COVID-19 will be with us a long time

Maybe someday COVID-19 will be like the flu, which kills an average of 36,000 Americans a year, rather than the Coronavirus which has killed more than 700,000 people in the country over past 18 months.

Maybe vaccines will become even more effective, health officials will approve the shots for children of all ages, researchers will develop new medicines to heal the sick and new treatments to ease the suffering.

Although science can do a lot to block the virus and lessen its death sentence, no pill or shot or wishful thinking can make it go away completely. Herd immunity, though helpful to reduce the spread, does not eradicate the virus. It merely knocks it out of the daily headlines. COVID-19 and its variants will be a permanent part of life around the world, but hopefully not nearly as deadly.

How much damage it does depends on us. How we decide to live with it depends on us.

As of this week, more than one-third of all eligible Alaskans have not gotten even their first dose of a vaccine. That number has not changed very much in weeks, despite the painful reality of record-high infection numbers, care rationing at some hospitals, and a mounting death toll.

If those grim statistics can’t move the needle, literally, then it’s reasonable to assume that means maybe we have reached a vaccination plateau — those one-third of eligible Alaskans just will not get vaccinated, ever. As is their right.

How should the other two-thirds go on with our lives?

Will face masks for our health become as common as rain jackets in Wrangell to stay dry? Will people want to jam into public spaces so tight that they can read the tattoos on everyone’s arms? Will hand sanitizers forever replace the candy dish on store counters? Will holiday parties be as festive and joyful, with shared serving utensils, hugs and reunions?

How we manage to protect our health without giving up all of the joys of family and friends and life will not be easy. Everyone is going to need to think about what level of risk they are willing to accept, the rules they want to follow to protect their family’s health, and how to react and/or adapt when close friends or family think otherwise.

None of this will be easy. Nor fun. Nor temporary. But it is all necessary. Without full immunity for our own community — be it Wrangell, our neighbors, our customers, church or classmates — the health choices will confront us most every day for a long time to come.

Everyone will need to make their own choice for their own world. For those who don’t want to get vaccinated, that’s your choice. For others, putting up a “masks required” sign is their choice, as is not going to large public events. The two worlds can co-exist. It’s not the best way to live, but it sure looks like how we will be living.