As the omicron wave fades from view and a potential omicron subvariant wave looms, how am I feeling? It is a balance between caution and exhilaration.
Let’s start with the exhilaration. Despite jinxing myself with an early January column noting that I had yet to contract coronavirus, it remains the case. I have been tested twice a week for the first quarter of this year, and those tests keep coming back negative. Furthermore, in contrast to this past fall, when I caught all the colds I had avoided during the 2020-21 academic year, I managed to avoid all viral maladies this past quarter.
As the omicron wave subsided, my social activities spiked. My wife and I have dined out aplenty. We have gone to see movies and plays on a regular basis. We vacationed in Florida. My professional activities also have picked up. Earlier this month, I presented in person at a professional conference for the first time in seven months. The International Studies Association (ISA) meetings are happening right now in Nashville, and in contrast to the last academic conference I attended, this feels less post-apocalyptic.
The big difference between this spring and the pre-omicron fall has been masking. Masking requirements have been relaxed across the country. That professional conference at which I presented earlier this month? It was the first time I had given a talk in two years in which the overwhelming majority of the audience was unmasked. Nashville has been a weird mix of attendees masking and vacationers who are not.
One could frame the return to unmasked in-person interactions as yet another step in returning to a pre-pandemic normal. At times, it has felt that way. After the initial weirdness of being in a crowded room with unmasked people, the joy in seeing people’s faces was palpable. Perhaps there will no longer be a need for a new (German) word to describe the experience of filling in a person’s face when you see them wearing a mask and being surprised at their actual face.
My inner caution has not dissipated, however. In agreeing to attend these two conferences, I calculated that my odds of contracting the virus would rise dramatically from my December behavior. The difference is that I have priced in the probability of getting sick but dramatically lowered the probability of getting very sick. Studies suggest that vaccinated and boosted individuals are much less likely to develop either long covid or the brain fog that is sometimes associated with the disease.
More of my day-to-day activities resemble pre-pandemic life than ever before. If trendlines continue, the last major pandemic restriction — teaching while masked — could end in less than a month. But I do not expect those trendlines to continue; Lucy has pulled away the football too many times. Rather, I think of this period of lowered case counts as akin to going outside during the temporary calm between summer squalls. I am going to enjoy it but will not expect it to last.
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March 31, 2022 at 02:51AM
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My spring 2022 pandemic diary entry - The Washington Post
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