The enemy is here. He is among us. And, according to dispatches from the front, he's getting smarter. So we have to adapt. And be more vigilant than ever.
We're all sick and tired of covid-19. We're all sick and tired of not going to ball games and not going to the movies and not doing so many things.
We're all sick and tired. But some are more apt to get sick than others. Which is why we have to keep this up for a few months more.
Those who know about these things say the covid-19 virus has mutated to some degree, inasmuch as the new version is easier to spread. It's not necessarily more deadly, that we know, but is more catchable. And the more contagious variant of the bug, which made news last week in Britain, just showed up in the United States.
California says it has a case. And in Colorado, a couple of National Guardsmen came down with a case of covid-19 2.0, if we can call it that. The scary part, or one of the scary parts: The two Guard members had been dispatched to a nursing home to help with an outbreak. They were tested a little while later, and they both came back positive. Neither had been out of the country. One suspects that neither had the residents of the nursing home.
Which tells experts this: The more contagious version is here. And spreading. We just don't know where and how fast yet.
The head of Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, Dr. Eric Topol, told the papers that the U.S. doesn't do specific testing for this new version, or at least not often enough, and this country will be behind in detecting it: "The virus is becoming more fit, and we're like a deer in the headlights."
The two Guard members, who haven't been ID'd, are young. Only one of them is showing symptoms, and those are mild. Which is par for the course when young, presumably fit people are involved. (Although the congressman-elect from Monroe, La., who died this week from covid-19, was only 41 and appeared fit as a fiddle.)
Researchers, however, say the new variant is 50 percent to maybe 70 percent more contagious. And it's too late for a travel ban.
"We're behind in finding it," Dr. Topol said. "Colorado is likely one of many places it's landed here. It's all over the place. How can you ban travel from everywhere?"
Colorado's chief medical officer Dr. Eric France said this about the new problem: "Instead of only making two or three people sick, you might actually spread it to four or five people. That means we'll have more cases in our communities. Those number of cases will rise quickly and, of course, with more cases come more hospitalizations."
And Arkansas is already breaking daily records.
This isn't the best news to start off a new year. But until the general population starts getting in line for the vaccine, it is . . . once again . . . yet again . . . again and again:
Wear masks. Wash hands. Stay out of crowds and social distance.
We're all sick and tired. Just a little longer, y'all.