Two days a week I work in the COVID testing clinics. I’ve been rotating through all three of the testing centers near me, the ones in Long Beach at the walk-in clinic, Biloxi at Cedar-Lake road, and at the small drive-up in Gulfport across the street from Memorial Hospital. When I started working these clinics in August, we were seeing 30 patients or so during a nine-hour shift. Plenty of time for a lunch break. By September the numbers had increased to 50, and when October rolled in we exceeded 70. Lunch breaks were cancelled. In November we processed more than 100 COVID tests a day. The incredible volumes created issues with traffic control and access to the Biloxi clinic, so the clever administrators arranged in December to move that clinic to D’Iberville at a drive-through hangar. The first week they opened they processed over 180 people in one day.
And then came January and the patient numbers plummeted, as did the rates of positive. In early January we had volumes of over 150 patients a day with around 20% positive rates. Monday I worked at the Gulfport clinic and we saw only about 60 patients with just a handful of positive cases, and Friday at the Long Beach clinic we tested 80 patients with less than 10% positives.
The statistics for Mississippi tell the same story. From an all time high of 3203 cases on January 9 and its 7-day average of 2370, the number of new reported cases dropped to 705 on February 1st, with an average of 1210. Even with the new highly contagious variants, the U.S. statistics don’t show another spike. What has happened?
It doesn’t make sense. Sure, the Christmas surge is dying out. And, yes, vaccinations in process might be reducing the spread. But there’s got to be more. Are people being more careful, wearing masks and social distancing? I don’t think so. Maybe people are realizing that it doesn’t matter if we diagnose them with the COVID infection or not – unless they’re seriously ill we’re not going to do anything for them besides recommend vitamins. And if they ARE really sick, they need to go directly to the emergency room. My guess is that we’re having falling numbers mostly because people are deciding not to get tested. Just a theory.
I wonder if this significant drop in numbers will affect complacency? Last Thursday I picked up a phone-in order for pizzas at a local pizzeria. The place was packed! Probably 80 people sat at tables and another twenty-five to thirty hung out in the bar. No one was wearing a mask but the waitress. Okay, you have to take off your mask to eat pizza, that’s fair. But the barflies were in each other’s face-space, sharing jokes and watching the sports on the tele. Clearly a super-spreader place.
COVID can be a deadly disease – it often is. Nearly half a million Americans have died from it, and over two million worldwide. For some people, infection complications cause permanent health issues, including thought disorders, heart and kidney damage, and other weird effects like rashes. Yet for most people, it’s little more than a nuisance, or even no symptoms at all. Perhaps people have developed a sense of inevitability. With only a one out of a hundred chance of death, why bother being careful?
There’s also the danger of having a positive COVID result. Out of work or school for ten days, unable to visit friends and relatives, and avoidance of social events! I suppose there’s also anxiety about having possibly already spread it before having been diagnosed. With all those problems, I’ve heard that many of my fellow health care workers have avoided getting tested.
I suppose I’m one of the lucky ones. I work the COVID clinics. I go out shopping and to restaurants. I’ve never tested positive, including my most recent test on Thursday morning. And, I’m happy to say, I’ve had the two-shot Maderno COVID vaccine series. Nevertheless, I continue to wear my mask whenever I’m out. And I’m certainly not going into a bar and standing around spitting in the faces of strangers.
Meanwhile, it’s Superbowl Sunday. Are you going to a party? Perhaps you should wear a mask. Just saying.