Unmasking and the Pandemic
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
In keeping Super Bowl 56 from becoming a super-spreader event, LA county is going its own way in extending masking, social distancing, and vaccination requirements for six additional months. Other cities particularly along the east coast and those with Republican gubernatorial leadership and (often the same) those with Dixiecrat history rush to deny the reality of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Meanwhile, responsible scientists following the trail of waste particularly poop are finding evidence of omicron, and as of yet unspecified variants with undetermined pathogenicity.
Perhaps most disturbing is the recognition that these sources are relatively old and contain variants that as of yet lack clinical correlation. As best I can surmise, the assumption that we are going to transition to an endemic phase of the illness manageable with and without vaccination is unjustified. If we are lucky infections will continue to fall, deaths will primarily be among the unvaccinated, but LA county may be even wiser than the rest of California in remembering the tale of the latrines i.e. s..t happens!
