Throughout the pandemic, our household has been on the careful end. We
started preparing in February
2020, isolated thoroughly from
March to
July, moderately over
the summer, and then thoroughly again from
October until all the adults
in our house were
vaccinated. Because I
was
immunocompromised, we
had a
newborn, and kids under
five couldn’t get vaccinated yet, however, our family’s 2021 was still a lot
like 2020. Then, in doing
Christmas
holidays with family I was very careful individually in the two weeks leading
up to it and I was the one
working on precautions and
making sure we had enough tests: some of the people I really wanted to
spend Christmas with are at elevated risk.
I wrote last week about how there are a
range of paths we could take with Omicron as a society, but now that
Christmas is over what am I going to do personally?
Well, what’s the weather out there?
That’s a lot of covid in
the sewer, 5x the previous peak and still going up.
I think if it were critical that I or a housemate didn’t get Omicron, it
would be possible, but very difficult. We would need to go back to
isolating the way we were in Fall 2020, treating vaccinated people as
about as risky as unvaccinated people, pulling the kids out of school,
and never going indoors anywhere. Given the likely effects of
contracting covid as a child or boosted adult, this is not worth it
for us or I suspect most people.
Instead, I expect that I, the people in my house, and pretty much
everyone who doesn’t take intense and careful effort to avoid it will
be exposed to Omicron at some point in the next ~month. It’s not a good
thing, but it is what it is. Afterward, people’s immune systems will
have had yet another covid exposure, and I expect cases to go low
until next fall. So I’m not going to stress about it: I’ll follow
official guidance and mask regulations, cheerfully go along
with precautions others need, and test+isolate when sick, but I’m not
going to go above and beyond to attempt to reduce spread the way I did
for earlier parts of the pandemic.
I’m thinking of Omicron as the first wave of the endemic phase of
covid-19. While “it’s just the flu” was completely wrong in 2020, in
2022 the situation has changed enough of that “what would I do in flu
season” is now a good guide.
Personal Response to Omicron
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Throughout the pandemic, our household has been on the careful end. We started preparing in February 2020, isolated thoroughly from March to July, moderately over the summer, and then thoroughly again from October until all the adults in our house were vaccinated. Because I was immunocompromised, we had a newborn, and kids under five couldn’t get vaccinated yet, however, our family’s 2021 was still a lot like 2020. Then, in doing Christmas holidays with family I was very careful individually in the two weeks leading up to it and I was the one working on precautions and making sure we had enough tests: some of the people I really wanted to spend Christmas with are at elevated risk.
I wrote last week about how there are a range of paths we could take with Omicron as a society, but now that Christmas is over what am I going to do personally?
Well, what’s the weather out there?
That’s a lot of covid in the sewer, 5x the previous peak and still going up.
I think if it were critical that I or a housemate didn’t get Omicron, it would be possible, but very difficult. We would need to go back to isolating the way we were in Fall 2020, treating vaccinated people as about as risky as unvaccinated people, pulling the kids out of school, and never going indoors anywhere. Given the likely effects of contracting covid as a child or boosted adult, this is not worth it for us or I suspect most people.
Instead, I expect that I, the people in my house, and pretty much everyone who doesn’t take intense and careful effort to avoid it will be exposed to Omicron at some point in the next ~month. It’s not a good thing, but it is what it is. Afterward, people’s immune systems will have had yet another covid exposure, and I expect cases to go low until next fall. So I’m not going to stress about it: I’ll follow official guidance and mask regulations, cheerfully go along with precautions others need, and test+isolate when sick, but I’m not going to go above and beyond to attempt to reduce spread the way I did for earlier parts of the pandemic.
I’m thinking of Omicron as the first wave of the endemic phase of covid-19. While “it’s just the flu” was completely wrong in 2020, in 2022 the situation has changed enough of that “what would I do in flu season” is now a good guide.
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