You may be done with COVID, but COVID isn’t necessarily done with you. Should you find yourself COVID complacent as the Christmas and New Year’s holidays rapidly approach, we commend to you New Hampshire Public Radio’s recent account, published Dec. 12 in the Valley News, of the near-death experience of Mark McEnnis, his miraculous recovery and his belated embrace of COVID vaccination.
McEnnis, a robust 39-year-old who lives in Mason, N.H., took precautions when COVID-19 first appeared on the scene but after a time resumed his normal routines, including excavation work for the company he owned. When vaccines came along, he was hesitant in part because he distrusted government assurances; in part because people he knew who contracted COVID were not greatly affected; and partly because “the people that I was speaking with before, it was opinions, and a lot of political opinions.”
When McEnnis came down with the disease during last year’s delta wave, the results were catastrophic. He spent weeks in the intensive care unit at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center connected to an oxygen machine, so sick that at one point last rites were administered. Even after miraculously rallying, McEnnis still faced months of rehabilitation before and after returning home and eventually to work.
Soon after getting home, he got vaccinated. “I was very afraid to get COVID again,” he said. “So after all I had been through, the shot didn’t really seem like a big deal.” Particularly, he said, because “everyone in the medical field said the exact opposite” of all those “political opinions” he had heard previously about the wisdom of getting vaccinated.
No one knows what this winter holds, but COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations have spiked nationwide this month. Meanwhile, vaccination rates are lagging: Only 10% of eligible New Hampshire residents have received the updated bivalent booster shot. In Vermont, only 28% of those eligible have gotten the booster, despite its wide availability.
Even if COVID is not as deadly as it once was, the prudent thing to do is to regard it as still being a potent threat to your health and well-being: After all, more than a million Americans have died of the disease since the beginning of the pandemic, and it seems to readily mutate into other forms.
Youth and good health do not confer immunity, as McEnnis’ experience dramatically demonstrates. Vaccination is the best protection against serious illness from COVID. Masks, hand-washing and good air filtration are highly effective at preventing transmission, something worth remembering as in-person gift shopping and holiday gatherings return from hiatus — especially if guests include the elderly, pregnant, immunocompromised and those with pre-existing conditions. And taking a COVID test before attending a holiday party or big family dinner adds an extra layer of protection and peace of mind. (Don’t forget to get a flu shot, either. After all, even a few sick days can make you and others miserable.)
“You don’t need to wait for C.D.C.’s recommendation, certainly, to wear a mask,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said recently. Indeed, we have noted more than a smattering of masks being worn by shoppers at Upper Valley retailers in recent days. If wearing a mask in enclosed public spaces makes you feel self-conscious, please consider that most people you are likely to encounter are preoccupied with their own concerns and paying little to no attention to you.
We are by no means urging a return to a lock-down mentality. But it is important to recognize that COVID remains an elusive and sometimes dangerous threat — but one that can be effectively countered by using the tools of prevention and mitigation that are now available.