BA.2 is spreading in the US, although few want to talk about it.
Physicians, psychologists and behavioral scientists say the omicron subvariant is contributing to school and work absenteeism, yet two years of dealing with COVID-19 has prompted people to take precautions, get tested and ask about other people’s conditions. Tired of.
If this is a pandemic wave, many have decided the best response is a tired shrug.
Part of that response comes from the fact that while cases are rising in some areas, hospitalizations are down. Moreover, in many places people got on with their lives long ago and were unwilling to return to the grip of a pandemic. There’s also a psychological element: Avoiding a potential problem may be a way of trying to protect ourselves emotionally when we’re exhausted, psychologists say.
Psychologists say it can be difficult to understand how seriously to take a BA.2 because of the shifting guidance and sometimes difficult-to-parse public-health message given. A psychologist and director of clinical training at the University of Virginia, Dr. Bethany Teichman says that anxiety and uncertainty can be a defense. She says avoidance takes a variety of forms, including avoiding asking friends about the risk of COVID-19 in order to avoid answers that people don’t want to hear.
Some people say they won’t worry about a BA.2 unless it’s absolutely clear they need it. Nearly three-quarters of Americans polled by Monmouth University in mid-March agreed that Covid is here to stay, and that people should move on with their lives.
Kristin Green, 55, a high-school English teacher in Orange County, NY, says that when she heard about the B.A.2 version, it felt like the wind had sucked from her.
“It was like, Oh, no then. Come on. We’re finally out together, seeing each other, and I don’t want to go back to that,” says Ms. Green. He hopes to never have to wear his mask again on the day of school.
“If they need it at work, obviously I will,” she says. “not otherwise.”
Some patients are dropping out of testing to avoid the financial and social impacts of testing positive and missing work or long-awaited travel and incidents, says Shantanu Nandi, primary care physician and chief medical officer at digital healthcare firm Accolade. And some patients who test positive for COVID-19 don’t want to be tested until they get a negative result.
“I’ve had a lot of phone calls when people say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a weird cough. It’s probably allergies, right?’ or ‘I’m positive, but it’s been four days and I really don’t have any symptoms. Like I’m sure I’m fine to go on XYZ trip,'” he says.
Data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that testing peaked at 7.74 tests per 1,000 people on January 9 and has since decreased to 1.91 tests per 1,000 people, according to an analysis by researchers at Oxford University data. These data are only attributable to PCR tests, the researchers said, which are reported in the laboratory and are easier to track than the rapid test at home, which has boomed in popularity.
Shutdowns in testing sites as well as changes to home testing have worried public-health experts that the official case count is at a critical low. Natasha Bhuyan, a family physician at One Medical in Phoenix, says some of her patients are unaware of how prevalent the virus is and are surprised when they test positive.
“They come in and they’re like, ‘I think my allergies are working, or I have a headache, I’m dehydrated, or maybe I have a stomach bug,’ and that’s when I suggest getting a COVID test. Well, people are like, ‘Oh, I don’t think I have Covid,'” says Dr. Bhuyan.
People who test positive are often confused as to who should tell and what they should do, as contact-tracing efforts have faded and mandatory precautions have been reduced.
When Zach Rooh, 26, a Treasury analyst at a New York City tech company, was more tired than usual late last month, he attributed it to jet lag from a recent skiing trip to New Mexico. He happened upon a grocery shopping trip several days later to pass a pop-up test site and decided to take a PCR, he says. Two days later, he received a surprising message: He had tested positive.
“I was like, oh, wow. Okay. I think I have Covid,” he says. “I was like, well, what do I do?”
People often look to the people around them for social cues, says Baruch Fischhoff, who studies judgment and decision-making at Carnegie Mellon University.
“If you find responsible people going to gridiron dinners, and you think, well, they should know,” Dr. Fischhoff says, referring to the recent D.C. dinner, which included more than 600 journalists, politicians, and members of Biden. Administration. “That’s why people unconsciously make decisions that they will regret if they really knew what they were doing.”