Perhaps it will also sink in for you that these waves are just natural cycles. I didn't put FL on any pedestal, I've been pointing out that the wave (tidal wave at that) ended because that's how viral outbreaks work. I fully anticipate an "aftershock" to the wave over the next couple of months as people from the northeast where spread is higher travel down to FL and bring more infections with them.
COVID isn't going to zero and likely never will. There will be waves of it everywhere for the foreseeable future for sure and likely the rest of our lives.
So lets stop treating it like Armageddon, dispense with the mitigation (other than encouraging vaccination) and live with it.
For hospitals it continues to be closer to Armageddon even if everyone else has moved on. There continues to be an inability to support normal hospital functions, surgeries and a COVID wave at the same time. If all attempts at suppressing numbers goes away, the numbers will tick up. And this whole situation probably sped up the arrival of the wave of aging Boomers seeking additional care over previous norms, between delays and also having to be more vigilant about their health so they don’t get hit hard with a breakthrough if they are infected in a future wave. End up in the hospital twice like my FIL, even though it wasn’t ICU / Vent / ECMO serious but more retirement age + serious respiratory infection serious. That individual responsibility everyone is always clamoring for.
If you really want people to believe we can manage this now, someone is going to have to start proving the hospitals and other health care providers are up to it and will be supported economically by society at large, for as long as you see the waves coming. We can’t expect them to operate in crisis mode indefinitely, but that is what you are asking. And seemingly expecting no consequences from it.
The burnout labor issue is real. Fixing it will be expensive, and those costs are going to borne by someone. There is going to need to be a real strategy here besides playing a game of chicken with our health care system. Griping that it’s all some policy fault and not predominately the result of more people needing care (the choice we made by stopping mitigation) and not enough cheap care being available won’t be a real strategy.
The economy in the US is so broad and growth is strong in other fields that people don’t have to take or stay in jobs that destroy their spirit, make them feel unappreciated, work long hours and for inadequate pay. Life is too short. You would probably even tell them under the personal responsibility umbrella, “if it’s that bad… just quit and do something else.” But this “let’s just pile on more because there is nothing we can do to make it go away so let’s not try to make it easier for the people working and living in the “pinch point”… nobody better be surprised when it doesn’t go back to 2019 state, which for nursing was already a problem, made worse by the acceleration of Boomers reaching retirement, looking around and saying, “To heck with all this.” Apparently almost half of RNs are age 50+ which seems like a ticking time bomb. And the one state projected to actually handle it over the long term best is Florida which may be why it doesn’t feel like a major problem to you.
