"Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID"

[brooklynite]

The Atlantic

I don’t know how to put this in a way that will not make me sound flippant: No one cares. Literally speaking, I know that isn’t true, because if it were, the articles wouldn’t be commissioned. But outside the world inhabited by the professional and managerial classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many, if not most, Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over, and they have been for a long while.

In my part of rural southwest Michigan, and in similar communities throughout the country, this is true not despite but without any noticeable regard for cases; hospitalization statistics, which are always high this time of year without attracting much notice; or death reports. I don’t mean to deny COVID’s continuing presence. (For the purposes of this piece, I looked up the COVID data for my county and found that the seven-day average for positive tests is as high as it has ever been, and that 136 deaths have been attributed to the virus since June 2020.) What I wish to convey is that the virus simply does not factor into my calculations or those of my neighbors, who have been forgoing masks, tests (unless work imposes them, in which case they are shrugged off as the usual BS from human resources), and other tangible markers of COVID-19’s existence for months—perhaps even longer.

Indeed, in my case, when I say for a long while, I mean for nearly two years, from almost the very beginning. In 2020, I took part in two weddings, traveled extensively, took family vacations with my children, spent hundreds of hours in bars and restaurants, all without wearing a mask. This year my wife and I welcomed our fourth child. Over the course of her pregnancy, from the first phone call to the midwife a few months after getting a positive pregnancy test until after delivery, the subject of the virus was never raised by any health-care professional, including her doula, a dear friend from New York.

Meanwhile, our children, who have continued to attend their weekly homeschooling co-op since April 2020, have never donned masks, and they are distinctly uncomfortable on the rare occasions when they see them, for reasons that, until recently, child psychologists and other medical experts would have freely acknowledged. They have continued seeing friends and family, including their great-grandparents, on a weekly basis. As far as I can tell, they are dimly aware that “germs” are a remote cause of concern, but only our oldest, who is 6, has any recollection of the brief period last year when public Masses were suspended in our diocese and we spent Sunday mornings praying the rosary at home.

[iemanja]

1. Maybe in rural Michigan

but not in the semi-sane parts of the country. Here the majority of people wear masks.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

7. It's not limited to rural areas in Michigan

I'm in Oakland County, 2nd largest county in Michigan and one where Biden won by 14pts. Mask usage is at its lowest I've seen since the start of the pandemic. Bars and restaurants are packed. Downtown Royal Oak and Ferndale, likely one of the bluest areas of the state outside of Detroit or Ann Arbor, has mostly forgone mask wearing. Most people in Michigan are "done" with covid and our numbers show exactly that unfortunately.

[LisaL]

8. They might think they are done with covid, but covid isn't done with them.

NT

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

9. Completely agreed

N/t

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. The hospital his family would go to is begging for help, so it kinda sounds like he's taking his

own opinion and attributing it to "many if not most Americans." Nice!

[LisaL]

3. So Michigan is having one of the worst covid outbreaks in the country and no one notices?

All righty then.

[maxsolomon]

4. you had me at "homeschooling coop", Matty

the consequences of underestimating risk far exceed those of overestimating risk.

[Tomconroy]

5. I couldn't read it without subscribing. Are they vaccinated?

[LisaL]

10. I dunno. Even if they were,

the vaccine would be much less effective by now. And two doses are not effective against omicron. He proudly proclaims he doesn't know anyone who received a booster shot.

[Tomconroy]

11. Two doses give good protection against serious illness

Last edited Tue Dec 14, 2021, 06:29 AM - Edit history (1)

and death, including Omicron.

[LisaL]

12. Link?

NT

[Tomconroy]

15. Dr. Jha's twitter feed. I posted it a couple of days ago.

[Hekate]

6. Well, how nice for them

[bearsfootball516]

13. I'm not that far from southwest Michigan, I'm in Elkhart Indiana.

Extremely low mask usage rate.

[djm5971]

14. Indy too

As is Indianapolis. Almost nobody wearing masks. And, we went to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for Thanksgiving. Literally thousands of people there, and my wife and I were almost the only people wearing masks.

[bearsfootball516]

18. Yup. I went to a local grocery store last night.

I'm pretty sure I was the only person there I saw wearing a mask.

[Wingus Dingus]

16. Just sounds like the usual GOP jackass going on about "the elites".

Really, he doesn't know anybody who had Covid? He doesn't know anyone who was ever concerned about it? He doesn't know ANYONE who had a booster shot? His kids see masks so rarely they are frightened by them? REALLY?

My brother in law is still recovering from a breakthrough case of covid that he had to be hospitalized for. My next-door neighbors moved away to take care of an elderly relative after covid killed the family member who had been caring for him. My husband's had coworkers hospitalized for covid.

I don't buy this dude's garbage, at all. I think it's fiction.

[keep_left]

17. He a GOP jackass, alright, but not the "usual" type.

He's a far-right radtrad Catholic. If you want a good laugh, just Google his name along with "Chapo Trap House", the left-wing podcast. They did an interview with him a couple of years ago that has to be heard to be believed.

[roamer65]

19. I travel into Trumpistan in MI regularly.

Masks are a rarity there and the virus is barely acknowledged.

But, it IS there and killing a lot of them.

[brooklynite]

20. 0.2%.....

Roughly the percentage of the US population who have died from reported COVID.

Most people haven't experienced a COVID death from someone they know and don't see the risk.

[tanyev]

21. Marking to find later....