Well, hasn’t this become a jumble. Covid/Corona/yet-another-thing-to-deal-with continues to surprise us. In the midst of a crisis, it can take a while for data to be collected because the people handling the crisis are concentrating on the crisis first and the data second, as they should. Here’s where we are now, and some things that they’re learned.

(Note: I am not a health care professional, just someone who relays the some of the data that’s publicly available.)

The following data are from the Washington State Department of Health.

Some good news:

For the majority of the time since the first few months, Washington State has been doing better than most; though now we’re more like most of the country.

Some have wondered about how many extra deaths were involved. Thanks to some better informed islanders, here’s the data for the country in percent.

Omicron is both more infectious and less deadly, which can be confusing. The two combined still result in an increase in the overall death rate.

Several months ago it looked promising that a pandemic would no longer be a daily topic on the island. Evidently, it is possible that it will now be endemic, something that never completely goes away. Hopefully, that isn’t the case; but the innovations and adaptations people have made may be our new normal.

Islanders are good at being pragmatic, adaptable, creative, and caring for each others. And as usual, thanks to everyone who is taking care of themselves and our community, wearing masks, social distancing, staying vaccinated, and finding ways to get by responsibly. We’re all in this together.