Our View: Keep fighting the good fight

We’ve heard a lot about resigned attitudes toward the Covid-19 pandemic. They run from “everyone’s going to get it, so why try to avoid it?” to “it doesn’t seem so bad now, like the flu.”

But anyone entertaining those thoughts is likely just in denial. Every day, we hear stories about how the pandemic, with its slings and arrows, is deeply affecting all of us.

It’s mental. It’s physical. It’s all so draining, and, yes, still deadly.

The omicron variant is creating the largest spikes of the entire pandemic. Luckily, we have tools — now familiar prevention protocols and vaccinations — in place that are keeping many of the cases mild.

The problem most prominent in Carlton County right now is that more people are testing positive for Covid, with or without symptoms. The trend is devastating staff at our schools and medical facilities, creating a cascading effect. Some schools are again considering distance learning. Local hospitals are having to turn people away because they are either full with Covid patients or don’t have enough healthy staff to care for them.

If you need medical care outside of Covid, you run the risk of not finding it. And if you have children who are contracting Covid, they need parents at home.

It’s all frustrating. It all seems like a record skipping.

Right now, the Twin Cities area is getting hit especially hard, and we can only expect the same wave to come crashing here. Mask mandates are in place in St. Paul and Minneapolis and both cities announced this week that proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test will soon be required to enter eating and drinking places and ticketed venues. Duluth debated a mask mandate this week but failed to pass it.

Here, school districts are scrambling to find workers and keep students in class. Hospitals continue to struggle.

Our message remains the same. Keep fighting the fight. Remain vigilant in not spreading Covid. We’ve seen dips in cases that have offered hope, and it can be hard to believe any push might be the last to get back to “before times.”

We are all despairing. We’ve all lost so much in the past two years. Keep on keeping on. Know that you are not alone in your mourning and yearning for any kind of normal. We’ve had tastes of it in the past, and we will taste it again.

Until then, stay vigilant and look out for your neighbors and friends. Let’s keep trying to stem this stubborn reality.