This year there have been so many beautiful graduation celebrations, most outside (demonstrating the intelligence of the academic administrators of so many institutions) avoiding the moniker of "super-spreader events". We know that Covid-19 is not gone, but it has been (for the most part) de-fatalized. So we still get ill, but we have an arsenal of things to do to protect ourselves. Primarily - vaccination! The best treatment is prevention. But our adversarial virus is smart and also doesn't want to die, so it morphs to get around the vaccines. Then we have the home test (which we should use if we are going to party where we will be exposing a lot of people to our breathing) and if we are positive, or if we are negative with symptoms we get a PCR and then are diagnosed positive, we have the new oral anti-virals, which keep us out of the hospital and hasten our recovery. Of course, if we are positive, we self-isolate for a minimum of 5 days and retest. No sense being a foot soldier for the enemy virus.
I am pleading with everyone to get vaccinated, get tested and stay home if you are sick. It is not Covid-19 that is making our healthcare team ill, it is the fact that unvaccinated people, and symptomatic people refusing to self-isolate, are going to the hospital and infecting our healthcare workers! This makes your experience in the hospital much worse because there are fewer of us to help more of you!
So let's graduate from the pandemic and move into tomorrow with health and a better story line. We don't have to be isolated, but we do have to isolate the virus so it disappears!
Enjoy your memorial day weekend and please take a moment to remember those who also gave their lives to fight this public health battle.