What’s Ahead for Spring: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The pandemic isn’t over, even if we’re over it
I’m writing weekly for Medium about my experiences as an emergency medicine doctor during the Covid-19 pandemic. You can read my previous posts on vaccine inequities, the return to “normal” life, and more, here.
A month ago I wrote that the next phase of the pandemic hinged on vaccines, variants, and how well we followed the public health measures necessary to keep Covid-19 in check. Since then it’s become increasingly clear this summer will be amazing (even if a little weird). What’s less clear is how this spring will shake out with respect to Covid in the U.S.
So let’s take stock of how we’ve done since my last story and what likely lies ahead. Spoiler alert: There’s some good, some bad, and some ugly.
Vaccines
If any aspect of this pandemic deserves unbridled optimism, it’s the current state of the vaccine rollout.
When I was vaccinated against Covid last December, there were more new cases of Covid than people vaccinated against it every day. Early on, the vaccine rollout was slow and inefficient, not wholly unexpected for a massive nationwide campaign to get shots into arms.
