injections? Blame it on the non-vaxxed or mask wearers?