Unconcerned About COVID

It always amazes me when I read about people's blasé attitude toward COVID and their loathing for face masks. Even now, I think they'd rather get COVID than wear a mask!

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'People are a lot more cavalier about the virus': COVID is rising as attitudes ease
Meg Trogolo, Worcester Magazine, 9/23/25

"It’s been more than five years since Worcester battened down the hatches to ride out the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s been more than four years since the first COVID vaccines rolled out in early 2021, a miraculous feat of science and international teamwork given the short amount of time it took.

"If you look around on public transit or on a trip to the grocery store, no one stands 6 feet apart. Masks are almost nowhere in sight. For the most part, it’s like you’re back in 2019.

"Dr. Michael P. Hirsh, medical director at the City of Worcester Division of Public Health, says that’s not a sign that COVID has left us, but a symptom of indifference to a virus that is on the rise once again.

“I think there's been so much misinformation about the vaccination process and the dangers of COVID that there are a lot of people saying, 'What the heck, I've gotten it twice before and nothing happened,'” Hirsh said. “People are a lot more cavalier about the virus.”

"As Hirsh sees it, a cavalier attitude is a dangerous thing to have at a time when COVID numbers are once again rising, vaccination rates have dropped and the federal Center for Disease Control, under the anti-vaccine Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., no longer recommends the yearly COVID shot for much of the population.

A rapid rise in COVID cases

"The city Division of Public Health gathers COVID data from plenty of sources, including monthly reports from city public health staff and weekly data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

"Although current strains are not causing as many hospitalizations as previous strains, Hirsh said, they are still spreading, they still have the potential to do significant damage to anyone at high risk, and they also come with an extremely painful “razor blade” sore throat.

“Because I'm on staff with the UMass hospital system, I get a lot of intel from my friends in the emergency department, to get a feeling of how many people are showing up in the emergency room with respiratory ailments,” Hirsh said. “So far, COVID numbers are going way up.”

"In Hirsh’s observation, recently, many people who come down with a cough or a fever aren’t even calling their doctors or testing for COVID-19 at home. That lack of communication is causing COVID infections to go undocumented unless the infected person needs medical attention for something else.

“Most people that are presenting to the emergency room are getting tested because they mention having respiratory symptoms as part of a questionnaire, but they came in for something else,” Hirsh said. “They test, and incidentally, they have COVID, too.”

"In addition, multiple departments in the UMass hospital system are researching “long COVID” in patients who developed brain or lung problems after getting the virus, which Hirsh said is “a real phenomenon.”

A look at recent numbers

"The Massachusetts Department of Public Health tracks COVID-19 infection rates throughout the state using samples of wastewater from municipal water systems across the state, and every two weeks, it updates a public 'dashboard' website with the results of those samples.

“Wastewater data can provide an early warning about increasing cases since virus will show up in wastewater several days, maybe even a week, before positive test numbers start to increase,” the website states.

"One of the wastewater treatment plants where public health workers take samples is the Upper Blackstone Clean Water facility in Millbury, which covers all of Worcester and large areas of Auburn, Holden, Millbury, Rutland, Sutton and West Boylston.

"The state measures COVID levels using copies of the virus per liter of wastewater, and as September began, the level in the Upper Blackstone Clean Water samples more than doubled in just 10 days — from about 805,000 copies per liter on Sept. 1 to about 2.16 million copies per liter on Sept. 10.

"Those numbers indicate that COVID levels have soared in the past three months, as some samples from July contained less than 100,000 COVID copies per liter — less than 1% of the Sept. 10 level.

Keeping ourselves, and each other, safe

"So how can Worcesterites protect ourselves, and by extension each other, from getting sick? Hirsh says there are two effective options.

"The first of those options is getting the updated COVID-19 vaccine for 2025-2026, which is available to anyone who wants it in pharmacies throughout Massachusetts, though not without a fight.

"At the beginning of September, Kennedy’s CDC chose not to recommend this year’s COVID vaccine for some groups of people, which limited access to the shots in Massachusetts.

"On Wednesday, Sept. 17, Gov. Maura Healey and the state Department of Public Health responded by releasing Massachusetts’ COVID vaccine guidelines for the year, allowing anyone in the state to receive this season’s shot.

"Hirsh said not only does the vaccine help prevent infections, the limited research on long COVID that has been done so far indicates that vaccines may also lower the risk of developing long-term issues after getting the virus.

“I think it's great there will be very few problems getting the vaccine if you want it,” Hirsh said.

"The second of those options is more conspicuous, and one that may draw attention from strangers trying to block out their memories of lockdown: masking up.

"What Hirsh has observed in Worcester since March 2020 is that the more people wear masks at large events and indoor public spaces, the more likely they are to stay safe from not only COVID but other lung infections, too.

“The winter of 2020 to 2021, when most people were complying with mask recommendations, we saw almost no flu or RSV infections,” Hirsh said. “In 2022, when that mask recommendation was lifted, we had a huge surge which we called the 'triple-demic.' It was RSV, flu and COVID all at once.”

"Though it doesn’t always feel good when the loops on an N95 mask are pulling on your ears, Hirsh said the protection you gain when you wear one is more than worth it.

“I know it's an annoying feeling. I was a pediatric surgeon for 40 years, so I wore a lot of masks in the operating room,” Hirsh said. “Masks work. There's no doubt in my mind.”