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Politics: As omicron emerges, a tired public has little appetite for new restrictions
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... after nearly 21 months of coronavirus restrictions, there is little appetite in the country for the kinds of school closures, indoor-gathering bans and restaurant restrictions that defined the early days of the pandemic, according to health officials, who say the political will to push for unpopular — but effective — mitigation measures is waning.
“It is very exhausting,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, a physician and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who was on President Biden’s covid advisory team during the transition. “The American public is rightfully exhausted, and therefore the amount of risk we’re willing to take goes up. People are willing to take more risks and accept more challenges, but they’re not willing to accept more restrictions.”
But he suggested that resistance to such limitations, which some European countries have begun to reimpose, carries its own dangers.
“How often do you hear people say, ‘I’m done with covid’? Well, your being done with it does not mean the pandemic is over,” Emanuel said.
The landscape could change as scientists learn more about omicron and how much protection the current vaccines provide against it. But public health officials, from White House staffers to county leaders, have shown little desire to once again impose disruptive measures, instead pushing Americans to voluntarily change their behavior without punitive threats.
Joe Kanter, Louisiana’s top public health official, was among those who, rather than proposing new restrictions, reiterated that Americans should get vaccinated.
“This deserves our attention but not yet panic,” Kanter said in an interview. “The greatest single tool we have is increasing vaccinations both at home and abroad. If people’s families are not yet fully vaccinated but eligible, now is the time to do it.”
And in some places, even if health officials did want to enact restrictions, their power to do so has been stripped as Republican governors, GOP-controlled legislatures and conservative state supreme courts have moved to curtail their powers.
The president gave his first formal update on the new variant Monday morning from the White House, stressing that it was “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”
He urged Americans to get vaccinated and, if eligible, to get a booster shot, saying medical experts believe that the coronavirus vaccines provide “at least some protection against the new variant and that boosters strengthen that protection significantly.”
Biden also encouraged Americans to wear a mask indoors and in crowded places, but said he does not expect the need for lockdowns or additional travel restrictions. “If people are vaccinated and wear their mask, there’s no need for lockdown,” he said. ...
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