New Years Eve, one year past. And what a year it was! Covid was with us, always learning new tricks. Omicron is the latest, and at least chances are, that this will be the end of the pandemic as a life-threatening situation. For better or for worth, it might become unavoidable, regardless of vaccination.
We’ve got our booster in mid-November. I feel no fear. Actually, I never did. I think, Covid 19 was at all times more of a statistic problem. Most people have no feeling for big numbers. Most people think, that a chance of one in a hundred (to say something), of ending up in intensive care, is a good chance. Individually, it’s something most people would risk.
Unfortunately, in a country like Austria, that would mean 90.000 people in ICUs. One in a thousand? 9.000 people in ICUs. How many do we have? Approximately 2000. Two thirds of them are occupied at any time, needed for non-Covid patients. People coming in from car accidents, people recovering from life-saving transplantations, strokes, whatever. 700 Covid patients in ICUs are considered critical in Austria. In many other countries, the ratio of ICUs to population count is worse.
OK, you can spend the money, buy the beds (although you wouldn’t get them in time these days), buy the ventilators, but intensive care means well-educated, experienced, motivated personnel. You certainly can’t get that, even less so after all that meat-grinding stress, that happened during the pandemic.
That’s the reason why we need to show solidarity, and get our vaccines. Not because we feel individually, that we need them. The reason is, that the system breaks down, long before it gets scary for us personally.