It has been nice to be able to mingle a bit more in person these days.
Physically embracing loved ones sure beats the virtual hugs we were forced to dole out on Zoom and Google chats during the height of the pandemic. Even catching a smile on a maskless stranger feels like a godsend.
But even though COVID-19 cases have declined in Illinois and rules have been relaxed, we must never forget this worldwide health crisis remains with us.
The pandemic has had, and continues to have, a devastating impact on Chicagoland, as data collected by the Sun-Times and the Documenting COVID-19 project at Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation and MuckRock, a nonprofit collaborative news site, shows.
Over the past two years, nearly 19,000 more people died in Cook County than expected — what experts call “excess deaths” from COVID but also from other causes such as heart disease.
Before the pandemic, between 40,000 and 42,000 people would die in the county each year. But in 2020, over 52,000 people died; in 2021, more than 47,000.
Those are eye-opening and sobering statistics.
Not surprisingly, roughly 75% of the additional Cook County deaths were directly tied to COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rest died from a variety of causes including hypertensive heart disease, diabetes, stroke, drug overdoses, shootings and car accidents.
In some of these latter fatalities, people may have delayed treatment for their conditions as hospitals filled up with COVID-19 patients. As state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, noted about the soaring number of drug overdoses on the West Side, the pandemic derailed the support people were getting for their substance use disorders.
Sadly, data from the first two months’ of 2022 show that deaths are likely to remain high.
Tiptoeing to normality
Chicago, and the rest of the world, surely doesn’t need more depressing pandemic-related news.
But now there’s been a slew of headlines about the new, even more highly contagious Omicron subvariant, BA.2, which has been spreading in parts of Europe and Asia — and that signals a likely spike of cases here soon.
Already, BA.2 accounts for 23% of new COVID-19 infections in the United States, CDC data shows.
Chicago also had a slight uptick of cases in recent days, most likely due to BA.2.
Mask mandates in indoor spaces could come back, and we might have to dig into our pockets again for our vaccination cards.
“You can go ahead and continue to tiptoe towards normality, which is what we’re doing, but at the same time, be aware that you may have to reverse,” as chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Still, Fauci and other experts agree: There is no need to panic, especially if you have gotten your shots and are boosted. “It’s nothing to be alarmed about,” Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady also said earlier this week.
BA.2 is considered to be more transmissible than the BA.1 Omicron subvariant, which spread rapidly during the winter months. However, BA.2 may not make people more ill.
Also, because BA.1 was rampant all over the world, a significant percentage of the population likely has protective immunity against BA.2, two University of South Carolina immunologists point out.
A massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths due to the new “stealth” variant is unlikely, but the best protection is full vaccination and boosting. Those of us who have gotten our shots should keep pushing our unvaccinated neighbors, family and friends to do the same.
Moderna has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a second booster — or fourth shot — for all adults. Pfizer has made a similar booster request, but only for seniors.
If both are approved, that means be ready for another jab.
In the meantime, let’s seize the moment — do a little more socializing, enjoy concerts and plays and movies in a theater and all the other indoor activities that COVID took from society for so long.
Keep in mind, though, that COVID will not disappear entirely — scientists tell us the virus will eventually become endemic, like the flu.
That’s our post-pandemic reality.
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