Idaho has been suffering from this pandemic worse than we should have been from the beginning of it all. The entire time, we’ve had lower numbers of people masking, social distancing and getting vaccinated than we need to have. Now we’re seeing grim results we knew were coming.
New positive cases of COVID-19 have skyrocketed, and are almost exclusively Omicron in Idaho, setting records we thought were set at the beginning of the pandemic. Those “records” never should have been surpassed.
Idaho’s previous record for the number of positive cases reported in one day was 2,298 on Dec. 9, 2020, according to the Department of Public Health. On Wednesday last week, that number was shattered and doubled, with 4,537 positive cases reported in a single day.
At the top of Public Health’s Idaho COVID-19 dashboard is a notice in bright red font which says the data for the most recent 2-week period is incomplete due to a recent surge in cases which has caused around 37,400 outstanding positive lab results to be placed on pause while local health districts try to review them all.
Even local case counts are breaking records, with the previous one-day high set on Nov. 23 with 349 cases. Last Friday, 360 positive COVID-19 cases were reported. In our neighboring Nez Perce County, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center reinstated their zero-visitor policy due to spikes in positive cases.
While someone could throw around statistics all day, explaining what each number means and painting a numbered picture of how bad the situation really is, it won’t change the state of Idaho’s rampant extremist politics and widespread misinformation.
As we go into year three of the pandemic, trying to get people to wear masks, get vaccinated and keep their distance is even harder than it was in the beginning.
People didn’t know what to expect then, and fear was absolutely something that helped motivate more people to wear masks, socially distance, be extra careful with what they touched and ultra conscious of others. It seemed like fear of the virus controlled our lives.
That same fear has flipped and has been infecting Idaho with misinformation. Fear of having freedoms taken away, fear of unknown ingredients, fear or widespread mandates and fear of losing a beloved way of life.
And extremist politicians aren’t missing their chance to take hold of that fear, fan its flames and make it grow larger. They took that fear of the virus and spread it, misused it and aimed it toward issues like abortion access and education.
The use of the slogan “my body, my choice” by the anti-vax community is a token of fear taking hold of the fight for basic human rights and twisting it to defend not caring for other people.
That same twisted fear leaks into health policies, which is why Idaho is still technically in Stage Four of Rebound Idaho, a program that was meant to help us through the worst of the pandemic. We’re surpassing what we thought the worst was in Idaho, and the current state of politics has made it clear there’s little to no help on the way.
Fear is why Idaho’s health centers are severely struggling through an already existing labor shortage and the never-ending threat of COVID-19. Nurses and doctors are hanging on by a thread while their patients decide whether they want to make the pandemic the caregivers’ fault or support them.
Fear is why students are still trudging through in-person classes, watching as their classmates drop out for two weeks like flies in a lighthouse, thinking the whole time they might be next.
At this point, we don’t care if we’re online or in person. They both suck and we’re sick of it.
While students at the University of Idaho make it through another long semester of the pandemic, remember that we’re all scared of something and that’s OK. Everyone is controlled by fear at least a little. It’s an incredibly strong emotion, but that’s why it’s so easy to use against people.
But through all this fear is an incredible amount of resilience from every single person. These emotions are what tie us together and make us human, even as it seems like the division between us is larger than ever before.
There’s power in knowledge and numbers, and if we found a way to overcome this splitting fear and unite under safety, COVID-19 might not have us beat at the knowledge and numbers game.