Trying to keep up with covid news and advice in a period of deep uncertainty is exhausting, and a lot of headlines tend toward adrenaline-spiking jump scares. I don’t find jumpy chaos mode useful or exciting, so for a few weeks now, I’ve been writing a maximally chill omicron-focused email for friends and family. As we head into the holidays, I think it’s time to open it up a bit.
Before you jump in, I am not a public health professional or a doctor. Back in 2020, I helped found the a volunteer public health data collective called the COVID Tracking Project at the Atlantic. I wrote a whole of very nerdy things during the year or so that I co-led the project, but this newsletter won’t be that. My goal here is to offer a practical, cool-headed, neighborly perspective what’s actually useful to know and do as omicron cases rise. I care a lot about health policy and I have feelings about collective behavior, but writing about those things is not my ministry.
For context, I live in the US, have some underlying health problems, and am raising a young child. Those things affect my priorities, but I’ll also try to make most summaries and advice more broadly applicable. I’m doing this in little bits of time around other stuff, so please expect typos, clumsy sentences, and other signs that everyone needs a nap.
Also! I am soft and and have zero interest in arguing. Especially not about vaccines or whether covid is real or what public policies should be implemented. I’m writing with the assumption of some common-sense shared perspectives—that getting covid is not great for anyone and is very dangerous for some of us, that vaccines are not a mind-control plot, and that masks aren’t going to kill us. (If that’s not your starting point, I wish you well, please go in peace.)
Love,
Erin
Sorry if commenting on this bothers you or is inappropriate! I just really wanted to thank you for your kind tone and words that you use in these letters. It's so helpful at a time when everything looks overwhelming and frankly scary.