THREAD ON THE DANGEROUS DREAM OF A VACCINE: What if I told you you shouldn't hold your breath for a vaccine? It may come, but I fear -- after a day of healthy debate about schools -- that the dream of a vaccine is hindering our adaptation to the virus. 1/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/reopening-bars-easy-schools-are-difficult/613861/

Our Covid response has been horrific, our leadership deadly. It makes sense to have little confidence in our capacity to adapt and live differently. For this crisis, unlike a hurricane or terror attack, we will recover (or move forward) while still having the danger lurking. 2/

I have been trying to understand the year(s) ahead. In mid-April, I wrote this piece trying to prepare people for the strange purgatory we were entering; I regret using the word purgatory. It just is. It's who we are, how we live. 3/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/after-social-distancing-strange-purgatory-awaits/610090/

For want of a better term, I called this period the "adaptive recovery" stage. I don't mean to minimize what is happening in this country; I certainly know that the plans have been horrific, the deaths too many. But many areas are entering this new adaptive phase. 4/

It describes this (indefinite) period when we adapt to living with the virus. We change our ways, we wear masks, we invest in treatments, we distance, we travel, and work, and raise families differently. It doesn't feel normal but it becomes routine. 5/

The school debate lays bare our frustrations and our lack of progress; it touches on parent's primal instincts so I get the passion. But it also unearthed a common sentiment that we can't open schools until a vaccine. That is such a mistake. 6/

For many of us, we are out of our homes but it's not like we were before. And this virus may go away because it weakens or mutates or vulnerable populations are protected. Or maybe we just limit its impact with treatments, and masking, and all other things that keep us alive. 7/

And maybe it is a vaccine, eventually. Or maybe not. But think about how you would live, compromise, adjust, invest, and accept risk if you just got the vaccine out of your head. You'd curse and say it sucks, but you wouldn't put a goalpost an unknown years (if even) away. 8/

And we'd want to learn from other (functional) countries how they are doing it and what they are doing with their kids and whether we can't replicate it in some jurisdictions here because those other places don't have a vaccine either. 9/

We have a horrible President whose cruelty has no limit and whose meanness exists to mask his inability to govern. The measure of success now is whether we can't limit the harms he has unleashed and also focus on other leaders who might do better. And vote. 10/

But I've convinced myself that there won't be a vaccine because then we don't wait for a time that may not come. And still things can be better: good care, more testing, new treatments, aggressive mitigation, healthy buildings, continued WFH, and of course #wearadamnmask.
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We're in a bad place in many areas of US. For others, we are closer to living with this routine abnormal for a while. For those places, and hopefully more, waiting for a vaccine to move forward on some efforts is harmful. We may be like this for awhile. And that just is. 12/12