ANALYSIS: The U.S. COVID-19 Outbreak Is Worse Than It’s Ever Been. Why Aren’t We Acting Like It?

The U.S. COVID-19 Outbreak Is Worse Than It’s Ever Been. Why Aren’t We Acting Like It? Americans’ reactions to the pandemic have become increasingly divorced from the reality of it Time

...   The U.S. is now locked in a deadly cycle of setting, then shattering, records for new cases and hospitalizations. On Nov. 13, a staggering 177,224 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with COVID-19. As of Nov. 17, more than 70,000 coronavirus patients were hospitalized nationwide. And unlike in earlier waves, which were fairly regionalized, the virus was as of Nov. 17 spreading–and fast–in virtually every part of the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University data. This coast-to-coast surge is pushing hospitals across the country to the edge of catastrophe, their doctors and nurses exhausted and their intensive-care units running dangerously low on beds. ...

But the U.S. public has become terrifyingly good at ignoring those harsh realities. Almost 40% of respondents to a recent Ohio State University survey said they plan to gather with at least 10 people for Thanksgiving, even though in many areas this comes with the likelihood of sharing a table with an infectious person. Many people continue to dine at indoor restaurants and work out in gyms, because many elected officials continue to let them. Almost 980,000 people passed through U.S. airport security checkpoints on Nov. 15, nearly quadrupling the number recorded six months earlier, when COVID-19 was nowhere near as widespread.

That people are behaving this way at the most dangerous moment of the U.S. outbreak speaks volumes about human nature, which in the world of public health can be as dangerous a variable as any pathogen. Rallying cries about flattening the curve have been replaced with a desire to return to normal life at all costs.

Solid leadership is in short supply, with the outgoing Trump Administration refusing to concede the election and give President-elect Joe Biden the tools he needs to take over the pandemic response. Good news about promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates seems to be emboldening people in the wrong ways.

As Americans’ reactions to the pandemic become increasingly divorced from the reality of it, public-health officials may be facing their biggest challenge yet: forcing the public to face how bad things still are, and how much worse they may become. ...

For the U.S. to find the same curve-flattening spirit it harnessed this spring, public-health and elected officials must help a tired and skeptical population dig deep and accept that it’s still crucial, and possible, to make changes that will keep the virus from spreading further. Quarantine fatigue is real, and so is misinformation. As of June, 25% of American respondents to a Pew Research Center poll thought there was some truth to the conspiracy theory that powerful people planned the coronavirus pandemic. Others have latched on to the incorrect idea, promoted by Trump and others in his orbit, that COVID-19 is “just the flu.” Some don’t think the pandemic is real at all–some patients have called the coronavirus a hoax until the moment they stop breathing, according to reports from a South Dakota nurse that have attracted widespread news coverage. ...