Omicron Blizzard Hits New York
Here we go again. It is not physically snowing — actually, it’s 50 degrees — but a blizzard has hit New York. A flurry of texts pinging around the city. Everyone has it. Or knows someone who has it. A gust of closures. Holiday parties canceled. Family gatherings in question. The doors of Broadway shut. A rush to CityMD and CVS for home-kits and PCRs. A flood of information and its nemisis. A squall of a new but familiar chaos. A week before Christmas, the city has been taken over by a storm.
Some knew it was coming. Michael Osterholm, who served on Biden’s coronavirus advisory team during the president’s transition, warned viewers on CNN this week that we are “about to experience a viral blizzard.” This might just be when the crisis, now 21 months on, becomes like weather — an event to be monitored daily, instead of a once-in-a-century story with a beginning, middle, and end. When the virus transitions from a massive global event to a massive personal inconvenience. Like rain. We’ll have to check the daily report, dress appropriately, change our plans accordingly, and venture on with life.
Or we’ll have to lock ourselves up at home again. And wait and see.
Rain, of course, is not dangerous. In most cases. Snow is not fatal. In most cases. A blizzard is beautiful when you see it, annoying when it fucks up your plans, and dirty in its…
