With infection rates skyrocketing to all time highest levels ever seen, what has happened to shutting schools down to in person learning? Shuttering businesses, restaurants and bars? What happened to contact tracing? 10 day quarantines? Much has changed since the onset of covid over two years ago.
As part of our ongoing communications with Madison County Health Department officials, we decided to look a little deeper into how things have changed.
The Health Department emphasizes that the guidelines for covid do stay in flux, and there are good reasons:
Sometimes, guidance changes because the circumstances have changed. Not necessarily because the science has changed. For example, in April 2020, we did not have the tools such as vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, but now we do. US vaccination rates in March 2021 were 15% compared to 60% now. Workplace vaccine mandates, they say, have also played a critical role in ensuring employees face less risk of severe disease and infection. Most such private workplace mandates have now been overturned or repealed. The CDC considers this, and a range of other factors, when establishing guidance, and workplaces can use that guidance to tailor their own protocols.
According to the Health Department information, as vaccinations have increased, we’ve built up immunity, making certain activities safer now than they were in earlier stages of the pandemic. Now, many individuals can determine their own risk tolerance for certain activities. There’s no one size fits all approach.
As we move forward in this pandemic, we may see fewer mask requirements and restrictions as we build up immunity, develop next generation vaccines, and increase testing availability.
There is much still to learn about COVID-19 for sure. How some people seem to “walk it off” while it takes the lives of hundreds and thousands of others. One thing is for certain, we all must remain vigilant in the common goal of eradicating this plague on humanity.
