I’m Sick and Tired of Covid-19, Yet Here We Go Again
Seriously, we’re just going to let another wave wash over us?
Call it another wave, another painful lesson, another avoidable surge. However you characterize the situation, Covid-19 is — yet again — poised for a heartbreaking comeback. And again, it’s from a high level of existing infections: With boatloads of people infected across America, the rising tide of new cases in more than half of U.S. states [NYT | WSJ] threatens to lift all corners of the country to higher levels of transmission, followed by increasing numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the weeks to follow.
If this sounds eerily, frustratingly familiar it could be because it’s the third time journalists like me have channeled the experts to deliver the same basic warning. We said it in late spring, 2020, before a big and preventable summertime second wave. We said it in the fall, prior to the horrendous and preventable tsunami of winter cases and deaths.
Sadly, it bears repeating again. I’m not even going to bother the overworked, underappreciated scientists for a quote. After 15 months reporting on coronavirus science, I can tell you exactly what they would collectively say:
“If we don’t take serious action ASAP, it’s going to get bad again,” I say. “Really bad.”
