The New York Times is clearly not ready for the pandemic to end, judging by Sunday’s story, “Two Years Into the Pandemic, Relief, Frustration and Fear as Mandates Ease” by Jack Healy and Ashley Wong. The online headline: “The Covid-19 Pandemic Has Lasted 2 Years. The Next Steps Are Divisive.”
The paper continues to publish anxiety-enabled neuroticism two years after the outbreak.
It was two years ago that the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, and after nearly one million deaths across the United States, the virus is far from gone. The rates of new infection are higher than they were at the beginning of last year, although this is improving.
After signs of improvement and exhaustion however, cities and states that had the most stringent coronavirus protections are now easing them. It is an encouraging moment for millions of Americans, who kept their faces on, and sought to socially disconnect long after safety precautions were abandoned by most of the country. However, there is also frustration, anger and queasy ambivalence.
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People in places such as Texas and Florida have lived for many months without any restrictions. Residents of Covid-cautious Cities like New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago are not as concerned. After two years of nervous vigilance, they are now trying to determine the rules for the road.
The reporters ran the Omicron numbers and admitted “The mandates are lifting at a hopeful moment for the national coronavirus outlook,” but followed up:
Many people fear that after two years of false triumphs and fatal surges, they will lose their courage now to allow a new perilous variant to ruin their hopes.
Interviews revealed that Americans who were concerned about the easement of restrictions felt bewildered at the sudden change. This was especially considering the long-term threat Covid-19 presents to seniors and people with disabilities, as well as those with weak immune systems.
“It feels like we’ve truly been left to die,”Cystic fibrosis sufferer Elizabeth Kestrel Rogers is a Mountain View writer. “It seems too much too soon, like people are giving up because they can’t be bothered anymore.”
Rogers stated that she would continue to wear masks with many of her friends. Rogers was disappointed that no advice had been given by the state on how disabled people or those with weak immune systems would face the world. Even those in the most cautious of places appear determined to get back to normal.
“Marching back to normal” after only two years of excessive precautions?
Elected leaders have faced relentless pressure to undo virus restrictions from conservatives and protests like the trucker convoy circling the Beltway in Washington, D.C. Others say the restrictions are no longer worth the price of isolation, depression, rising crime and damage to children’s educations.
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The easing has also troubled public health officials like Thomas LaVeist, the dean of public health at Tulane University who also serves as co-chair of Louisiana’s Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force.
The paper stuck to its unscientific mission of vaccinating all young children against the virus despite concerns over side effects, even though they are statistically by far the safest group:
Children younger than 5 years old aren’t eligible for vaccination. Their parents claimed that they were left unprotected by the expiration of restrictions.
Urban liberal neurotics increasingly seem to be the paper’s base readership. Another example is the online feature, “How Climate Change Inflicts a Toll on Mental Health.”
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