Which is good!
But, no speech or public service announcement or anything else will change the fundamental contradiction that sits at the heart of our current Covid mindset: Those most in danger from the Omicron variant remain the least concerned about getting sick.
Just 42% of the unvaccinated say they are concerned about getting the virus, according to new numbers from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Among those who have been vaccinated, that “worry” number is 10 points higher.
Half of those who have been vaccinated say the recent Omicron outbreak has made them more likely to get a booster shot. But, among the unvaccinated, almost 9 in 10 (87%) say that the news about Omicron does not make them more likely to get vaccinated.
What those numbers tell me is that there are simply people who cannot be reached. Who, under any circumstance or any new variant, are so dug-in on their position on this virus — thanks to the overt politicization of it by former President Donald Trump and his administration and others — that literally nothing will change their mind about it.
There’s absolutely nothing that Biden or even Donald Trump can do about it. (The former President was booed this weekend when he told Bill O’Reilly he had received the booster shot.)
And because of that reality, we are not likely to be “done” with Covid-19 for the foreseeable future. Because the more people Covid infects, the more chances the virus has to mutate. And, as we have seen with Omicron, some of these variants can be very, very nasty.
The Point: Where do we go from here? I’m honestly not sure. Will we hit herd immunity? Is that even still possible? And how many more Americans will die before this virus is no longer considered a pandemic?
