Sunday, January 16, 2022

Sunday Best: Seeking the light at the end of the Omicron tunnel

Strategic planning and adapting our thinking can help us make it to the other side of this pandemic.

We're all flailing. Collectively, our patience for the pandemic is waning, but the threat hasn't disappeared. In the United States, there have been record numbers of cases and hospitalizations as the highly contagious Omicron variant continues to spread. We're depleted from perpetually making complicated decisions to mitigate risk while navigating inconsistent guidance.

Parents, particularly those with children under the age of 5, who can't yet get vaccinated, are in despair as child care remains elusive. Some immunocompromised individuals are scrambling to seek fourth, even fifth vaccine doses in an effort to protect themselves against the ongoing risk, which for them can be significantly higher. Amid the individual strife, the country's health care system is at risk of collapse.

But there's hope; it might just involve changing our thinking around how we can end the pandemic. "Caring for an individual and protecting a population require different priorities, practices and ways of thinking," writes Aaron E. Carroll. "While it may sound counterintuitive, to heal the country and put our Covid-19 response on the right track, we need to think less like doctors." The country may also need to aggressively adapt and to swiftly employ a more future-proof public health approach. Our ability to return to what one might consider normal depends on it.

— Alexandra March

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