Our world was looking like it was at the verge of normalizing as we celebrated the holidays like it was 2019 when the chances of the long-awaited bounce back was suddenly shot down as soon as the calendar turned. In the blink of an eye, it’s suddenly and eerily starting to look like 2020 all over again courtesy of our holiday spirit and government denial that allowed the Omicron variant to go on a rampage.
Those who have been excited to finally make New Year’s resolutions that they can try and fail to implement in a normalizing world were faced with the grim reality that just like 2020 and 2021, 2022 is looking like another bad year for such optimistic things. Cases are skyrocketing, positivity rate records are being broken, alert levels are rising. If our government lacks the wherewithal to contain this surge within 3-6 weeks, we are looking at the possibility of be spending all of 2022 beating back COVID once more and unless you want to take up a new home-based hobby, such a situation makes New Year’s resolutions basically useless.
Of course, in circumspect, one NY resolution we can make is to be more circumspect as far as our social lives are concerned because that is one lesson, we belatedly learned during what we wrongly thought would the final pandemic holiday season.
Parties and gatherings are still a bad idea and even if the Alert Levels are somehow miraculously lifted, the extroverts and more sociable among us will have to remember to tone down the ramping up of their comeback. Right now, Alert Levels are up so nobody will be gathering but if it goes down again, we have to take the ultimate marshmallow test and resist the urge to throw away everything we have been collectively working towards.
Granted that our IATF that is not composed of scientists and public health experts can do enough to improve the situation and maybe even bring our COVID infection and positivity rates to early December levels, we have to maintain those levels as best we can if we are going to get out of this year better off.
That means minimizing the urge to party and gather for a few more months, at least until we can sustain whatever gains we make instead of throwing it away at the first opportunity like we did in December 2021.
If we are going to make any NY resolutions for this year, they have to be related to a plan to safely transition to normality and recovery. Lockdowns, face shields and plastic barriers are so 2020 so let’s not go back there. Mask-wearing is forever (for the meantime), bubbles are sacred, and ventilation is king; so, any resolutions we make will have to be based on those concepts that can help us finally beat COVID (or at least have a semi-normal life) if we do it right this year.
We can hold gatherings but we have to do it safely. Make Vax cards the norm and keep mask wearing compulsory, even among the vaccinated and boostered. Eating and drinking (ergo taking off of masks) should be done among ka-bubbles only. If bubbles are mixed for talkies and socials, masks go up. Go back to the assigned and safe eating/drinking stations for mask-off activities. Keep a time limit for gatherings and remember that even if our government can’t do proper contact tracing, it is something we can and should implement for our own safety and peace of mind. If we resolve to transition safely instead of recklessly rushing into normal, we can avoid another disaster like the 2021-Holiday-Omicron-powered surge and maybe, just maybe, sustain a couple of months recovery by the end of summer this year.
The virus is constantly adapting and mutating but we are not. We may have learned a few things along the way but we are essentially the same bone-headed species we were before COVID-19 blindsided us. If we don’t change, things won’t change.
If you come to think of it, what we need for 2022 aren’t New Year’s resolutions. What we need is the resolve to make whatever it is we need to do stick so we can finally get through this pandemic by being better at adapting and kickstarting the process of recovery that we’ve been waiting others to do for us.*
