Are we used to it yet?

Here comes that third wave.  

The rise since mid-September has been especially profound in the Midwest and Mountain West, where hospitals are filling up and rural areas are seeing staggering outbreaks. The regions are home to almost all of the metro areas with the country’s worst outbreaks right now.

“We are starting from a much higher plateau than we were before the summer wave,” Dr. Rivers said. “It concerns me that we might see even more cases during the next peak than we did during the summer.” 

The average number of new coronavirus cases per day first peaked in mid-April, when New York City and its surrounding areas were hit hard. New Orleans, southwest Georgia and some resort towns in the West also saw some of the spring’s worst outbreaks.

Over the summer, the number of new cases per day soared past the April peak. The South and West were particularly affected. 

The current spike appears to be happening in the Midwest.  But one wonders if this one, in particular, has potential to spread quickly to other parts of the country. 

Despite the fact that the virus has not gone away or become any less contagious or deadly than it was in March, more city and state governments are relenting to pressure from ruling class interests to relax emergency health restrictions and "open up the economy," meaning send more vulnerable people back to work under dangerous conditions. This has been the main purpose of the ongoing legislative special session in Baton Rouge, for example, where lawmakers are voting to end the Governor's emergency declaration. (Although they are also there to steal money while they're at it.)  It's also the reason the City of New Orleans is moving now to Phase Version 3.2.and-three-quarters or whatever in which you are allowed to host a live music performance so long as nobody plays sings or plays any horns.  

The incoherence is intentional. The longer we go with no federal relief to individuals and businesses, the less likely anyone is to believe that universal and equitable solutions are possible, and the easier it becomes to just throw us all out before the mercy of "the market."  That's what COVID fatigue really means. It's surrender to the nihilistic belief that better things aren't possible.  And so even though there are signs the virus is spiking elsewhere in the country, and even though cases are appearing in the city's schools, officials have little choice but to just give the bosses what they want. 

Each wave of cases and deaths with no resulting political will to change conditions simply reinforces the sense of inevitability. eventually we'll all just have to "get used to it."