Philly doctor: I’m now as fearful of the delta variant as I was of COVID-19 in March 2020 | Expert Opinion

When the pandemic first struck Philadelphia, my colleagues and I worked for several months in a newly created intensive care unit for severely ill COVID-19 patients. At the time, we did not know much about the disease, and what it meant for the safety of our patients or ourselves.

The uncertainty surrounding the pandemic in early 2020 made going into work each day a highly demanding and anxiety-provoking experience. Without experience, we did not know the answers to even the most basic questions such as, if we were to contract the disease, what is our chance of dying? Were we sure that we were appropriately protecting ourselves from our invisible enemy? Time would tell.

Looking back on that experience, we now understand much more about the virus than when we first started — what works and what doesn’t, who is at high risk of dying. In this sense, our growing knowledge has made us less vigilant toward the disease. I can see it around the city, and in my own behavior.

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I don’t get as nervous when I walk by or sit around people without masks. This feeling is only natural, as we are fatigued, and may be desensitized. We also take comfort in the strength of the vaccine, which miraculously helped us overcome earlier waves.

But with each passing day where we interact with others and do not get sick, we become more emboldened. I have had several high-risk experiences in the hospital and in my personal life in the last few months. I have been at birthday parties and large weddings. I have sat in a small room with many strangers without masks. And each time I walk away from these experiences without getting sick, a small but growing part of me wonders, if I got away with it this time, why not again next time?

Also, for me and many other young, relatively healthy individuals, we have been told repeatedly that COVID-19 is only dangerous for those who are old, frail, and with significant health problems. Many of us still think of it as a pandemic for nursing homes and retirement communities. For months we saw articles and charts that said that the risk of young people getting sick and dying from COVID-19 was negligible.

Some of us may even wonder, do I need to be vaccinated if I am at such a low risk of getting hospitalized if I were to contract COVID?

The answer is unequivocally yes. We need to reset our mindset and behavior with the arrival of the delta variant.

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I worry that desensitization over the last six months places us at far greater risk with the delta variant, which has already proven to be a much more virulent strain. Clear, undeniable differences have emerged. Even young — though mostly unvaccinated — people are getting hospitalized and dying at a higher rate. Children are ending up on ventilators. The delta variant is affecting states that have high, as well as low, prevalence of vaccinations. These numbers are climbing each day, and we have to be prepared to face it anew by checking some of our outdated feelings of security or comfort.

This is not to say that we know everything about the delta variant, but rather, that there is too much we once again do not know.

The feeling of how little we know about this new enemy brings me the same sense of unease from my early days in the COVID ICU in April 2020. And I think it is a healthy, and appropriate fear. I plan to now act as though we are meeting this pandemic for the first time, because in a sense, we are.

Jason Han is a cardiac surgery resident at a Philadelphia hospital and contributor to The Inquirer’s Health section.