The Covid pandemic is a mess nobody can fix

But not from exercise! The culprit is a Covid virus that morphs and evolves and relentlessly targets unvaccinated American who have left themselves vulnerable to a threat, such as engaging in unsafe sex or driving without seat belts.

The emergence of the Covid Delta variant has jetted the entire nation off-track. The guiding lines for mask and distancing vary from day to day and place to place. Workers who thought they'd be back to their job site no longer are. Some companies require workers to get vaccinated, some don't. You may or may not require proof of vaccination to embark on a cruise, depending on the judge ruled latest on the matter.

'President Kevin McCarthy has learned from Biden’s CDC that it can’t make up its mind, House Republican Leader tweeted recently, capture this maddening intellectual challenge perfectly. What mask is back? Covid is now causing spinoff pandemics of burnout, dejection and fragility. Parents with kids heading back to school in the fall don't know whether they should buy bulk masks from Costco or a five-pack from CVS. 'We're too exhausted from the pandemic to deal with the latest twist, a Washington Post commentator gripped.

Okay, sure, it takes patience and humor to keep up with conditions that continue changing. Is there any proven fact that hasn't we achieved this before? The weather changes always and we don't complain about buying a whole range of clothes for humid and cold conditions, or wet and dry. How many tormented people with mask confusion ever left home with an umbrella? They might be shocked to know that some people will accidentally put an umbrella in their purse or backpack, since you never know when you're going to need it.

Does everybody want everything to always be the same? The ability to adapt to unexpected challenges is so essential it's practically become cliched career advice. Of course there are workers who lack this skill, but they're usually not the ones getting raises and promotions. If flexibility helps you climb the corporate ladder, maybe it could also help you navigate an off-and-on pandemic?

The most successful companies are those that change strategy when conditions demand changing: Apple, Netflix, Amazon. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was a textile company when he purchased it, but Buffett left that business completely to concentrate on more profitable things. Flameouts, by contrast, tend to be stalwarts that failed to adapt: Blockbuster, BlackBerry, Circuit City, Kodak. In some cases, Applied to Covid, it's literally true.

Covid is a mess nobody can cleanly fix.

The U.S. military says: 'No plan survives contact with the enemy. That's because combat is often a deadly form of chaos in which nothing happens as expected. The Pentagon has multiple contingency plans for its scenarios in wartime and it teaches its leaders the mortal danger of fighting the last war.

We can thank the military for the wonderful acronym SNAFU, which means'situation normal, all fucked up. When soldiers encounter a SNAFU, they figure out the next best way to get the job done instead of flailing about like somebody who can't find the latest emergency guidance on their state or city's web site. The Covid pandemic is a soldierly SNAFU — a mess nobody can cleanly fix — and ordinary folks should try to muster a little soldierly resourcefulness to deal with it.

Some Americans face genuine struggles caused by the stop and start pandemic and the need to adapt public-health procedures to changing circumstances on the ground. Parents in the fall worried about their children's schooling status are rightfully exasperated. Many have put their jobs on hold and borne financial sacrifice to cope with the virus and keep their children safe. It is hard to blame front-line workers who might want more consistent mask and distancing rules to protect themselves from negligent customers. And if I were a health care professional in a Covid hotspot I'd be infuriated with vaccine resisters who recklessly endanger others and wantlessly end up hospitalized.

All the other deliberated cannot - copers should search deep within themselves and try to muster some good ol' American ruggedness to help manage Covid confusion for a few months more. As guidance, do the opposite of Republican governors of Florida and Texas, Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott. They have ever faced the common sense mandates and other mask-makers that were thus incapable of changing their minds even amid the tragicomic spectacle of infections and deaths high in each state, while the governors blather about freedom.

Instead of taking a rigid stance you will never reverse, why not do whatever seems most appropriate at the time? You'll be in great company with innovators, visionaries and transformative leaders. You can forget the second mask even more. And it is much lighter than umbrella.

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How winners Pivot from Setback to Success.