The Paradox of the Pandemic: Who to Believe?
Villanova University or Pocopson Home? Can it please be a tie?
In my inbox last week were two community email notices from local institutions I and my family interact with on a regular basis: one, my son’s incredible school, Villanova University (about 12 miles west of Philadelphia), and the other, my mother’s wonderful, state-run nursing home, Pocopson Home (about 22 miles southwest of the university).
On any given day, our family members may be traveling to and from both of these places, in between, outside, around, and back to our home in rural West Grove, PA, very near to the Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware borders.
I couldn’t have been more perplexed at the differences in tone of each email, which seemed like they should have come from two separate countries, if not planets.
Villanova’s President Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, mentioned the truly admirable strides the university had taken this summer to insure that over 93% of its returning students and faculty were fully vaccinated. He concluded, “The high vaccination rate on campus allows us to ease most of the mitigation measures from this past year, while still providing the safest possible environment for both the University and the surrounding communities.”
Citing updates “built around the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for higher education institutions with high percentages of vaccinated individuals,” he said, indoor masking would be optional for the fully vaccinated.
“All campus spaces will be at full capacity,” he continued, and “the majority of student activities will take place without restrictions.” While no mention of hand sanitation, social distancing or other measures were included, Fr. Peter did mention the university’s pledge to continue contact tracing and monitoring national guidelines as the year ensues.
I have no doubt that Villanova has its students’ best intentions in mind, both physically and mentally; faculty and staff worked diligently last year and did a truly admirable job keeping students safe on campus and allowing virtual learning as a flexible option.
Still, I couldn’t help but bite my lip when I read the next email.
In stark contrast to Villanova’s optimistic, relaxed approach to the pandemic today, Pocopson Home took quite a different view toward emerging events as of last week (August, 2021) in a sobering family update:
“Please note that we are witnessing a significant increase in COVID infections throughout the County (regardless of vaccination status). We will be returning to social distancing and mask mandates for both indoor and outdoor visitation. Please remember that this is a highly contagious variant of the virus, and a single positive case will close visitation for universal testing. More than one positive case may close visitation for long periods of time. PLEASE follow all infection control practices to help us prevent the virus from entering the facility. This situation requires a full group effort to avoid future outbreaks and to continue visitation.”
It’s important to note that this particular long and short-term care facility also boasts a vaccination rate of over 95% of its residents and staff; moreover, just like Villanova, Pocopson Home did an amazing job protecting its residents last year with not a single case of the virus on my mother’s entire floor and very few cases in general. The facility instituted virtual visits and masking almost immediately and later moved into monitored outdoor visitation with rigid masking and screening protocols.
At the same time, the toll that some of these measures took on many isolated residents nationwide became clear as the pandemic, and restrictions, waxed and waned. Everyone missed touch, laughter and family. Mental health crises rose sharply. Large groups were at odds and confused on the facts.
News report after alert after health update issued by governments and the media alike only added to the confusion and seemed to generate spits of paralysis and fear, followed by sprints of carelessness and abandon.
Still, last week’s email from Pocopson was unequivocal, and perhaps, the tone was more strictly informed medically or related to their status a a state-funded nursing home in Pennsylvania with a more vulnerable, though still “fully vaccinated,” population, and in a different county.
Pocopson Home’s cautious alert, particularly juxtaposed alongside Villanova’s apparent thumbs up, continued, “Due to the wide community spread, we will be temporarily discontinuing the offsite day passes with family members. The risk is too great for residents to be out in the community at this time, even if fully vaccinated. This is not only for their own safety, but for the safety of all other residents and staff in the facility.”
The commitment of both institutions to keeping their communities safe physically and mentally is clear. However, as an outsider looking in, as a community member receiving emails, and as a concerned mother of a Villanova student and the daughter of a Pocopson Home resident, I found myself paralyzed for a moment, unable to move.
Both voices of authority, it seems, were informed, well-intentioned, institutionalized, and looking out for the best of their communities; the messages and the contrasting tones, however, left me with a confusing sort of knot in my stomach that many of us continue to wrestle with regarding the pandemic — one which is undoubtedly perpetuating a climate of confusion, and at times, a dangerously laissez faire approach to personal and political decision making.
Yet, here we are, on the geographical edge of many such contrasts, parked solidly between Villanova and Pocopson Home, on an invisible fence of doubt which reflects an overcast climate clouding our judgment or making us judge others.
Just because we want or believe something to be true, doesn’t mean that it is. Just because we are stomping our feet for “back to normal” doesn’t mean we can have it. Facts must continuously be reviewed, re-understood and retaught.
The vaccine was primarily developed to protect us against COVID Alpha variant; the variants Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon (or whatever constellation they will be named after the Greek alphabet runs out, which is already expected) were not within the vaccine developers’ crystal glass when rushing as best as possible to save the globe from demise.
Medical researchers struggled heroically to develop an effective vaccine at the onset of the pandemic. In general, vaccine development has historically occurred after acute phases of illness on a pandemic or epidemic level have passed. At that point, data is more complete, and vaccine developers benefit from a look in the rear view mirror.
COVID has provided no such luxury to researchers, medical teams or the communities that long to get “back to normal,” which this author suggests, should be redefined.
It’s important to be clear: we are no longer in the COVID (a.k.a., C-ALPHA) pandemic we were last year; instead, we are currently in the C-DELTA pandemic. The organism is more virulent, more deadly and more contagious than it was at this time last year, and yet, we are easing restrictions perhaps too soon and too indifferently.
Keeping our communities vigilant about these facts may keep the masks up and the smiles on underneath them — for a longer time. It will give our healthcare workers a necessary reprieve from the mental and physical onslaught that this viral beast has unleashed upon them, and hopefully, give us more hope for a brighter future at the proper time.
A well-fitting mask is small price to pay to keep air in our lungs and to protect others; hand sanitizer is cheap, and social distancing is free.
As New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the news media this week after announcing the nation’s latest shutdown due to a single suspected Delta case, “It is better to start high and go down levels rather than to go low, not contain the [new] virus and see it move quickly.”
May both communities succeed in their efforts. May we as individuals be mindful that we are in a changing climate with many informed opinions. The choice is ours; curating the information is our right and our duty.