This is not the result public health experts and the Biden administration were hoping for. After the fear-mongering panic following the Thanksgiving holiday that the omicron Covid-19 variant was about to swallow the world, it seemed everyone was being nudged to get in the fallout shelter yet again.
Much to the contrary, however, people are tired. Tired of being played, tired of living in fear, and tired of governments telling them what to do. If all of us haven’t gotten the message by now, through the constant drumbeat of information overload, then we’ll never get it.
It almost seemed as if the discovery of the omicron variant gave the Biden administration something new to talk about rather than rising inflation or a crashing supply chain. Dr. Anthony Fauci could once again be front and center offering contradictory advice about self-imposed family gathering vaccine mandates for the holidays.
According to new numbers from CBS News and YouGov, Americans are generally done with Covid fear and ready to get back to normal:
Omicron isn’t causing Americans to cancel plans this holiday season, which looks to be a social one, in part because the vaccinated are at least somewhat confident they’re protected from the virus and its variants. That doesn’t mean they’re shrugging off the threat, though, but rather that they believe there are ways to mitigate it.
Reaction to Omicron looks somewhat similar to the reaction to the Delta variant last summer, albeit with fewer now very concerned, and it breaks along much the same attitudinal lines we’ve seen through the pandemic. For most, along with concern comes action: they tend to get vaccinations and are more accepting of public health measures. And then a relatively smaller group of Americans who say they aren’t concerned about the Omicron variant — just as they’ve been less concerned about the virus, generally — are also less apt to be vaccinated and tend to oppose those wider efforts.
We’ve reached a stalemate in Covid politics. The sides are entrenched, and everyone is ready to get on with life rather than keep stewing over what for most people amounts to mild cold symptoms.
As far as omicron versus delta? Americans are less concerned now than they were during the summer:
The drop among “very concerned” is seven points, a noteworthy trend indicating that some of the most alarmed among us have taken the omicron news better than they took the delta news months ago. People who want vaccines and boosters can get them, the holiday season of 2021 should not and does not need to look like the holidays of 2020.
The only issue that still remains a sticking point is whether more activities should require proof of vaccination for participation:
That divide will slowly dwindle as time goes on. It’s simply not tenable, outside areas like New York City or Los Angeles, to expect broad support in every state and region to actually require proof of vaccination to go to a store or restaurant. CBS should have divided those options, as I bet the difference in asking whether someone should need a vaccine to enter a store is much lower than the desire to require proof for a restaurant. In a store, you’re in and out, and able to avoid people better. In a restaurant, everyone is seated for an hour, masks removed, to eat and chat. It’s a different environment, with different risk levels.
The numbers will soften once it becomes more and more clear that vaccinated individuals are able to catch and spread Covid as well, not just the unvaccinated. So far, most of the people contracting the omicron variant in Europe and the United States were vaccinated, some with boosters even. We don’t even talk about natural immunity, which offers similar or better protection than vaccines.
Interestingly enough, one-third of vaccinated people say they have no plan to get a booster:
I would suspect much of that 31% are the people who joined in the vaccine cause to “end” this Covid thing, only to be met with endless calls and threats of a third or even fourth shot. Some people will realize, eventually, there will be no end to the Covid shots. Like seasonal influenza, it’ll be an annual drive to get your Covid booster from now until eternity. The Covid/Flu shot bundled together will soon be a thing.
It’s a mixed bag from this poll, but the public alarmism simply isn’t there, even as many states face surging infection rates. The desire by some of the vaccinated population to impose their will on the unvaccinated is palpable, yet it seems as if most elected officials are fearful of taking that route due to a backlash.
