As we watch and wait it’s important not to be lulled into a false sense of safety in this new uncertainty.
The experts tell us that we will likely experience a lag before we detect cases and confirm that there are indeed more omicron cases in the community. So, we need to maintain our safe behaviours while this process unfolds, while we get on with our everyday lives under red alert settings. This means returning to the basics of distancing, using appropriate masking behaviours where and when appropriate, checking in to places we are visiting so we can track if we may have been exposed to the virus, or if we have exposed others, and making sure we are vaccinated and boosted if eligible.
It’s these behaviours that are likely to reduce our risk of exposure, and also becoming less seriously ill if we get infected and develop Covid-19 symptoms.
But all this is simultaneously reminding us of times we had hoped we had left behind, but it is also a new challenge as omicron behaves differently.
For some, it offers hope that we may enter another stage of the pandemic that somehow signals a different path towards a life that feels more manageable, and for others, it may put us on alert for increased danger.
For those for whom this offers hope, the danger is a complacency that sneaks in, or perhaps is more consciously applied in your everyday life.
We need to watch out for this
For those for whom is signals danger, we need to simplify so we do not feel overloaded. Understanding that our behaviours are keeping us and the ones we care about as safe as we can be. Recognising that we can only control what is under our personal control. Taking on as much as we can manage for now.
So, yes, there will be a tension here, but hopefully, there remains a large middle ground as we seek to balance the clinical and disease impacts for those personally affected and those whose job it is to take care of them, with a wider desire to return to a more manageable, everyday life.
But it remains that we need to be aware, in the back of our minds, that this reminds time of uncertainty. Things can change and perhaps fast. So preparing ourselves for that before it happens seems a wise thing to do.
Thankyou, simply reading your tweet reminded me I had not checked in on the app. when I arrived late at the doctors this morning.This quiet period. is anxiety inducing, its like waiting for Damocles sword to fall.