“Unmasked: The Cost of Pretending The COVID-19 Pandemic is Over”
Taliah Brisard | FCRH’ 24
The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be something we would all like to leave in the past, along with social distancing stickers, KN95 masks and Zoom birthday parties. But, is opting into a collective amnesia an ethical decision? In 2023, there were a total of 900,000 hospitalizations for COVID-19 in the United States and 75,000 deaths. Though this is a stark decrease from peak pandemic levels of 2.5 million hospitalizations in 2020-2021, it is nothing to dismiss. Still today, COVID is listed as the 10th most leading cause of death. [1] The most common strain of COVID-19 spreading in 2024 is JN.1, a descendant of the omicron variant. This strain is highly contagious, making up roughly 61.6% of cases in the United States as of January 2024. This is an increase of 58.3% since November of 2023.[2] The current transmission rates is primarily being detected through tests of wastewater rather than through COVID tests. This is due to the waning prevalence of testing in public settings as well as being less available for purchase for private use. This decline in use has been coincided with the “end” of the COVID-19 pandemic being announced by President Joe Biden on September 18th, 2022. This announcement of triumph over the pandemic came as there were hundreds of COVID-related deaths reported daily. Clearly for those individuals and their grieving families, the pandemic had not been overcome.[3] Today, the same sentiment is held by those who have been left behind in the shadowy grips of COVID and COVID-related illness.
Those who are at highest risk to catch and sustain the most severe cases of COVID are the unvaccinated, the immunocompromised, the elderly, infants, and pregnant women. These groups of people are also more likely to experience complications related to COVID-19, potentially long after the illness has passed through their bodies.[4]Immunocompromised individuals alone make up 3% of US adults. These are individuals who are unable to fight off illnesses on their own, and may even be ineligible to take vaccinations.[5] Additionally, 18% of the US adult population are over the age of 65 and 3% of the population are babies. [6] Therefore, the most vulnerable subsets of the US population account for at least a quarter of all its inhabitants. The weight of the pandemic that was lifted by the President’s declaration of its end, has been dropped squarely on the backs of these communities. As pandemic-era restrictions, temperature testing, social distancing and mask mandates came to a close, the most vulnerable portion of the nation took on a battle alone. These individuals, wanting to rejoin the newly reopened world as much as the rest, have had to place themselves at much higher levels of risk to participate in activities such as going to concerts, eating at restaurants, taking public transport, and travelling.[7] Although these vulnerable populations can wear masks and socially distance themselves, the highest benefits for reducing spread is found when all parties are masked versus a few or just one. According to The National Library of Medicine, it would take up to 1.25 hours for a person wearing an N95 incorrectly while speaking to and infected individual to receive an infectious dose of COVID, while if both people were unmasked it would take 15 minutes for contagion to spread. If both parties are masked, the time needed to transmit an infectious dose is 25 hours.[8]
Contracting COVID-19 as a relatively young or healthy person is not without risk as well. Contracting COVID multiple times can have cumulative and long-lasting effects regardless of prior levels of physical fitness or age. These related illnesses and complications have been termed “long COVID”. While a lot is unknown about the long-term effects of long-COVID, as well as effective treatment plans for it, there is a great amount physicians do know. Firstly, it is known that individuals who have contracted COVID at least twice experience higher rates of both short and long-term health effects that include heart, lung and brain issues.[9] Even individuals that consider themselves relatively healthy can have a higher risk of long-COVID due to underlying health conditions such as being prediabetic (approx. 40% of Americans), or overweight/obese (approx. 70% of Americans).[10] It is also known that each new contraction of COVID-19 can result in a rise in developing blood clots, which can be fatal if they travel to the lungs or to the heart. Some cases of long COVID have left previously healthy people with debilitating symptoms such as a complete loss of taste, chronic dizziness and pain, trouble with mobility, memory, executive function, and fatigue that has lasted years with little to no improvement.[11]
With this information in mind, the previously aforementioned quarter of the population in the United States that is most vulnerable to complications from COVID are now joined by a fair greater share of the populations who would otherwise consider themselves to be in good health. The collective feeling of being tired of the pandemic and its associated restrictions has resulted in America throwing all precautions by the wayside. This is a great disservice to allAmericans, who all stand to lose their health, quality of life, and possibly their lives because of it.
This information is not new. Media on the continuation of the pandemic has been in circulation for nearly two years. With the information readily available, the question remains as to why Americans would not desire to continue with measures such as masking in instances when contagion rates are higher, or social distancing/wearing a mask when ill. One substantial reason in addition to a desire to return to normalcy, is due to the air of politics that has infiltrated debates about masking. In 2020, President Donald Trump recurringly downplayed the severity of the virus, calling it “bad cold” or a “flu”. When he announced mask-wearing recommendations from the CDC in 2020, he declared that since wearing masks in public was voluntarily, he would not be doing so. This then ushered in a trend of those who aligned themselves politically with Trump to forgo mask-wearing when possible, and to fight mask-mandates in various private spaces.[12] With the idea that mask wearing was tied to ideas of restriction of personal freedom for conservatives, and it being tied as a sign of public curtesy for others for liberals— pandemic precautions became a tool of signaling one’s worldview and voting rap sheet.
The complicated nature of the politicization of COVID, in addition to a sense of apathy regarding the illness due to the years it flipped the world on its head, have left us in this chasm of inaction. What is the most ethical course of action here? Is it to prioritize the mental and economic wellbeing of the country and maintain a return to “normalcy”? Is it to prioritize the most vulnerable in our communities even if it means the restriction and unease of the majority? Is it to reopen wounds that still fester— to dive back into the weeds, begin to collectively heal and work on future modes of prevention? It seems as though we have already made our choice, but was it the right one? That is for you to decide.
Works Cited
References[1] CDC. (2024, February 23). The changing threat of covid-19. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/changing-threat-covid-19.html
[2] Kekatos, M. (2024, January 5). JN.1 variant makes up a majority of COVID cases in the US. Here’s what to know. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/jn1-variant-makes-majority-covid-cases-us/story?id=106138481
[3] Archie, A. (2022, September 20). Joe Biden says the COVID-19 pandemic is over. this is what the data tells us. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/09/19/1123767437/joe-biden-covid-19-pandemic-over#:~:text=Hourly%20News-,Joe%20Biden%20said%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic%20is%20over%2C%20but,day%20in%20the%20United%20States.
[4] Vales , F. (2023, May 2). Covid-19 is still a thing in 2023, and here’s Why you should care: Youth engaged 4 change. COVID-19 Is Still a Thing in 2023, and Here’s Why You Should Care | Youth Engaged 4 Change. https://engage.youth.gov/blog/covid-19-still-thing-2023-and-heres-why-you-should-care
[5] Antinori, A., & Bausch-Jurken, M. (2023, August 4). The burden of covid-19 in the immunocompromised patient: Implications for vaccination and needs for the future. The Journal of infectious diseases. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10401620/
[6] Schaeffer, K. (2024, January 9). U.S. centenarian population is projected to quadruple over the next 30 years. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/09/us-centenarian-population-is-projected-to-quadruple-over-the-next-30-years/#:~:text=There%20are%20currently%20roughly%2062,estimated%2023%25%20of%20the%20population.
[7] Vales , F. (2023, May 2). Covid-19 is still a thing in 2023, and here’s Why you should care: Youth engaged 4 change. COVID-19 Is Still a Thing in 2023, and Here’s Why You Should Care | Youth Engaged 4 Change. https://engage.youth.gov/blog/covid-19-still-thing-2023-and-heres-why-you-should-care
[8] Vogel L. (2022). Is one-way masking enough?. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l’Association medicale canadienne, 194(19), E682. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.1095999
[9] Park, A. (2024, January 11). Is it dangerous to keep getting COVID-19?. Time. https://time.com/6553340/covid-19-reinfection-risk/
[10] Prater, E. (2023, December 23). Nearly half of the U.S. population has diabetes or prediabetes-and many have no clue. are you among them?. Fortune Well. https://fortune.com/well/article/diabetes-prediabetes-obesity-half-united-states-population-insulin-wegovy-type1-type2-signs-symptoms/#:~:text=Nearly%2040%25%20of%20Americans%20have,for%20Disease%20Control%20and%20Prevention.
[11] Park, A. (2024, January 11). Is it dangerous to keep getting COVID-19?. Time. https://time.com/6553340/covid-19-reinfection-risk/
[12] Young, D. G., Rasheed, H., Bleakley, A., & Langbaum, J. B. (2022). The politics of mask-wearing: Political preferences, reactance, and conflict aversion during COVID. Social science & medicine (1982), 298, 114836. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114836
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