Three times in 2022, it seemed that despite everything, I could avoid dressing in this boring face mask in public.
At the end of February, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in New Hampshire, which is the measure of the spread of the disease, fell to a record 472. I rubbed my hands with the joyful anticipation that it would soon be undeniable. Numbers, my metric to separate the N95.
Unfortunately, the count stopped at 25 and went up again in March. “Damn, frustrated!” I muttered the mask.
But that spike was temporarily reversed and the numbers went down. I watched them fall impatiently at the beginning of the summer, my hands eager to take off my mask, only to see them return in July, hitting a new high of 167 in October.
But hope is eternal and I rejuvenated myself in November because the expected winter push did not come. For a few weeks, it seemed like we wouldn’t see an annual resurgence of COVID in bloodless weather, raising the option that the pandemic had subsided.
I have been more informed. Hospitalizations have risen above a hundred for several weeks and are reaching 150. They may only be higher if hospitals weren’t beaten by the flu and RSV virus, which continues to fill the state’s pediatric intensive care units, prompting doctors to halt COVID cases. At home.
With all those viruses that breathe floating, it is transparent that the mask remains in position I am in the crowd or in public it is put inside.
I am, of course, vaccinated and boosted to the maximum, whether for COVID and flu, and if I get sick, I will ask for Paxlovid or some other COVID remedy as soon as symptoms appear because I don’t need to be added to the inpatient list.
If there’s any smart news as we enter the third year of the pandemic era, it’s that we have a lot of medical equipment in our arsenal, in addition to the immediate at-home testing I ordered from the government. They haven’t beaten the pandemic, they’re still minimizing the threat and danger to people, adding my favorite person: myself.
So, despite the inconvenience, I will continue to get the most out of those teams until the green light is given. Because getting bored is much bigger than being sick.
David Brooks is a journalist and the science and technology segment Granite Geek and the granitegeek. org blog, as well as moderator of Science Cafe Concord events. After earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, he became a journalist, working in Virginia and Tennessee. before spending 28 years in Nashua Telegraph. Se joined Le Moniteur in 2015.