There was a moment early in the pandemic when it seemed that coronavirus would give the country a common purpose — an enemy to fight, a battle to be joined. We’re all in this together, people told one another, and we’ll get through it as one nation.
How naive that looks today, when some Virginians refuse the safe and effective vaccines that can end this public health catastrophe.
As a fourth wave of coronavirus infections sweeps across the country — a spike in illness fueled by a more contagious COVID-19 variant that feeds on the unvaccinated — some people seem less inclined than ever to take the precautions necessary to protect others.
The seeds for this were planted early on, when uncertainty about the disease was commonplace and misinformation was disseminated from the highest levels of government. Trusted institutions made missteps and communication with the public was poor.
The result was a simmering mistrust of data-driven guidance about COVID-19 and a patchwork of executive orders, mandates, protocols and recommendations issued to keep people safe. More than 600,000 Americans died and it’s reasonable to think that figure could have been lower had communication been better (or higher had officials not acted).
Conversely, it could have been much worse had so many people not done their best to follow the frequently changing guidance, honor restrictions, take necessary precautions and accept inconvenience as a contribution to the common good.
In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam did well to explain both the risk posed by coronavirus and many of his administration’s actions to protect the commonwealth’s health systems. It helped the doctors, nurses and other medical staff who endured the horror of the COVID wards when the disease was at its worst.
Northam — indeed, no governor — could spare people the hardship and anguish and frustration that spread as insidiously as the disease itself. The harm that resulted — to those sickened by COVID or who lost family to the virus, to businesses that folded, to children forced from their classrooms — will affect our communities for years.
But the commonwealth is not on the other side of the pandemic. Not yet. And Virginians are being asked again to rally on behalf of their communities — their family, friends and neighbors — to halt this variant before colder temperatures send us back inside, where the disease thrives.
That is why officials have been clear about one thing: vaccinations.
The vaccines are safe and effective. They cannot prevent a COVID-19 infection but infections among the vaccinated are incredibly rare. The data also shows vaccinated people are less likely to be hospitalized or to die as a result of the disease. Nearly all of the COVID deaths being recorded are people who are unvaccinated.
Likewise, it’s clear that masks are an effective deterrent to the virus, though they are only one tool in the box and best used in conjunction with other measures (such as social distancing, handwashing and so on). They help reduce the viral load a wearer might be exposed to and limit how many virus particles an infected person might spread.
Masks are most useful indoors, in places that are crowded, poorly ventilated or both. But they alone cannot stop the spread of COVID, certainly not in the way mass vaccination can protect a community.
It is important to have serious discussions about how to proceed and that those decisions are based on facts, not emotions, wishful thinking or pandemic fatigue. That includes how we manage schools, whether a vaccine requirement is necessary and a host of other choices in the coming weeks.
But we can hope that Hampton Roads can reach down deep and find a little more of the empathy and compassion on display in March of last year. That we look out for one another and make decisions that show care and concern for our communities. That begins with getting vaccinated if you haven’t.
We’re still all in this together, whether we like it or not, and do what’s necessary to protect our families and our communities.
