It happened. Members of my immediate family have contracted COVID-19. Thankfully, everyone has been fully vaccinated (including three of my grandchildren who are eligible) and the symptoms have been mild. Still, I have been a basket case worrying about my loved ones. For whatever reason, my husband and I have, thus far, been spared.
But that’s likely to change.
According to the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci (my hero), “Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody.
“Those who have been vaccinated … and boosted would get exposed,” Fauci said in an interview reported on CNN. “Some, maybe a lot of them, will get infected but will very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well in the sense of not having hospitalization and death.”
It still angers me that so many people refuse to get vaccinated and wear masks. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.
I’d be naive to think my husband and I won’t get COVID. Though we’re fully vaccinated and always wear a mask, we’re not confined to our home.
My husband, an attorney, still works a full-time job that takes him to multiple courtrooms locally and surrounding counties. Many of the people in these courtrooms do not wear masks, so it’s likely just a matter of time before the new COVID variant, omicron, affects us.
Still, we religiously wear our masks, wash our hands, use hand sanitizer and get tested when we exhibit any symptoms.
I don’t know what it’s going to take for the anti-vaxxers to accept the reality about COVID. Will someone close to them have to die before they believe it?
Meanwhile, I’m anxiously anticipating a fourth vaccination. I’m a hard-core believer in science and appreciate the ongoing work these brilliant people are doing to save mankind.
Email Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfreepress.com.