February 5, 2022
By Dr. Megan Ranny
There’s an old adage in public health about a village by a river. (click here)
Every few days, the story goes, villagers hear cries for help coming from the river and pull out people who are drowning. This cycle repeats itself, over and over. The village builds floats; it trains search and rescue teams. But as time passes, people continue to drown, and it feels like an impossible battle to win. Some people in the village start to say, “We should just let them drown.” Arguments ensue, until one day they realize the drowning people are all coming from rapids upstream. When villagers put up a sign warning boaters about the rapids, boats stop capsizing — and drowning passengers stop drifting down into the village.
Today, as we suffer through yet another Covid-19 variant surge, I wonder why we are still merely saving the drowning people, instead of also looking upstream...
...If we’re lucky, this reality will be different from what we’re currently experiencing. Maybe, if the fates align, omicron will bring us to that fabled “endemic” state. Maybe, it’s possible, we will “all catch omicron.” But there is no guarantee that an infection with this variant will provide long-lasting immunity. And to be clear, the Great Barrington Declaration’s concept that we can just expose the young and let the chips fall where they may has been proven to be harmful. Covid is among the leading causes of death for all age groups in the United States. (Besides, condemning older people and people with chronic conditions to forever-lockdown is a morally bankrupt strategy.)...
