US west braces for omicron surge, but leaders do not bear down.

As US west braces for omicron surge, leaders take a hands-off approach Experts call for public health measures beyond vaccines as health workers describe a ‘war zone’ A person administers a Covid test in California on 21 December. Photograph: Allen J Schaben/Rex/Shutterstock As the highly transmissible Omicron variant began to surge across Colorado this month, Governor Jared Polis adopted a laissez-faire tone. Asked in a radio interview about the possibility of reinstating a statewide mask mandate, he replied that, with Covid vaccines now widely available, getting YahooNews

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant began to surge across Colorado this month, Governor Jared Polis adopted a laissez-faire tone. Asked in a radio interview about the possibility of reinstating a statewide mask mandate, he replied that, with Covid vaccines now widely available, getting sick was the “own darn fault” of the unvaccinated.

But health workers at hospitals in parts of Colorado that have been overwhelmed by coronavirus patients in recent weeks say they’re bracing for even worse.

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“We are encountering what almost feels like a war zone these days,” said Stephanie Chrisley, an intensive care nurse at Longmont United hospital, about 50 miles north of Denver. She says she is sometimes tasked with caring for twice the number of patients she’d normally be responsible for. The job, she said, has become “morally distressing”.

Hospitals like Chrisley’s are preparing for an even bigger surge, one that will put the most vulnerable residents at risk. And as state leaders across the western US take a hands-off, wait-and-see approach to handling the new variant, experts worry that relying on vaccines alone without additional public health measures won’t be enough.

Vaccination rates across many western states are high, with between 60% and 70% of residents in Oregon, California, Washington, Colorado and New Mexico having been fully vaccinated (though not necessarily boosted). But Omicron, now the dominant variant in the US, appears to be more effective than previous variants at infecting even the doubly vaccinated.

“In this moment, I would not agree with this sort of throwing the hands up and saying this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of the epidemiology and biostatistics department at the University of California, San Francisco. “The spirit of public health is that we have to think collectively.”

Unlike Colorado, California reinstated its statewide indoor mask mandate last Wednesday. But the state has so far avoided issuing the stay-at-home orders it used to curb infections last December, leaving it up to restaurants and businesses to decide whether or not to scale back service or close. Residents, meanwhile, have been left to individually assess the risks of dining out, going to the gym or meeting with friends and family for the holidays.

In Oregon, officials this week warned that a winter surge would tip already strained hospital systems across the state over the edge and in New Mexico, some hospitals had already been operating under “crisis standards” of care, as patients with Covid-19 and other ailments overwhelm emergency rooms and intensive care units. ....