Common cold, flu or COVID?

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Despite local media hysteria showing long lines for people awaiting test results and sensationalized numbers designed to strike fear in the heart of anyone daring to venture out into regular life—barely anyone is in the hospital, no one is in ICU with COVID, and a grand total of 2 COVID patients are in the Primary Care Unit at St. John’s Health.

Thanksgiving and Christmas travel is mostly complete for locals. Tourists are flocking to Jackson Hole now after the big snows. Yet no one is reporting that numbers are still declining for cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients in Wyoming. As of Monday, December 27, just 65 patients were reported hospitalized with COVID in the entire state. Patient cases for the second wave peaked October 21, and have been steadily declining since then in Wyoming.

But media hype would have many believe Jackson Hole is again under siege with omicron.

• Jackson Hole News&Guide (Holiday COVID surge overwhelms county’s tracing teams)
• Buckrail (Health Department overwhelmed by COVID surge)
• Jackson Hole Radio (COVID cases up nearly 400% in Teton County)

These headlines scream for attention while the reality is St. John’s Health is currently reporting 75% vacancy in beds, 67% vacancy in the ICU. The CDC just announced it would cut in half (from 10 to 5) the amount of days it suggests for quarantine of positive cases.

The latest variant is reportedly much more viral but less severe. It has prompted Dr. Anthony Fauci to say proof of vaccination for domestic travel should be considered. All this with the realization that omicron will be followed by more and more strains and variants, just like the flu or common cold.

“For those of you who are worried about omicron, be sure to start worrying about Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, and Omega. After that, public health will find another alphabet,” says Dr. Brent Blue. “This will be the norm and just like the annual changes in influenza every year. Unfortunately, reports of doom from public health and those who report those press releases without critical thinking will keep the neurotic in fear.”

Additionally, nothing mankind does or doesn’t do will stop the spread. No amount of boosters, masks, or anything else will likely ‘flatten the curve’ or stop the spread of COVID. Through it all, thankfully, hospitals like St. John’s are coping.

“Nothing is going to stop the spread. We have never stopped the spread of influenza and we are not going to stop the spread of COVID. There will be more variants,” Blue says. “The U.S. health care system has been whelmed but not overwhelmed.  It has done well.”

Five total omicron variant cases have been detected in Wyoming to date. Most cases in Wyoming are still delta and alpha.

There have been no deaths in the state reported since December 13. There have been no deaths at all in the state due to COVID-19 in the two years of the pandemic in anyone age 18 or under. More than 80% of the deaths in the state due to COVID-19 have been in people age 60 and over with additional health conditions.

Despite the headline hysteria in most media outlets, life will go on and get back to normal. And, in Teton County, where health officials have repeatedly pestered the state for their own, more stringent pandemic public health rules, the masks are coming off in the new year. According to many experts, they have been nothing but political theater.

“Forget the masks. They are nothing but public health departments security blankets and do nothing,” Blue says.

Vaccination status, mask wearing—they have become touchstones, dividing us into neat politically-charged groups. Disunity among nations, towns, even families has become the new norm. It’s not the virus that’s killing us. It’s the posturing.

By the way, that New Year’s Eve celebration you were planning on attending? Fauci says it is probably safe provided it is 40 or 50 people, and as long as you do not hug or kiss anyone.

We have been dehumanized.

Testing, jabbing, boosting, masking…for most, this will be their life until they are told otherwise by Fauci, the CDC, or their local newspaper. Happy New Fear to them!

For the rest, Happy New Year! Be safe, be bold. Live your life with intention and seize every moment.

As of December 29, 2021:

The Wyoming Department of Health reported 325 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. The state currently has 871 active cases and there have been a total of 115,242 cases since the pandemic started. 74 patients are now hospitalized with the virus.

The state’s death toll is 1,526.

43.8 percent of the state is fully vaccinated. 5,612 children under the age of 12 have received their first shot of the vaccine and 3,943 have received their second.